Hi Alvin,
Thank you for reminding me to double check , actually I had made another
change , I had linked some custom properties to named references in the excel
template  ( I didn't remember about this change, because I thought I had made
it in the designer, but the document properties can't be altered in the
designer either so I can only have made this change in excel), and that's
what was causing the crash in visual studio 2005 when I tryed to open the
designer . I've now removed the custom properties and the designer items open
ok without crashing visual studio 2005 anymore.

Thank you and best regards,
Pedro Costa