Where did the personal macro workbook go?

[Von Pookie]

I'm using Excel 2002, and the personal macro workbook has apparently vanished (or whatever seems more plausible).

I honestly don't know what happened, but I went to record a macro just now, and got the following:

"Personal Macro Workbook in the startup folder must stay open for recording."

and then "Unable to record."



I couldn't find anything in the knowledge base, either. Any ideas as to what's going on?

 

[amatuer]

Go to Start/Search/For Files and Folders and search for personal.xls Open the workbook once it shows up and you will be able to see the macros.

 

[Mark F]

Originally Posted by Michael Fitzpatrick
Here is the full answer for Excel 2007:

To re-enable an add-in (such as Personal Workbook) that has been hard disabled by Excel 2007 (because Excel detected a serious problem last time you ran Excel)

Symptom:
1) Message on trying to record macro: Personal Macro Workbook in the StartUp Folder must stay open for recording.
2) Your Personal Workbook disappeared.

In Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button.
Click the Excel Options button.
In the categories pane, click Add-ins.
In the details pane, locate the add-in in the Disabled Application Add-ins list.
The Name column specifies the name of the assembly, and the Location column specifies the full path of the application manifest.

If Personal Workbook does not appear among these items, then:

In the Manage box (near bottom of scrren), select and click Disabled Items, and then click Go.
Select the disabled add-in and click Enable.

This is great!!

I had tried looking in XLStart, and Personal.XLS was nowhere. Tried a search on my PC and couldn't find either

Was beginning to get frustrated.

That is the beauty of this site. Problem solved!

Mark

 

[ukmikeb]

Hi

I have encountered this under Excel 2003 a few times!

I believe it is caused by a change to the current path ( i.e. you have saved a workbook/file to another folder).

As amatuer has suggested do a file search for Personal.xls and hopefully the other version will appear.

Good luck

Mike

 

[MikeBaldwin]

Hi Pooks

Open a workbook and save as Personal.xls to:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 10\XLStart

Close XL and re-open. Personal XLS opens as the main workbook. I got a tip from the board which uses options I recall to close the workbook and hide it. Can't be specific here I did not save the tip. Once this is done, Personal.xls loads each time XL is opened but book1 is displayed as opposed to personal.xls and you can record macros in the usual fashion.

HTH

Here's the link to the "tip" Jak mentioned above.

These are the steps that worked for me for Excel 2007
1. Create a file named "Personal.xlsx" in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 12\XLStart folder
2. Open the file, and hit Alt+F11 and add a module to the workbook.
3. Close and save the file, you will be asked to change the filetype to macro-enabled workbook since the Personal.xlsx file now contains a module. Confirm all prompts.
4. Follow the tip in the link above to get excel to behave like normal again.

Thank you all!

 

[docjackson33]

This was XLent...thanks

Here is the full answer for Excel 2007:

To re-enable an add-in (such as Personal Workbook) that has been hard disabled by Excel 2007 (because Excel detected a serious problem last time you ran Excel)

Symptom:
1) Message on trying to record macro: Personal Macro Workbook in the StartUp Folder must stay open for recording.
2) Your Personal Workbook disappeared.

In Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button.
Click the Excel Options button.
In the categories pane, click Add-ins.
In the details pane, locate the add-in in the Disabled Application Add-ins list.
The Name column specifies the name of the assembly, and the Location column specifies the full path of the application manifest.

If Personal Workbook does not appear among these items, then:

In the Manage box (near bottom of scrren), select and click Disabled Items, and then click Go.
Select the disabled add-in and click Enable.

 

[Timmtamm]

Michael Fitzpatrick, you are my new best friend! Thank you!

 

[N3WB0Y]

Registered just to say thanks, and to offer another option for people who run into this problem and search Google for an answer!

I too had been messing about with macros (I had stepped into to add a few new steps). I think the Visual Basic editor had not closed down correctly when I closed Excel.

I found a rogue MSEXCEL.EXE process running via Task Manager --- I stopped this process, and when I loaded my next Excel file the Macro was available once again.

 

[SR1]

I'm having the same problem this time with Excel 2010 with Windows 7.

The same error message as stated in the OP comes up when I try to record a new macro:

"Personal Macro Workbook in the startup folder must stay open for recording."

and then "Unable to record."

I'm not sure whether it's because I forgot to save the changes to the Personal Macro Workbook when closing a workbook which I'd had used to create a macro (for the first time since purchasing Office 2010), but not only am I unable to create any new macros with this workbook, but the file (PERSONAL.XLSB?) it would seem is not available in the startup folder. Can anyone who has this OS tell me where I am going wrong?

 

[SR1]

Ah, problem solved - seems I did save the changes and the workbook has magically reappeared after restarting Excel.

Apologies to anyone who has just been composing a long and detailed reply in vain!

 

[the magician]

Registered just to say thanks, and to offer another option for people who run into this problem and search Google for an answer!

I too had been messing about with macros (I had stepped into to add a few new steps). I think the Visual Basic editor had not closed down correctly when I closed Excel.

I found a rogue MSEXCEL.EXE process running via Task Manager --- I stopped this process, and when I loaded my next Excel file the Macro was available once again.

Just chiming in to say I'm glad I read through to this post. Having the same problem (missing macros) I was about to start with all the other fixes when I saw this and checked. Sure enough, Excel had gone rogue, and when terminated, all was well. KISS!!!

Thanks N3WB0Y.