Excel 2003 question

[Eric]

I have one user that currently has Excel 2003 and the
rest of the organization has either Office XP or Office
2000. There is an Excel document that is use
organization wide that was created in Office XP Excel.
It utilizes Utilizes validation fields. These fields are
lists that contains names, another contains status
(Closed, Open, Waiting, etc...) and another contains misc
info. When anyone uses this Excel document that has
Office XP or Office 2000, everything works perfectly
fine. When the individual with Excel 2003 uses this
spreadsheet, upon opening, he receives an error
immediately stating "File Error: Data May Have Been
Lost". He has to click twice on this error and the file
then opens. The next problem is that all of the
validation fields no longer contain the list that had
been created. He does not see a pull down list. And
when he closes and saves this file, the validation lists
are gone for everyone else. Any ideas?

I hope that this long winded explanation makes sense.
Please let me know if you need anymore information.
Thanks in advance for any assistance that is provided.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Different versions of excel are more/less sensitive to possible workbook
corruption.

It sounds like your workbook is on the cusp of being corrupt. xl2003 burps a
little, but previous versions handle it ok.

I think I'd take the time and start recreating it. (maybe just the worksheet
that's affected to start.)

If you wait too long, it may not open in any version of excel. OpenOffice has a
better reputation for opening files that excel couldn't.

(http://www.openoffice.org, a 60-65 meg download or a CD)

If the file is really important, there are commercial recovery services. I've
never used it, but you might want to check into:
http://www.officerecovery.com

 

[Norman Hinds]

To recover corrupted Excel files (incuding password protected) try thi
on-line service http://www.fdrlab.com/repair.htmlwww.fdrlab.com

Good luc