Document to merge is greyed out in Finder

[pegasus416]

I have a master Excel document that was originally created in Office
2003, now living in Office 2004. With the master document open, and I
go to Merge, the document I want to merge into the master is greyed
out. I have full read/write ownership of the master file and folder.
Any ideas?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I have a master Excel document that was originally created in Office
2003, now living in Office 2004. With the master document open, and I
go to Merge, the document I want to merge into the master is greyed
out. I have full read/write ownership of the master file and folder.
Any ideas?

I've not seen this, so the only thing I can think of is to open the file
to be merged in XL, make a null change (e.g., enter a value in a blank
cell, then delete it), and save the file. This should ensure that Finder
recognizes the file as an XL file.

Have you ensured that things are setup in the way that XL Help's "Set up
a workbook that will be merged" suggests?

 

[pegasus416]

I've not seen this, so the only thing I can think of is to open the file
to be merged in XL, make a null change (e.g., enter a value in a blank
cell, then delete it), and save the file. This should ensure that Finder
recognizes the file as an XL file.

Have you ensured that things are setup in the way that XL Help's "Set up
a workbook that will be merged" suggests?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH! The null value trick worked! Can you briefly
explain why? I have several GB worth of documents I transferred from
a Windows machine, and am wondering f I will need to do this for each
and every file, since most are greyed out as well.

I can't believe how much superior the Mac product is compared to the
Win version.

Thanks again.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH! The null value trick worked! Can you briefly
explain why?

It wasn't the null value, per se - it was that the null value allowed a
save that wrote the file with a Mac XL creator code.

It *might* also work to select a file to be merged in the finder, choose
Get Info, and select XL/Change All in the Open with section.