Known Issues

1) Use Internet Explorer
(we are slowly revising all of our bookmarks to be caps sensitive for Firefox. IE is not caps sensitive)

2) Keep your browser open
(If the browser is not already open, it will sometimes take you to the top of the page rather than to the bookmark)

3) Re-click the link (now that your browser is open)

• Tools > Share Workbook
• Tools > Track Changes
• Tools > Compare & Merge Workbooks

Systems2win does not work on the
64-bit version of Excel

(The 64-bit version of Windows is fully supported,
but not the 64-bit version of Office)

Uninstall the 64-bit version,
and install the 32-bit version of Office.
(they ship together - so when you own one, you own them both)

See System Requirements

Microsoft recommends most users to use the 32-bit version of Excel for the foreseeable future.

The 64-bit version is only recommended for those very few power users that work with extremely large spreadsheets - and have no need for add-ins.

Slow to select a large number of columns

On a worksheet that is protected
with the option box checked to allow the user to insert hyperlinks...

when you select
(and then try to do something with)
a large number of columns...

it can take several minutes before Excel 2010 allows you to continue.

There is only a small time delay when selecting rows.
Long delays are only experienced when selecting a large number of columns.

This bug happens only in Excel 2010,
and only under the circumstances defined above.

This bug does not exist in:

• all lower versions of Excel
• Excel 2010 worksheets that are unprotected
• Excel 2010 worksheets protected with the Insert Links option box unchecked

The Microsoft development team has closed this bug as a “won’t fix” with the possibility of addressing it again in the future.

Here are a few suggestions for how to deal with this Microsoft bug that occurs only in Excel 2010:

1. Upgrade your Systems2win templates.
   In January 2012, we rewrote several templates to reduce or eliminate this bug.
   You might need to transcribe your data from your old working document to a copy of the new template.
2. Unprotect the worksheet,
   then reprotect it again after working with a large selection of rows or columns.

   (If a Systems2win template is protected, it is usually without a password - so you can simply unprotect it. The only exceptions are the VSM-PowerTool and and VSM-Supply Chain Map.)

3. Change the worksheet protection.
   Unprotect your worksheet,
   then reprotect it -
   unchecking the box for Insert Hyperlinks.
   And then if and when you need to insert a hyperlink...
   unprotect your worksheet to insert the hyperlink -
   and then reprotect the worksheet
   (so that you don't accidentally mess up formulas as you work)
4. Rather than selecting entire columns,
   select just the cells you need.

   Example: If you want to hide or unhide some columns, select just the cells in one row - spanning the columns that you want to hide or unhide. And then Home tab > Format > Hide & Unhide > Unhide columns.

   See the video: VSM Hide/Show Rows
   which demonstrates how to do this

5. Simply wait.
   You can work on something in another application while waiting for Excel to unfreeze.
6. Ctrl+Alt+Delete > Start Task Manager > then End Task Excel
   (You will lose any unsaved changes)
7. Send feedback to Microsoft - using your own words and your own case history to reinforce our request to fix this bug - being sure to reference
   Case # REG:111101449093725
   first submitted by Systems2win in October of 2011.

Conditional formatting -
background color is not correctly changed in cells that have clear background.

Background color spontaneously appears and disappears.

Systems2win has changed many templates to use a white background for cells that have conditional formatting, which eliminates the bug.

A few templates have been left with clear background style, and this bug will appear. If it really annoys you, you can change the cell style to 2winWhite with a cell border, which will elimate the problem.

When copying an entire cell between worksheets, images sometimes don't paste correctly.

They paste in a very collapsed format - so that they are invisible unless you use the Select Objects Arrow to highlight them.

On August 12, 2010, we released the bug fix for our Job Instructions template. You can simply download and install the free update.

If you run into this bug anywhere else, use the Select Objects Arrow to highlight the collapsed images, and then stretch them back to normal size.

Even with the latest update, the picture associated with the very last Job Instruction can sometimes get collapsed so that it is invisible.

