Knowledge Base

PRB: Error Message "Cannot insert object" in Excel

Article ID: 171280

Article Last Modified on 1/20/2007

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

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\<Your TypeLib>\X.Y, where X and Y represent your major and minor version numbers respectively.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Create a new MFC ActiveX ControlWizard project, and click Finish.
Open your <ProjectName>.cpp file, and find the variables _wVerMajor and _wVerMinor.
Change the _wVerMajor variable to 3.
Compile the project.
Open Excel.
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.
The "Cannot insert object" error message appears.

REFERENCES

For more information about the wVerMajor or wVerMinor global constants, search for "wVerMajor" or "wVerMinor" in Visual C++ Help.

For more information about ODL (Object Description Language) files and the version() attribute, search for "ODL" or "ODL Attributes" in Visual C++ Help.

Keywords: kberrmsg kbprb KB171280