Microsoft KB Archive/171280

= PRB: Error Message "Cannot insert object" in Excel =

Article ID: 171280

Article Last Modified on 1/20/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q171280



SYMPTOMS
The following error message appears when you attempt to use your Visual C++ control in Microsoft Excel 97, Microsoft Excel 2000, or Microsoft Excel 2002:

Cannot insert object



CAUSE
This error occurs if you created a control in Visual C++, manually changed the _wVerMajor and/or _wVerMinor variables, and didn't change the corresponding type library version number in the .odl file of your project. This occurs because Excel 97, Excel 2000, and Excel 2002 explicitly check to see if these two variables are equivalent in the registry.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, you either have to change the version attribute in your .odl file to reflect the current state of the _wVerMajor and _wVerMinor variables at compile-time, or specifically modify the registry entry HKCR\TypeLib\\X.Y, where X and Y represent your major and minor version numbers respectively.



STATUS
This behavior is by design.



Steps to Reproduce Behavior

 * 1) Create a new MFC ActiveX ControlWizard project, and click Finish.
 * 2) Open your .cpp file, and find the variables _wVerMajor and _wVerMinor.
 * 3) Change the _wVerMajor variable to 3.
 * 4) Compile the project.
 * 5) Open Excel.
 * 6) Try to insert your control using the Object option under the Insert menu, or, click Toolbars on the View menu, and click to select the Control Toolbox option to display that toolbar. On that toolbar, click the "more controls" button and find your control in the list box. Click it, and then draw your control on the worksheet.
 * 7) The "Cannot insert object" error message appears.

