Buttons in the Invoice Template Don't Work

All invoice templates that work with Excel Invoice Manager, including the standard template installed by default, and the pre-customized templates that can be downloaded from the member area of www.Office-Kit.com, have a group of buttons inside it. It is these buttons that you can click to invoke the functionalities of Excel Invoice Manager.

For example, you click the Save To DB button to save an invoice into the backend database, or click the Customers button to display all customers.

Several users wrote to us complaining that the buttons didn't work or didn't response to the click operations. After digging into the problem, we found out that there were several reasons that could cause the problem.

A. Is Excel Invoice Manager Installed?

If you move or copy an invoice template from one computer to another, but don't install Excel Invoice Manager on the target computer, all buttons in the invoice template won't work. To fix this, just install Excel Invoice Manager on the target computer before moving or coping your (customized) template.

In Excel Invoice Manager, the invoice templates are just pure Excel workbook files. That is, functionalities of Excel Invoice Manager are implemented in the COM-Addin that runs in the background, but not implemented in the template that you can move or copy from one computer to another.

The buttons in the invoice templates are standard ActiveX controls provided by Excel - the only thing they do is receiving the click events and transfer them to the underlying COM-Addin (i.e. Excel Invoice Manager). If you don't install Excel Invoice Manager by running the setup program, the buttons do nothing.

B. Is Excel Invoice Manager Disabled?

Even though Excel Invoice Manager is installed, there are still ways to disable it. To find out whether Excel Invoice Manager is disabled and fix it on Excel 2000/XP/2003:

1. Click Excel menu Help -> About Microsoft Office Excel -> Disabled Items.
2. If "Excel Invoice Manager" is listed in the Disabled Items box, then select it and click the Enable button.
3. You need to restart Excel to start Excel Invoice Manager.

On Excel 2007:

1. Click Office button -> Excel Options.
2. Click Add-ins on the left command bar.
3. Choose Disabled Items from the Manage list. Click Go.
4. If Excel Invoice Manager is listed as a disabled item, click it and then enable it by clicking the Enable button.
5. Restart Excel.

C. Is the Invoice Template in Design Mode?

If the invoice template is put in design mode, Excel Invoice Manager won´t response to click operations. This is by design and is a way to let you move, resize and modify the buttons. To make sure the invoice template is not in design mode:

1. Click Excel menu View -> Toolbars, and then check the submenu Control Toolbox to display the Control Toolbox toolbar.
2. Make sure the Design Mode button is not pushed. If it is pushed, click the button to restore it.

   

3. If you want to hide the Control Toolbox toolbar, click Excel menu View -> Toolbars, and then uncheck the submenu Control Toolbox.

For more information about design mode, please see Customizing Invoice Template.

If you cannot exit design mode and see a security warning message, please see Removing Auto-created Macros from Your Invoice Template.

D. Is the Program Corrupt?

The program files could be corrupt because of a virus or other threatening program. You can verify the digital signature of the program files to quickly find out if they are intact. To do this:

1. Open Excel Invoice Manager installation folder in Windows Explorer. By default the installation folder of Excel Invoice Manager is:

   <System Driver>\Program Files\Office-Kit.com\Excel Invoice Manager\

2. There are two executable files, OKINVMAN.dll and OKINVCTL.ocx. Right-click one of the files, choose Properties.
3. Open the Digital Signature tab.
4. Click to select OFFICE-KIT.COM digital signature and then click Details.
5. The Digital Signature Details dialog box should display a message "This digital signature is OK". If you don´t see this message, the file you are verifying is corrupt.

If you find one or both of the executable files are corrupt, the first thing you need to do is to install a virus scanner and then scan your whole system completely. Once you are sure that your system is clean, then re-download and install Excel Invoice Manager.

E. File Name with Non-English letters on English Platform

As reported by our user, if you rename the template file with a non-English name, such as containing Croatian letters, but at the same time the Windows system is changed to English which does not support the non-English letters you used in the file name, the template may not be able to response to click events.

To solve the problem, simply rename the template file with English letters.

F. Security Settings

The default security setting in Excel is sufficient for Excel Invoice Manager to run. However if you have changed the security setting there are chances that Excel Invoice Manager cannot run on your computer.

To check the security settings in Excel 2000/XP/2003:

1. Click Excel menu Tools -> Macro -> Security.
2. Go to the "Trusted Publishers" tab.
3. Make sure "Trust all installed add-ins and templates" is checked.
4. Restart Excel if you change the option.

Excel 2007 offers similar options. To check the options:

1. Click Excel menu Office button -> Excel Options.
2. Click Trust Center.
3. Click Trust Center Settings.
4. Click Add-ins.
5. Make sure "Disable all Appliation Add-ins (may impair functionality)" is not checked.
6. If "Require Appliation Add-ins to be signed by Trusted Publisher" is checked, make sure you add our publisher certificate to the trusted publisher list.
7. Restart Excel if you make changes to the security options.

G. A Hidden Instance of Excel Is Running in the Background

For example, another program is opening an Excel template/workbook by running Excel.

To solve this, close the other running program or restart your computer.