How To Fix Excel Opens Saved Excel File As Blank Workbook?

Sometime you may have noticed that when user tries to open a saved workbook, it opens blank. This issue is often caused when the excel settings have been changed to ignore external programs. Don’t worry if you too are getting this issue because now you can easily fix this error with the following mentioned solution.

What’s the issue and when it occurs?

 This issue generally occurs when you double click the file name or the Microsoft excel workbook icon. Excel starts but displays a blank screen where you expect the file to appear.

Solutions to fix “opens saved Excel file as blank workbook” issue

Uncheck "Ignore DDE" option

• Open Microsoft excel 

• Click the File tab and select Options from the drop down menu.

• Click Advanced then locate the General section.

• Uncheck the box next to Ignore Other Application That Use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE).

• Click OK.

Reset Excel file associations

For windows 10 user:

• Open the start menu and select the settings option.
• Click on the system icon.
• Click the default apps option on the left side, then click on the reset option on the bottom right side.

Tips:

The above steps will reset the default file association for Microsoft application. If you want to select/change file associations manually. In place of step #3 above, select the choose default apps by file type option on the bottom right. You can associate Microsoft excel to various excel file types (.xlsx, .xlsm, etc.)

For Windows 8

• On the start screen, type control panel and open the control panel.

• From there click on the Default Programs option then click on the set your default programs option.

• Select excel and click the Choose default for this program option.

• In the set program association window, select the Select All option and click the Save button.

For Windows Vista and 7

• Open the start menu and after then click the Control Panel option.
• Click on the Default Programs icon, then click on the set your default programs option.
• Select excel in the programs list on the left side, then click on the choose default for this program option at the bottom.
• In the set program associations windows, click the check box for select all and click the save option.

You can also select the file type association especially for excel worksheets only by following the steps below.

• Open the start menu and go to the control panel option.

• Click on the Default Programs icon, then click on the associate a file type or protocol with a specific program option.

• In the set association window, under the Description column, find and select the entry for Microsoft Excel Worksheet then click to the Change program option present at right.

• Open with window, under the recommended programs section, select the Excel option (might be named "Excel (desktop)" or similar) and finish it by clicking the OK button.

Also Read: MS Excel Repair - to fix “XLS file format is Invalid” error message 

Fully automatic solution to fix this issue

If you are still not able to fix the error using all above mentioned methods, then most recommended solution for you will be to make use of MS Excel Repair Tool. This file is highly competent to repair your corrupt or damaged file. It is capable of repairing and restoring corrupt excel file and also retrieves entire data from spreadsheet like charts, worksheet properties, cell comments, and other data. It can restore the corrupt excel file to a new blank file. It restores entire text and data of file and rescue them devoid of original formatting modification.

For More Information:

Fix Excel Opening Blank Page Issue When You Double-Click A File Icon Or File Name