6 ways to fix Excel error not displaying spreadsheet content

1. Turn on DDE

DDE stands for Dynamic Data Exchange.The above problem may occur if the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) checkbox on the Excel Options page is selected.

When you double click an Excel spreadsheet file in Windows Explorer, a DDE message will be sent to Excel.This message tells Excel it needs to open the spreadsheet file you just double-clicked.

If you select the Ignore option, Excel ignores DDE messages sent to it by other programs.Therefore, the DDE message sent by Windows Explorer to Excel will be ignored, and Excel will not open the spreadsheet file you double clicked.

To adjust this setting, follow these steps:

1. Open Microsoft Excel

2. On the File menu, select Options

3. Click the Advanced tab

4. Scroll down to the General group, uncheck the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) checkbox if it is currently selected, and then press the OK button.

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This method can also be applied to fix An error occurred when sending commands to the program or There was a problem sending the command to the program.

2. Unhide the spreadsheet in the View tab

On the View menu, you have the option to hide the workbook, sometimes it may be selected, and you cannot view the open workbook.Therefore, you check this option and if it is currently selected, uncheck it.

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3. Turn off the Add-in

The Excel add-ins and COM add-ins may also be the cause of this problem.These two types of add-ins are located in two different directories.To test, you need to turn off and isolate conflicts by turning off each add-in one by one.To do so, follow these steps

1. On the File menu, select Options, and then select the Add-ins tab

2. On the Manage list at the bottom of the screen, select COM Add-ins, and then press the Go button

3. Uncheck one of the add-ins in the list, and then press the OK button

4. Restart Excel

5. If the problem persists, repeat steps 1-4, except step 3.

6. If you still have problems after turning off all COM Add-ins, repeat steps 1-4, except for step 2, and then try to turn off the Excel add-ins as in Step 3.

If Excel can open the file, the add-in you just turned off is the cause of the problem.If this is the case, we recommend visiting the manufacturer's website and checking for new updates.If you do not find the new update, or if you do not need to use this add-in anymore, you can keep it off.

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4. Reset file association

To check if file associations on the system have the correct settings, on Windows 10, open Settings> Apps> Default apps.If you use Windows 8/7, you can use the Control Panel to do this.

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If the file link setting is incorrect and you need to fix it, you can use a free utility called File Assosiation Fixer, developed by Lavish Thakkar, developed for TheWindowsClub.

5. Disable hardware acceleration function

Hardware acceleration may also be the cause of this problem.To fix, you should temporarily turn off this function until the manufacturer of the video card releases a patch.

Note: You should regularly check the manufacturer's website to promptly update the latest patch.

To do so, go to File> Options and select the Advanced tab from the left pane.Next, move to the Display group and select the Disable hardware graphics acceleration checkbox.

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6. Repair Office again

If none of the above fixes the problem, you need to run the Office repair suite, online or offline.This will help fix problems with your Office suite.And if you still have problems after running Repair Office, you need to clean Microsoft Office (Clean Uninstall) and then reinstall the office suite from Microsoft.

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