Why won't Excel open xls file after I saved it with notepad!

[Kurt]

I only saved it in notepad and didn't make any changes except to
delete a letter and then re-type it in. Now Excel refuses to recognize
it as an Excel file, even though I didn't change the xls extension!
What do I need to do to get Excel to recognize it as an Excel
spreadsheet again? TIA!

 

[Jacob Skaria]

Microsoft Excel files are in Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF) and not in
text/ASCII format which can be edited and saved using a text editor like
Notepad.

If this post helps click Yes

 

[Kurt]

Microsoft Excel files are in Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF) and not in
text/ASCII format which can be edited and saved using a text editor like
Notepad.

If this post helps click Yes

Thanks Jacob, but how can I now convert the file back to BIFF so that
Excel will open it again?

 

[Jacob Skaria]

Sorry; it would be difficult or probably I should say not possible..

If this post helps click Yes

 

[Bill Sharpe]

I only saved it in notepad and didn't make any changes except to
delete a letter and then re-type it in. Now Excel refuses to recognize
it as an Excel file, even though I didn't change the xls extension!
What do I need to do to get Excel to recognize it as an Excel
spreadsheet again? TIA!

Do you have file extensions hidden in Explorer? It's possible the real
file name is now filename.xls.txt. If so, rename the file to
filename.xls and see if that helps.

Why in the world would you save an Excel spreadsheet in notepad in the
first place?

Bill