Excel / VBA macros won't run in OpenOffice.org

[sensetech]

We have Excel 2003 documents which include some fairly straightforward VBA code. We understood that OpenOffice supported VBA code so the documents could be used without conversion but we're having problems with them.

Having done some Google searches, we ticked our OpenOffice Tools / Options / Load/SAVE / VBA Properties / Load Basic code & Executable code so now we can see the un-REM'ed code in the Macro Organiser, looking good. If we run the code manually, it works fine, including the very simple Worksheet_Open subro consisting of just MsgBox "Hello World !".

We have also set Macro Security to Low, so we shouldn't be getting an issue from there, but if we open one of the workbooks in OpenOffice we don't get the "Hello World !" message as we would expect, and none of the other pieces of VBA code fire up when expected either.

In a word, HELP !!!

[Villeroy]

Surprised? Does any application run the macro code of another one? Can Excel run macros from Lotus 123? I mean, they bought the whole company and incorporated 123 into Excel, but Excel can not run nor convert most of the macros. http://www.xlhelp.com/Excel/Lotus.htm
Being as incompatible as possible is the business model of all proprietary software.
Reading xls almost as well as Excel after 2 decades of co-evolution is one thing. Being API compatible requires an Excel clone which is an impossible thing.

[sensetech]

So why does the OpenOffice documentation seem to suggest that it should work ? As I said, we're not talking about complicated code or obscure events - if it can't cope with MsgBox "Hello World!" during the Open event of a workbook then I agree, we're probably wasting our time. I'd appreciate it if someone can simply confirm that, or give us a pointer to something else we may have missed.

I'm not pitching for or against Microsoft here, just trying to get a job done as quickly & simply as possible. Real world IT.

[Villeroy]

The language is the same, without any trace of object orientation though.
It is the API which is very different.

Editing VBA modules in OpenOffice.org always crashed my Excel 97/2000 when I tried to load the docs with the modified VBA. So there can not be any compatibility.

Running plain Basic function in OOo is possible when you un-REM the code and store the documents in Calc's file format.
http://go-oo.org promises much more, but don't be disappointed when it does not work and always prove that the code does exactly the same as it used to do in the other application.
No flavour of OOo will bear the consequences of your former decision in favour of VBA.

[cmgaviao]

I stumbles across this with the same issue....Hoping my pre existing macros would run... No huge surprise that they wouldn't just wishful thinking on my part...

But... I believe that Lotus was in fact bought by IBM and not Microsoft... so ... no big surprise that 123 macros dont work in excel.