XL: Opening/Saving STF File in Excel May Cause Setup Errors

ID: Q111248

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0
Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
Microsoft Office 97 for Windows
Microsoft Office for Windows 95, version 7.0
Microsoft Office for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.2
Microsoft Office Professional for Windows, version 4.3
Microsoft PowerPoint 97 for Windows
Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 95, version 7.0
Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.0a, 4.0c
Microsoft Project 98 for Windows
Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
Microsoft Word for Windows 95, version 7.0
Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel versions 5.0 and later, if you edit a custom setup script (an .STF file), and then run the Setup program for your Microsoft application, you may receive one or more of the following error messages:

   Admin Mode Root Object ID Object
   Your Setup files may be damaged. Try restarting the Setup Program

   Object 1856
   Your Setup files may be damaged. Try restarting the Setup Program

   The Processing of top-level information has failed

   Object ID 0:Syntax Error in List of Obj ID

   Microsoft Office Setup was not completed successfully

Note that if you run the Setup program with the /q parameter (quiet mode), you only receive the last error message.

CAUSE

In Microsoft Excel versions 5.0 and later, the Text Import Wizard may interpret a value in the .STF file as a time value, or as a number value, and incorrectly convert the value.

For example, assuming the correct syntax for line 15 in the Microsoft Office SETUP.STF is:

   Admin Mode Root Object ID 41:1

When you open this file in Microsoft Excel, the Text Import Wizard interprets the value 41:1 in column two as a time value and converts the line to the following:

   Admin Mode Root Object ID 41:01:00

If you save the .STF file in Microsoft Excel with this value, you receive one or more of the error messages listed above when you run a Setup program that uses this .STF file.

When you open an .STF file for a Microsoft Windows 95 application in Microsoft Excel versions 5.0 and later, the Text Import Wizard also interprets numbers separated by a comma as a single number, and converts the value to a number with commas inserted as the thousands marker.

RESOLUTION

Microsoft provides examples of Visual Basic for Applications procedures for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. The Visual Basic procedures in this article are provided 'as is' and Microsoft does not guarantee that they can be used in all situations. While Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular macro, they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality, nor will they help you construct macros to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to consult one of the Microsoft Solution Providers. Solution Providers offer a wide range of fee-based services, including creating custom macros. For more information about Microsoft Solution Providers, call Microsoft Customer Information Service at (800) 426-9400.

To work around this problem, perform any of the following:

Edit the .STF file in a text editor such as Microsoft Word, Wordpad (Windows 95 only), or Notepad. Text editors convert values from one format to another.
NOTE: MS-DOS Editor should NOT be used to modify the SETUP.STF file. MS- DOS Editor replaces tabs with spaces and will cause the same error. Other text editors that are known to replace tabs with spaces (and are thus unsuitable for modifying the .STF file) are Xtree Gold 2.0 by Executive Systems and QEdit by SemWare Inc.
```
    -or-
```

Do the following to open the file in Microsoft Excel versions 5.0 or later:

    1. In Microsoft Excel, open the .STF file you want to edit.

    2. In the Text Import Wizard dialog box, click Next twice to proceed to
       the Step 3 of 3 dialog box.

    3. In the Text Import Wizard - Step 3 Of 3 dialog box, under Data
       Preview, drag the vertical scrollbar indicator down until the
       "Object ID" item appears in the Data Preview window. Click the first
       column to select it. Hold the SHIFT key down, and drag the
       horizontal scrollbar indicator to the right until the last column is
       displayed in the Data Preview window. Click the last column. All of
       the columns (at least 15 columns) should be selected.

    4. Under Column Data Format, click the Text option, and click Finish.

       IMPORTANT: If you do not click the Text option at this step,
       Microsoft Excel will read some of the entries in your edited .STF
       file incorrectly. When this occurs, you will receive "setup parse
       errors" during setup.

       NOTE: If you are opening an .STF file that belongs to Microsoft
       Office 97, you must perform the steps listed in the following
       article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base immediately after opening
       the .STF file:

          ARTICLE-ID: Q162796
          TITLE     : OFF97: Setup Error 932 After Modifying STF File

    -or-

If you want to open an .STF file that belongs to Microsoft Office 97, run the following Visual Basic macro to open the .STF file. The macro performs all of the same actions as steps 1-4, shown above, as well as the actions listed in Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q162796:

      Sub OpenSTF()
         STFName = Application.GetOpenFilename("Setup Table File " & _
            "(*.STF),*.STF")
         If STFName = False Then End
         Application.StatusBar = "Opening " & STFName
         Workbooks.OpenText FileName:=STFName, DataType:=xlDelimited, _
            TextQualifier:=xlDoubleQuote, ConsecutiveDelimiter:=False, _
            Tab:=True, Semicolon:=False, Comma:=False, Space:=False, _
            Other:=False, FieldInfo:=Array(Array(1, 2), Array(2, 2), _
            Array(3, 2), Array(4, 2), Array(5, 2), Array(6, 2), _
            Array(7, 2), Array(8, 2), Array(9, 2), Array(10, 2), _
            Array(11, 2), Array(12, 2), Array(13, 2))
         Application.StatusBar = "Please be patient... preparing " & _
            STFName & " for editing."
         Application.ScreenUpdating = False
         Cells.AutoFilter Field:=6, Criteria1:="= ""*", Operator:=xlAnd
      Set TrimRange = _
      ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Columns("F:F").SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible)
         TrimRange.Replace What:="""""", Replacement:=""""
         For Each A In TrimRange.Areas
            For Each C In A.Cells
               C.Formula = Mid(LTrim(C.Text), 2)
            Next C
         Next A
         TrimRange.Replace What:=""" """, Replacement:=""""""
         TrimRange.Replace What:="""""""", Replacement:=""""""
         Cells.AutoFilter
         Application.StatusBar = False
      End Sub

IMPORTANT: You must perform a best fit on column F before you save the file. If you do not, items in that column will appear as pound signs.

MORE INFORMATION

The TextWizard in Microsoft Excel allows you to choose how you want text to be distributed across columns and how the data in each column should be formatted when you open a text file.

For more information about using the TextWizard, choose the Search button in Help and type:

   TextWizard

The third party products mentioned here are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.

KBCategory: kbsetup kberrmsg kb3rdparty KBSubcategory: Additional reference words: 1.00 1.10 1.20 4.00 4.00a 4.00c 4.20 4.20c 4.30 4.30c 5.00 5.00c 6.00 6.00a 6.00c 7.00 8.00 97 officeinterop 908 938 723 ppt95 ppt97

Keywords          : kb3rdparty kberrmsg kbsetup
Version           : 1.00 1.10 1.20
Platform          : WINDOWS

Last Reviewed: November 7, 1997