After trying for several hours to figure out why an excel worksheet template I had created could exchange variables with SW PDM Standard no longer, I discovered something that may be useful to others. I had made my worksheet macro-enabled a week or so ago after adding a button to launch an application. Every copy I made since then would not fill out the corresponding data cards correctly. I finally decided to remove the vb coded button I had added to the worksheets and presto, the worksheets exchange variables with the data cards once again. It appears SW PDM Standard does not like playing with macro-enabled worksheets.