document doesn't open unrecognizable format

[Guest]

I have Excel workbooks that I have been using over a period of years.
Recently, I have encountered a problem opening the workbooks and get the
message that "the file is an unrecognizable format". If I open it in text
mode, it is not usable data. Files that have been just fine will suddenly
have this problem. I have backups but once excel refuses to open the
document, I get the same message trying to open the backups. I have emailed
the files to another computer and it still won't open. So it appears that
something is corrupting the files. Any ideas?

 

[Dave Peterson]

MSWord will open .xls files. And you can save that file in MSWord as a word
document but with .xls as the extension.

If you try opening the file in MSWord and it works, then you can copy and paste
into a new excel workbook to save a small part of the data.

If all your backups are saved as word documents, I think you're in big
trouble--any chance there's a backup that your IT department made???

====
If it's not saving in MSWord that caused the trouble,...

Sometimes, opening the file in OpenOffice and saving there will help:
http://www.openoffice.org, a 60-65 meg download or a CD

Sometimes, later versions of excel can open a file that earlier versions can't.

 

[Guest]

When I opened these excel workbooks, it is not usable data to save in any
form. I am interested in knowing what has happened to my excel documents
that they won't open so I can stop it from occuring any more and also if
anyone knows how to recover these excel files.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Did you try opening the files in MSWord?

If MSWord opens it ok, I'd bet that someone opened it in MSWord and saved it
there (or had autosave turned on and that saved it).

If MSWord can't open it, then at least you've eliminated one more possibility.