From: John T. Chapman <jtc1@cornell.edu>
Subject: Re: Excel 4.0 Microsoft help system???
X-Xxdate: Fri, 4 Sep 92 15: 01:18 GMT
Nntp-Posting-User: jtc1@cornell.edu
Organization: Office of Computing and Statistical Consulting
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d9
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 13:49:05 GMT

In article <torrie.715572109@Xenon.Stanford.EDU> Evan Torrie,
torrie@cs.stanford.edu writes:
>>I just upgraded to Excel 4.0 and am puzzled by this message
>>I get from time to time. Every once in a while when I try to
>>access HELP, I get a requestor which says something like THE
>>MICROSOFT HELP SYSTEM IS OUT OF MEMORY and then a second
>>requestor that says UNABLE TO ACCESS HELP. After getting these
>>requestors, I checked ABOUT EXCEL and find 1.9 megs, of the 2
>>megs alloted to Excel, available. Once I get the help system
>>requestor, I cannot access HELP again until I restart Excel.
>
>  I had these problems with an extension conflict.  In my
>case, I could NEVER get the Help system up (even after immediately
>starting up Excel) so long as I had this particular extension
>installed.
>  Unfortunately, I can't remember what the offending extension was,
>(although it may have been MemInit) but I would suggest that this is
>probably your problem.  Try removing extensions and see what happens.

I think I can solve your problem.

See, with release 4.0 of MS Excel, Microsoft decided to make their 
program 'modular'. Unfortunately, they carried this to an extreme (one 
I'm not pleased with).

Excel 4.0, when it runs for the first time, installs a folder called 
Microsoft in your Extensions folder (Sys 7; probably just in Sys. Folder 
in earlier systems). Contained within this folder you will find two more 
folders: Help and Spelling.

Help contains a few files, including the Microsoft Help APPLICATION, 
which is called by Excel 4.0. This has a default memory partition of 
512K. Chances are, Excel tries to launch this, finds that it cannot in 
the remaining memory, and dies ungracefully.

I'm sure the reason for these folders lies in the idea that all newer 
releases of MS products (Word 6, when it comes out?) will share this 
folder of common MS Utilities.

The thing that gets me is that the folder is pretty big and I had stuck 
Excel out on my Network folder with the express intention of freeing up 
hard drive space. But no, Excel feels that it has to put this in your 
System Folder, even though there is a perfectly good copy out here in the 
network folder. What's more, even though this is probably Read-Only, 
AutoDoubler won't touch it as it is in the System Folder. Arghh!!!

Anyway, check to see how much contiguous memory you have left after 
launching Excel. If that seems enough, try increasing the partition size 
for Microsoft Help. If that doesn't help, call up Microsoft and threaten 
to blow up their corporate headquarters. (You might wish to check for 
INIT (ahem, Extension) conflicts first, though) :-)

Good luck!

-John

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  John T. Chapman                                     jtc1@cornell.edu
  Office of Computing and Statistical Consulting
  Cornell University - College of Human Ecology
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