Decoding excel file from office 2003

[mdlopez19]

So here's my problem. On an old computer of mine, I had office 2003 and had
some word and excel files that were confidential. So I clicked on properties
and had them encoded with office 2003's encoding. Now I bought a new computer
and started transferring my files from the old computer to the new one.
However, it won't let me transfer these encoded files over or even open them
and unfortunately I erased the system software before realizing that this
problem existed. I would appreciate it if anyone could offer some advice as
to how to transfer these files and be able to open them up.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean when you say "encoded with
office 2003's encoding".

If you used the "File | Save As" or "Tools | Options | Security"
commands in an Office 2003 program to add a password to an Office
2003 file, then that password is stored with the Office 2003
file, and that password should not prevent you from copying the
files to your new computer or opening the files on your new
computer as long as you remember the password.

But if you used the Windows Encrypting File System to encode your
files, and if you did not save the encryption certificate from
your old computer, then your encrypted files are useless now.
See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223316 "Best practices for
the Encrypting File System" for more information.