"Compile error in hidden module" message in Excel

January 15, 2013
Recently, several people have reported that the RegEx Find/Replace add-in for Excel has stopped working, displaying the following error message:

Compile error in hidden module: ThisWorkbook

The error appears to be a side effect of a recent update released by Microsoft. I don't know the details of exactly why this broke the add-in, and I'm not sure if it's caused by a Windows update or a Microsoft Office update. However, after scouring the Internet for a while, I came across a solution. Here are the steps to restore the add-in's functionality:
  1. Close Excel
  2. Open a command prompt with admin privileges
  3. Run the following two commands:
    • For 32-bit Windows:
      regsvr32 -u c:\windows\system32\mscomctl.ocx
      regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\mscomctl.ocx
    • For 64-bit Windows:
      regsvr32 -u c:\windows\syswow64\mscomctl.ocx
      regsvr32 c:\windows\syswow64\mscomctl.ocx
  4. Open Excel
Usually that solves the problem, although the same "Compile error in hidden module" error can sometimes be caused by corrupted Excel files. So if the above steps don't do the trick, there is one other possible solution you can try:
  1. Close Excel
  2. Open Windows Explorer
  3. In the Windows Explorer address bar, type %appdata%
    and press Enter
  4. In the resulting list of subfolders, find and open the Microsoft folder
  5. In the Microsoft folder, find and open the Forms subfolder
  6. In the Forms folder, rename or delete the following two files (if they are present):
    • comctllib.exd
    • mscomctllib.exd
  7. Open Excel (it will automatically recreate the aforementioned files as it needs them)
Hope that helps!
 

QuickMonth Calendar 2.2 released

January 7, 2011


This version of QuickMonth Calendar adds improved user language auto-detection and new context menu commands to quickly copy the selected date to the clipboard.  Chinese language support has also been added.  If you are interested in translating QuickMonth Calendar into another language, please contact me.

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New Excel add-in: RegEx Find/Replace

December 8, 2010
If you're needing advanced search and replace capabilities in Microsoft Excel, this add-in is for you.  RegEx Find/Replace is a freeware add-in for Microsoft Excel which combines Excel's own find and replace features with the power of regular expressions.  It also includes regular expression worksheet functions you can use to extract, replace or compare data via cell formulas.  To read more about it, visit the RegEx Find/Replace main page, or skip to the download page to try it out.

screenshot

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