Microsoft KB Archive/161071

= XL97: DAO Error in Step 3 of Web Form Wizard =

Article ID: 161071

Article Last Modified on 10/21/2000

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q161071



SYMPTOMS
When you click Next in the Web Form Wizard - Step 3 of 6 dialog box, you may receive the following error:

Unable to initialize the Data Access Object. Please run Setup to install DAO.



CAUSE
This problem may occur when both of the following conditions are true:


 * You select "Microsoft Internet Information Server with the Internet Database Connector."

-and-
 * You do not have the Data Access Object (DAO) component of Microsoft Office installed.

In order for the Microsoft Excel Web Form Wizard to create the Microsoft Access database (.mdb) file, DAO must be installed.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this behavior, do the following:
 * 1) Quit any Microsoft Office programs that are running.
 * 2) Run the Microsoft Office Setup program.
 * 3) Click Add/Remove in the first dialog box that appears after starting Setup.
 * 4) In the Microsoft Office 97 - Maintenance dialog box, click the Data Access component, and then click Change Option.
 * 5) Click "Data Access Objects for Visual Basic," and then click OK.
 * 6) Click Continue.
 * 7) After the Setup program finishes installing the DAO component, click OK.

When you use the Web Form Wizard, you no longer receive the error message.



STATUS
This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel 97.



MORE INFORMATION
Requesting and gathering information over the Internet requires using forms, having knowledge of the server and database storage, and having some programming skills.

Because Microsoft Excel worksheets are often used to simulate forms, you can use Microsoft Excel 97 as simple yet powerful engine for generating a form for the Web.

When users visit your Web and request the form, it is downloaded to the client, and Microsoft Excel 97 starts. When the user completes the form and clicks the submit button, Microsoft Excel submits the data to the database on the Web server. Microsoft Excel then closes the form and quits. The server parses the data according to the method you specify when you create the form using the Web Form Wizard. The methods you can specify include Microsoft Internet Information Server, and Common Gateway Interface (CGI). If you use Internet Information Server, the wizard saves the data in the Microsoft Access database (.mdb) file. If you use CGI, the data is processed by a PERL script (or similar program) and is saved in a .csv text file. Note that the wizard creates both files.

