03/05/2012

Issue with BI Publisher/XML Publisher Word Add-in

Came across a problem yesterday with the Oracle BI Publisher (XML Publisher) add-in for Microsoft Word. The main issue was receiving a Macro error when using any of the Oracle BI Publisher menu items (such as Data, Load Sample XML Data…) I've found references on website forums stating that corrupt .exd files might be the culprit. This seemed to be the case for me. If you come across such an issue, here are the steps that I followed to fix the issue:

  1. Close all open Word windows. (Sometimes I had to shut down the PC completely.)
  2. Open My Computer and from the Tools menu choose Folder Options… On the View Tab, scroll down through the Advanced Settings: list and ensure the Hide protected operating systems files (Recommended) is NOT ticked. Press OK. 
  3. Now go Start, Run… and enter the following %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Forms and press the OK button. 
  4. In the window that opens up find the file that ends with .exd. Right click the file and choose Rename. Keep the filename as is and add .old to the end of it. (The next time this file is needed a new version will get placed here.) If there is more than one file that ends with .exd then rename all of these. Close the Window.
  5. If you had Hide protected operating systems files (Recommended) ticked all along, follow the instructions in step 3 to go back and tick that setting again. 
  6. Now start up Word and see if BI Publisher/XML Publisher is working. If not, there may possibly be other .exd files in other locations that are corrupt. Seek those out and try renaming them. Or there might be another unrelated problem. I'd start by reinstalling the Oracle BI Publisher Desktop.
Hope this helps.