I want to add some text that contains several hyperlinks to an Excel spreadsheet. I have done this using an inserted Word object thus:-

• Insert -> Text -> Object

• Choose "Microsoft Word Document" from the Object type list on the Create New tab
• Type my text into the box.
• Click outside of the box to close the embedded Word editor
• Save my document

Now if I close my document, and open it again, and triple click on the object to edit it again, Excel pops up a message box to tell me Cannot start the source application for this object.

This is a brand new install of Microsoft Office 2024, on Windows 11. This document was created, saved and reopened in the space of a minute. No changes to the installation of Word have taken place in the interim. How does it not know what the source application is?

If I add a second Word object in the same way into the same file, I can edit that until such time as I close the document and then reopen it again.

I can see that the formula for the embedded object says:-

=EMBED("Word.Document.12","")

which I understand to be the way Excel keeps track of the object and is not something I can or should edit. I also understand that Word.Document.12 is the name of the registry key under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. When I check the contents of my registry key of that name I see the following.

which contains the correct path to the location of the Word executable.

Can anyone offer any suggestions why this doesn't work?