There is a bug in only Excel 2010 that excludes the last picture in an array. (and Microsoft has not yet figured out why)

As a work-around, Systems2win wrote a special utility that fixes this problem in most situations, but there are still 2 situations where the last Job Insructions image still gets collapsed:

1. If the last picture is a grouped shape
2. If the last picture has the same name as any other image in the same worksheet

You can completely eliminate any possibility of experiencing this bug by simply not associating a picture with your last instruction.

You might even make your last instruction nothing more than a period (.) - perhaps using a white colored font, so that it is invisible to the human eye.

Or you can avoid these 2 unique situations in the following ways:

1. Don't group shapes for the last instruction
2. Rename the last picture (so that it has a unique name)

Problem: When attempting to open a file that has been downloaded from the Internet or an Outlook attachment,
the Protected View message bar appears, and when you click the Enable Editing button, your Systems2win template closes with the error message that "It appears that you template has been altered"

Solution 1) Simply reopening the file will usually eliminate the problem

Solution 2) Unblock the file (leaving Protected View enabled for other files)

In Windows Explorer or My Computer, right-click the file > Properties > click the button to Unblock

Solution 3) Disable Protected View

Excel 2010 > File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings button > Protected View

This new Protected View "feature" used to be found only when running Excel 2010 or higher on Windows 7 or higher,
but in late 2011, Microsoft rolled this "feature" down to lower versions of Excel.

Also see video: How to make Office 2007+ easier to use

Compatibility Checker dialog
comes up with warning that there will be "Significant Loss of Functionality" if you save your file in .xls Excel 97-2003 compatibility format.

Most of these warnings are simply dead wrong.

It itemizes the functionality that might be lost, so you can test it for yourself, but you will find that there is usually no loss of functionality.

Many Systems2win customers routinely save all of their Excel files in .xls 97-2003 compatibility format - and everything works just fine.

See tips for choosing file formats in Excel 2007+

Link to local named range on another worksheet within the same workbook can cause Excel to crash when workbook is saved after copying a worksheet.

(even if you correctly use the Systems2win Copy Sheet utility instead of Excel's even-more-bug-prone normal way of copying sheets)

Do not link to any local named range on another worksheet within the same workbook.

More details regarding the Edit Links bug

As of March 2009, we have brought this to Microsoft's attention, and they have acknowledged it as a bug, but have not yet announced when it will be fixed.

View > Zoom > 100%.
Then View > Zoom > to the percent that you want.
The shapes will now be sized correctly.

Training video: Issue: Zoom bug (1 min)

Restart Excel to get your Add-ins menu tab back.

And to avoid this in the future - don't click Exit to get out of Print Preview. Instead, simply click any one of the other tabs in the Ribbon bar (such as the Home tab).

Charts on the Gantt Chart and Standard Work sometimes need to be manually re-aligned.

This is a Microsoft bug that we can't fix programmatically on our end... and is pretty easy for a human being to make the "mental shift" to correlate the correct header with the next column over.

If it really bothers you, on any given Filter worksheet that has already been generated by clicking the Generate Filtered Worksheet button... you can manually change all the chart data ranges to exclude the horizontal thin gold lines.

This will remove the problem for the one Filter worksheet containing known data - but would mess up your ability to create new Filter sheets if you were to do this on your master OEEFilter worksheet.

Some day Microsoft will simply release an update that resolves this bug, and it will magically work like it does in Excel 2003.

If you experience any problems not itemized here - then updating to the latest Release Service Pack will often resolve the problem.

The user will usually just notice that "the charts don't work".

Office button > Excel Options button > Resources > Check for Updates

When using Systems2win version 6 or lower
in SOME installations of Office 2007+ (rare)

Opening the StdWork template, the Sys2win_ST.sys file fails to open under the following conditions:

• the Sample worksheet is active
• the workbook is opened using File > New or Systems2win menu > Open a New Template
  (see optional ways to find & open your Systems2win templates)

There are several work-arounds for this (highly unusual) bug that only affects StdWork:

1. Upgrade your Systems2win templates. (This is no longer an issue in v7)
2. Save your master template opened to a worksheet other than Sample. (As of Aug 1, 2008, we started shipping StdWork opened to the Help worksheet).
3. Open StdWork using one of the other optional ways to find & open your Systems2win templates.
4. If you get the error that the Sys2win_ST.sys file cannot be opened, just save your working document, and re-open it. The error will be gone.

