Error Message

[Warren Easton]

Dear All,

I was looking through some Macros in one of my sheet and may have
inadvertantly changed something, now when I go to open any excel sheet I get
the following message:

Excel cannot open the file'~$PERSONAL.xlsb' because the file format or file
extention ia not valid. Verify that the file has not been corruped and that
the file extention matches the format of the file.

Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[Bernard Liengme]

The tilde (~) indicates an temporary file
My guess is that Personal is already open but hidden (that is its normal
state)
Open the View tab, move to Windows group and click the Unhide tool
best wishes

 

[FinRazel]

I don't know if this is your problem, but I think you have changed the
extention of your personal macro workbook (mine is "Personal.xls" not .xlsb).
This file should be located in

C:\Documents and Settings\(your username)\Application
Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART

If it is not there, search for it. When you have found it, if you cannot
see the extention, go to

Tools->Folder Options->View Tab, and check "Display the full path in the
title bar"

Then, you can change the extention to .xls

Not having Vista, I don't know if these directions are very up-to-date, but
I hope they help.

Anne Murray

 

[Warren Easton]

Hi Anne,

Thanks for the response, this has stopped the error message, but now when I
open an excel spreadsheet I get 3 others called ~$PERSONAL.xls,
~$DE21CF00.xls and ~$DE21CF00 opening at the same time the first to are blank
spreadsheets and the last has my name written twice in Cell A1.
--
Regards
Warren
Excel Novice
Addiewell, Scotland.

 

[FinRazel]

I am not sure exactly what ~$DE21CF00.xls and ~$DE21CF00 are, but they look
like autosaves (was excel or your whole computer improperly shut down
recently?) In any case, I don't think you need them. I think you should
delete them. For example, while in ~$DE21CF00.xls, click "Save As" Do not
save at this point, just use the screen to check the file location (I suspect
it is the XLSTART folder, just like Personal.xls). Then, go to that location
and delete those files.

As for Personal.xls, this is your workbook for storing macros not associated
with any particular workbook. When you first create such a macro, excel
creates this workbook for you. It is usually hidden, but I have mine set to
open with excel, like you do. This is more convenient for me than Book1, and
I'm not exactly sure how to change it back. I'll get back to you on this.

 

[Warren Easton]

Works perfectly when deleted and hidden.

Thank You.