Recently I was working on a project that involved using the SmartConnect Excel 2013 Add-in to run a customized Map. After successfully installing the SmartConnect Excel Add-in, I found each time I would close Excel 2013 and re-open my spreadsheet the eOne Solutions Add-in ribbon (as you can see in the screen shot below) would be missing.

This forced me to have to manually re-enable the SmartConnect Add-in via the Excel Add-in options menu each time I exited and relaunched excel. This seemed like a reasonable workaround, until I had to continually re-add the Add-in during testing.

 

 

After researching how the Add-in options in Excel are set in the registry of the workstation, I found the SmartConnect Add-in was set to an “unloaded” status, which prevented the Add-in from appearing each time I launched Excel.

By default, the Add-in should be installed as “Load on startup”, so most of you will not likely run in to this issue. However, for those of us who have installed the SmartConnect Excel 2013 Add-in, but do not see the ribbon load on startup, there is a way to change the load behavior of the Add-in in Excel so that you do not have to enable it each time you launch Excel.

Below are steps you can take to make sure your SmartConnect Excel 2013 Add-in loads upon start up.

* Please note, the following requires administrator access to the system registry and should only be accessed with the help of your IT system administrator *

 

1. Open your registry editor. To do this, open your Windows Start menu and type “regedit” (Right Click and choose to “Run as Administrator”)

2. Browse to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Office > Excel > Addins > eOne Solutions Pty Ltd.eOne SmartConnect Excel Add-in.

 

3. Double click on the LoadBehavior. This will open the Edit DWORD window seen below.

4. Change the Value Data to a 3 (Value 0 = unloaded, Value 3 = Load upon startup).

5. Click ok to save your changes and exit the registry window.

6. Launch Excel 2013 and you should see the eOne Addin appearing each time you open your spreadsheet.

The exact reasons why this particular installation of the Excel Add-in appeared as “unloaded” is unclear, and hopefully you will not experience this issue, however, if you do this is a quick fix to get eliminate those additional steps.