Microsoft KB Archive/247318

= BUG: Word 2000 and Excel 2000 Do Not Redirect Correctly When Using Response.Redirect =

Article ID: 247318

Article Last Modified on 12/15/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Active Server Pages 4.0

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This article was previously published under Q247318



SYMPTOMS
When using Response.Redirect in an Active Server Page (ASP) to redirect the client to a Microsoft Word document or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, the corresponding Microsoft Office application does not display the correct file that it was redirected to.



CAUSE
Microsoft Office 97 applications open files on a Web server as read-only. Microsoft Office 2000 applications try to open files that are located on a Web server read-write. If the user that is logged into the client's machine is an administrator on the Web server, the Office applications try to open the file read-write and parse and display the static HTML in the .ASP file to the client. If the user is not in the administrators group on the Web server, the user is prompted for authentication and the client is redirected to the file as expected.



RESOLUTION
As a workaround, you can use META tags to redirect the client to the Office file. For example: <%@ Language=VBScript %>   <% ' Set the page to redirect the user to strRedirect = "/test/test.xls" Response.Write("") %>  



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.



Steps to Reproduce Behavior
 Create a new virtual directory on your Web server named RedirectTest.  Start Notepad to create a new Active Server Page. Place the following code in Notepad: <%@ Language=VBScript %> <% ' Set the page to redirect the user to strRedirect = "/RedirectTest/test.xls" Response.Redirect strRedirect %>   </HEAD> <BODY> This is the BODY tag of the ASP page </BODY> </HTML> </li> Save the file as Redirect.asp in the RedirectTest virtual directory.</li> Create an Excel file called Test.xls and place it in the RedirectTest virtual directory.</li> When you navigate to http:// /RedirectTest/Redirect.asp, note that Excel 2000 starts and displays the text "This is the BODY tag of the ASP page."</li></ol>

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