Cannot include "[" or "]" in filename path???

  • Thread starter Thread starter Calab
  • Start date Start date
C

Calab

When I try to save an Excel spreadsheet to My
Document/[Activities]/2008-05-05 I recieve an error that some characters are
not allowed. [ and ] are both valid characters for a file name.

What can I do to get Excel to accept these characters at the SaveAs dialog
box?
 
They may be valid from a windows standpoint, but excel uses them for something
special.

If you have a link to another workbook, you'll see those square brackets in the
formula.

=[book1.xls]Sheet1!$A$1
(with book1.xls open)

or

='C:\My Documents\excel\[book1.xls]Sheet1'!$A$1
(with book1.xls closed)

Your life will be much easier if you learn to live with Excel's limitations
<vbg>.

When I try to save an Excel spreadsheet to My
Document/[Activities]/2008-05-05 I recieve an error that some characters are
not allowed. [ and ] are both valid characters for a file name.

What can I do to get Excel to accept these characters at the SaveAs dialog
box?
Click to expand...
 
Dave Peterson said:
They may be valid from a windows standpoint, but excel uses them for
something
special.

If you have a link to another workbook, you'll see those square brackets
in the
formula.

=[book1.xls]Sheet1!$A$1
(with book1.xls open)
Click to expand...
Your life will be much easier if you learn to live with Excel's
limitations
<vbg>.
Click to expand...

....or if I just find a decent spreadsheet software.
 
Calab said:
...or if I just find a decent spreadsheet software.
Click to expand...

Other spreadsheets have different restrictions, but FWIW OpenOffice
doesn't use square brackets to enclose filenames in external
references. Lotus 123 used (well, uses - still sold but not marketed)
angle brackets <<filename>>, which was a much better decision for DOS/
Windows than Microsoft's own choice.

Anyway, while you can't SAVE NEW files using pathnames that contain
square brackets, you can OPEN and SAVE/OVERWRITE workbooks with square
brackets in their pathnames, but it is a huge PITA.
 
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