How do I import a database from excel 2003 to 2007?

[Theresa59]

The database is not too large, but important. I need to transfer it to Excel
2007 from 2003. Can this be done without losing data, or changing the format?
If so, how? Obviously I am not very adept with Excel. Thank you for your
help.

 

[JLatham]

Theresa,
Start by making a backup copy of your 2003 format file, just in case.

Open Excel 2007 and then open the 2003 file with it. It will open in
"compatibility mode" meaning that it is treated as an Excel 2003 file with
2003's restrictions on rows, columns and other features.

Use File | Save As to save the file in one of the native Excel 2007 formats,
such as .xlsx (or .xlsm if it has macros in it). After that it will open in
Excel as a 'pure' Excel 2007 file and you should be able to work with it
without any problems in 2007.

 

[Theresa59]

Thank you, Ill try it this afternoon and let you know. Appreciate the help!

 

[JLatham]

Good luck with it, do let us know how it goes.

Do make that extra copy of the original file. While it doesn't happen
often, there have been cases where people say that after converting files
from older versions of Excel to 2007 that the file became unusuable. So you
want to keep a fall-back copy.

There's really not much stopping you from just opening it and using it in
the older 2003 format other than not being able to take advantage of added
2007 features; it will still work like a 2003 file. Besides the rows/column
number limits, you'd not be able to use any new 2007 functions in it.