import from Excel to Access

I am trying to import a worksheet from Excel 2003 to Access 2003 and
having mixed results. I use File --> Get External Data and import a
spreadsheet along with its field names into a new Access table. I have
Access create a primary key, and in the import process it does not
allow me to designate the data type, so I am stuck with whatever Access
decides each field is.

Then I try to import the EXACT SAME DATA into the table, so I know that
the field names are EXACTLY the same (and I have checked each one in
Excel prior to the first import to make sure that there are no odd
symbols, etc. and they have imported beautifully as field names the
first time) and I get "an error occurred trying to import the file
c:/my documents/abc.xls'. The file was not imported." I do not get an
error table, but those don't seem to help me, anyway.

I went back to my Access table and changed the field types to match the
cell formatting I had in Excel, but get the same error and no import. I
went back to Excel and created a field with the name "ID" just so I had
the same number of fields, but got the same result. I tried having the
spreadsheet all in text along with every field in the table, but got
the same result.

Any ideas out there? Thanks, Allyson