The Security Warning bar containing the Enable Macros button sometimes does not appear when first opening a workbook

Training video: Issue: Enable Macros Security Bar won't appear (1 min)

Templates released after March 10, 2009 should no longer experience this known Microsoft bug. Upgrade your Systems2win templates.

Install the free update

This bug emerged in September 2011 when Microsoft changed something about their 2007 code. Installing the Systems2win free update will resolve the issue.

If you experience any problems not itemized here - then updating to the latest Release Service Pack will often resolve the problem.

Data validation dropdown lists on a copied worksheet   (Excel 2003 and lower)

Templates affected: Any Systems2win template that has a DV (Data Validation) worksheet - running on Excel 2003 or lower.

Symptoms: Data validation dropdown lists don't work on a copied worksheet.

Understanding the underlying problem: When you copy a worksheet in the usual recommended way, Excel 2003 and lower (incorrectly) creates a new local named range (rather than using the global named range like it should).

Excel 4.0 macro dialog

For some templates released prior to December 2006, when you open the template in Excel 2003 or higher, you might get the error message (above).

If you select "No", then you will disable the conditional formatting to highlight cells containing formulas. This is a  very useful feature, so we suggest to select "yes" to enable the Excel 4.0 macros.

In November 2006, this functionality was replaced with a version that no longer gives the above warning message, and with version 5+ we provided a second optional way to highlight cells containing formulas. Yet another reason to keep your templates upgraded.

This features was not introduced until Excel 2003, so you need to choose one date format, and stick with it.

If you experience any problems not itemized here - then updating to the latest Release Service Pack will often resolve the problem.

Be sure that you have configured Windows Update to also check for Microsoft Office updates (not just Windows updates)

The following templates require Excel 2002 or higher:

• Decision PICK Matrix
• Job Instructions
• Pareto Chart
• Supply Chain Value Stream Map

For an extra fee, the following templates can be delivered in a special format that fully supports Excel 2000:

• Cause and Effect Matrix
• Machine Balancing
• QFD House of Quality
• Results Metrics

With the special Excel 2000 version, the following templates can be viewed and shared with users in Excel 2000 - but most editing should be done by a more advanced user - in a higher version of Excel:

• Functional Flowchart
  (Excel 2000 users can draw flowcharts - but lean metrics should be edited in a higher version)
• Gantt Chart
• Standard Work Combination Sheet
• Value Stream Mapping - PowerTool

Reminder: The VSM-Simple template doesn't have all the sophisticated lean metrics of the PowerTool, but is fully compatible with Excel 2000

1. You can use the org chart templates as a starting point to draw and format your org chart or tree diagram without benefit of the advanced organization chart toolbar.
2. Use Excel 2002 or 2003 for these (rarely-used) tasks.

1. To overcome this limitation, Systems2win has provided a palette of shapes in rotated positions (for those shapes most commonly needed to be rotated).
2. Use a higher version of Excel to rotate shapes, then re-open the same file in your lower version of Excel and continue editing.

1. Use a higher version of Excel to save your template with rows and/or columns already appropriately hidden or unhidden - so that the template is ready to use for a typical process in your company.
2. Open the workbook in a higher version of Excel to insert, resize, hide, or unhide.

(You can then re-open the same worksheet in the lower version of Excel and continue doing the 99% of things that Excel 2000 can do)

Open the workbook in a higher version of Excel to insert the hyperlinks.

(You can then re-open the same worksheet in the lower version of Excel and continue doing the 99% of things that Excel 2000 can do)

This only happens if Word > Tools > Options > View > Windows in Taskbar is enabled, (and it usually is).

For older versions, use one of the other Alternative ways to find and open your Systems2win templates

When you open any Excel or Word document through SharePoint, it might:

1. Disable your Systems2win add-in
   or...
2. give the error: file not found: filechck.dll (bCheckActivationStatus())

1) Don't open Excel or Word documents through SharePoint.

Instead - open Excel or Word first, and then open the document (on the SharePoint server) through Excel or Word

or... download the file from SharePoint to your local PC, and then open the document there.

2) How to re-enable your Systems2win add-in