Microsoft reissues Excel patch

Microsoft Corp. has reissued an Excel security patch, published earlier this month, after the update made it impossible for some Excel 2000 users to open documents.

The problem affects certain versions of Excel 2000, which have been set to support certain Asian languages by default, Microsoft said.

Excel 2000 users will find that they cannot open some Excel documents after they install the MS07-002 security update, if they have also configured Excel's "executable mode" to Korean Japanese, or Korean, Microsoft said in a Microsoft Knowledge Base article posted Thursday.

"This issue occurs because of the way in which Excel 2000 processes the phonetic information that is embedded in files that are created by using Excel in the Korean, Chinese, or Japanese executable mode," the article said.

The MS07-002 update fixes five Excel flaws, and is rated critical by Microsoft. It is one of four security updates issued by Microsoft on Jan. 9.