I have been running Excel automation code in Access to create some reporting. Specifically I am using code to send tables to an existing spreadsheet, open it, and run pivot table.
     Sometimes when this procedure runs it fails and I receive an error that the 'Remote server machine does not exist or is unavailable.' This occurs about half the time I run this process and occurs whether its run across a network or on a local machine. Does anyone know the cause of this or how to prevent it?
     Microsoft says it has to do with network settings which I don't buy because it happens when not on a network as well. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Don't really know the answer, but in the absence of other replies ...
it may be that the code is running too fast for the server. Try adding a line of code after that for the connection to delay activity eg. 3 seconds :-

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Regards BrianB
Most problems occur from starting at the wrong place.
Use a cup of coffee to make Windows run faster.
It is easy until you know how.

Interesting idea. I appreciate the help, I'll give it a try.

This looks like a new Microsoft problem (WinXP SP"??) because I've used GetObject/ CreateObject to do this kind of thing many times before without coming across this "" problem.

I am currently opening Word from Excel and popping in some data which then is converted into a table. It lets me convert the table (ie it finds the Word object) but gives the error when I ask it to change the column widths. If I manually take it through that stage it then carries on adding the rest of the data without any problem. Oh and I'm not doing this over a network (yet) - it's all on a one disk and one PC!

It works ok first time in a Windows session which makes me suspicious of the SP2 thing. I've set my object variable to Nothing so I don't think it's "untidiness". I'm using Office 2000 in WinXP but may get a chance later to run it in Office XP. (also I did read somewhere that Office 2003 has a CreateObject problem)

Regards

Rogen

I've found the answer but possibly only to my own problem with "The remote server machine does not exist or is unavailable"

I've been checking my code and have realised I hadn't preceded use of the CentimetersToPoints method with my App object name as in wrdApp.CentimetersToPoints. Most of the code uses Excel's VBA routines but CentimetersToPoints is a Word method - whoops.

Still you never know - check your code??

Regards

Rogen

The last posting really did the trick in helping me out!
I was using (copy/pasted) code referencing ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleHeading8) to access a built-in style name - but ActiveDocument is not set in this context.
Instead, the document object I created earlier with CreateObject needed to be used, as in myWordDoc.Styles(wdStyleHeading8)
Quite an obvious coding error, actually - but the message not really helped tracking it down.

The above ideas do not work in my case. I have the following code in Access, and it runs for the first time, but not for the second time. Any one knows the cause and solution?
I am using Office 2010. Thanks.

dim objChart as Excel.Chart
Set objChart = Excel.Charts.Add

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I found this. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=178510

I had a similar problem with a user trying to attach/open a Word document to a claim record in an MS Access database.. I discovered that the problem only occurred if the document being opened had been created in a previous version of MS Word to that currently in use (2010 in my case) and was being opened by VBA office automation code.
If you opened the document directly in MS Word 2010 there was no problem and if you then saved it as a .docx (ie 2010) document the vba office automation code worked without a hitch. Renaming .doc to .docx documents without first converting via Word 2010 did not work.
What I suspect is happening is that the office automation code is looking at the version of Word the document was created in and then trying to open this specific version of MS Word to display the document in. If that version of MS word is not available (because you have upgraded for instance) then it throws the error you see. This is onlay a guess