cannot open excel file - says invalid file format - what to do?

[Guest]

i have been blocked from using a xls. document. when i try to open it in
excel it says it is an invalid format. what can i do to recover this data?

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Diane,

In File - Open, there is a repair option (varies with version of Excel -
look all around). That might work. You don't say which version of Excel
you're using. Try sending it to someone who has Excel, in case it's your
Excel that's damaged. Try opening it with Open Office -- it's reputed to be
able to recover damaged Excel files. www.openoffice.org.

 

[Bruce Sinclair]

Diane,

In File - Open, there is a repair option (varies with version of Excel -
look all around). That might work. You don't say which version of Excel
you're using. Try sending it to someone who has Excel, in case it's your
Excel that's damaged. Try opening it with Open Office -- it's reputed to be
able to recover damaged Excel files. www.openoffice.org.

... and beware. Just because the filename ends in .xls doesn't mean it is
an xl file at all. That's just convention. A recent question here involved
this sort of thing. The file had been an xl file ... but was now a word
file.