Problems opening a Workbook created by Excel 2002

  • Thread starter Thread starter hce
  • Start date Start date
H

hce

hi everyone

can someone explain to me why i have problems opening an excel workboo
created in excel 2002 with excel 2003? aren't the latest version b
able to open files created by any lower version? also, i aske
previously can i have 2 version of excel running and a kind sou
answered my question but i already have my 2003 installed an
running... how can i install the 2002 now? does that i have t
uninstall 2003 first, then install 2002, then 2003...? because the sol
given to me was to install them in chronological order... is there an
other way out because by uninstalling 2003 first, i would lose muc
information which i don't really want to...

cheer
 
You said that 2003 was preinstalled? If so, where ______________.
Where did you install xl2002?_____________________________
You shouldn't have a problem if installed in different folders.

You say "i have problems opening an excel workbook". You don't give details.
How are you trying to open? From explorer or from within the excel program?
If you have both versions open, then try closing one.
I don't have 2003 but do have xl95, xl97sr2 and xl2002 all on the same xp
home computer with no problems.

Post back. It might be as simple as the file associations set in windows.
 
I would install 2002 into a different folder, and then reinstall 2003 into the
default folder that it went into last time. Note, I didn't say uninstall 2003
first, so you shouldn't lose anything.

No reason I can think of why 2003 shouldn't be able to open your previous
files - As you say, file formats are the same - More likely to find oddities in
VBA code between versions than anything else.
 
I'm sorry for all the confusion... i didn't really make myself very
clear on the subject....

initially, i had office 2002 but i soon got hold of the 2003 version so
i installed it. i can't remember whether i told the installer to
overwrite the 2002 or not but currently, i only have 2003 applications.
it was working fine until when my boss asked me to look at some reports
created before i worked in this position. the reports were created in
excel 2002 and contained some simple macros which were to hide and
unhide worksheets when the buttons built in the worksheet were clicked.
so i tried to open the workbook in excel 2003 but there was an error
message, " the data may have been lost" and when i cleared the error
messgae and the file opens, all the buttons and info is gone but if i
open i in any other excel other than 2003, it will be ok... in my first
post, one told me to install the excel in chronological order eg. 2000,
2003, 2003 and so on... i already have 2003 installed so if i were to
do it in chronological order, wouldn't that mean that i have to
uninstall 2003 first and start installing all the previous version
first...? pls advice me...

cheers
 
The default would have been to upgrade your existing version, so you likely only
have 2003 on your machine now. If you are looking to have all 3 versions on
your PC (and many of us do), then try installing 2000 and XP *without*
uninstalling 2003 first, BUT, when prompted for the folder where it will install
Excel, you need to choose/create a different one for each installation - Just
make them up, for example, my 3 versions 2000, 2002, 2003 are in the following
folders:-

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11

Now, given that you have already installed 2003 and upgraded what was there, you
may well find that 2003 currently sits in

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office

so just create 2 other folders for your 2000 and XP installations, eg:-

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office2K
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeXP

and install the 2000 and XP versions into those. There will come a point in the
installation where you will be prompted for a folder, and you will either need
to have alreday created them, and therefore browse to find those folders, or,
you should be able to create them within the setup routine. Hopefully the fact
that you already have 2003 on your machine shouldn't prevent any installation of
these, but it is possible - You'll just have to try.

Even if you successfully manage to install 2000 and XP with no problem though,
you should still go back and reinstall 2003. If it won't let you install, then
just try a 'repair installation' option.

Hopefully it won't come to it, but if for any reason it won't let you install
the others, then you may need to have to uninstall 2003 first. Not sure what
your concern is though over losing anything? What do you think you will lose?
If it is macros in your personal workbook, then these can be backed up. No Excel
files you have created or used will be deleted as a result of uninstalling -
What else?
 
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