Error message when attempting to set up an Excel workspace

[Chris Cullen]

I am trying to save four Excel workbooks as a Workspace. When I press the
Save button I get an error message that says "This extension cannot be used
with the selected file type. Change the file extension in the File text name
box or select a different file type by changing the Save as type.

The only option in Save As is Workspaces.


All four workbooks are saved as .xlsx files. Have I saved the workbooks in
the wrong format to use to create a workspace?

Thanks for any help.

 

[JLatham]

Obviously Excel 2007 - from the problem description and mention of .xlsx files.

I've encountered the same thing, as have others. It appears that it wants
to save the workspace to a SharePoint server. I haven't found the cure for
it to get it to save as a workspace like previous versions. Maybe someone
smarter than me will come along and enlighten us both. But I wanted you to
know that you're not alone on this one.

 

[Ben Martin]

I have look all over the web with no luck in finding out how this can be done
without having to use SharePoint 2007. JLatham, were you able to communicate
with anyone on why this is doing this an possibly how it could be fixed?

I can easily download SharePoint 2007 180 day trial, but there should be no
need to have to have that to use the workspace feature.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[JLatham]

Actually I hadn't looked very deeply into this. I can't recall when I've
ever used the workspace feature for myself - although i can see where it
would be useful. I'd only checked out the process in 2007 when I saw a
couple of other complaints like Chris Cellen's and wanted to verify that
going thru the Excel instructions led to this brick wall.
I'll nose around a bit and see what I can find out, but I don't know how
long that might take.

 

[Chris Cullen]

Thank you for checking into it. I am helping a family member go through an
academic tutorial for a graduate program and the step-by-step instructions
are turned in for a grade. One of the steps is to demonstrate how I was able
to use the Workspace feature. I was very surprised when I was unable to do it
(and I am 100% sure that I did not make an error in the process that got me
to the point where I could not save the four worksheets as a Workspace).

Thanks for any help.

 

[JLatham]

One thing your family member may want to do at this point is to contact the
instructor/tutorial creator and explain the problem, and explain that it has
been replicated by others in Excel 2007 and ask "how is it done!??". See if
the instructor can come up with a way (or remove the task from the
tutorial/class).

 

[JLatham]

Everything I am reading about the Workspace in Excel 2007 points to the
requirement for SharePoint. It appears that you might (I emphasize might) be
able to use Office Live as a location for the workspace.

It appears that this is yet another move away from the concept of Excel
being a 'personal' tool and instead being viewed by Microsoft as being more
group/net-centric in its use. If you look at the additions to the mainstream
applications in Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) you will notice that the
enhancements to facilitate collaboration far outnumber the actual
enhancements to basic functional areas of the application. In this case, it
looks like Microsoft has abandoned the individual completely. I could be
wrong, but it sure looks this way. It looks even more like it when you
consider that to 'save' a workspace, you don't use the Save or Save As
options under File, but instead you use the "Publish" option.

BTW:

 

[Bholt12]

Has anyone had sucess with this? Trying to save a workspace, excel
2007, valid file name. Thanks.

 

[JLatham]

TaDa!!!
We've all been looking in the wrong place. How dare us think that we would
save a workspace using any of the File Save options ;-)

Excel 2007: View Tab, in the Window group you'll actually find a button
labeled, oddly enough "Save Workspace" - and it does what we've all been
trying to do.

See also: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP102500511033.aspx

 

[JLatham]

I'll echo this here so hopefully you won't miss the answer:
See http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP102500511033.aspx

So basically, for the "old" save as workspace function, you choose the
[View] tab in Excel 2007, then use the "Save Workspace" in the Window group
in it.

Took a web search to find that because all routes to "workspace" in Excel
help led to the Publish as Document workspace stuff, which was doing none of
us any good at all.

 

[JLatham]

Ben, I've found the solution:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP102500511033.aspx
We've been looking at the wrong "workspace".

 

[Chris Cullen]

I wish this were the solution but I am still unsuccessful at saving
workbooks as a workspace.

I am ONLY using the View/Windows/Workspace feature (I have no earlier
versions). When I click on the Save Workspace button ...that is where the
problem is. A box pops up (titles Save Workspaces) and the only Save As type
option is Workspaces. No matter what name I save as I always get the same
error message (see original post).

 

[JLatham]

Then I'm at a loss for the moment, I thought you were (as I had been for a
while) trying to save using the Publish option from the Office Button. This
method did work for me, although to be truthful, I believe the files I tested
with (2 of them) were probably .xlsm files with macros in them vs .xlsx files.

 

[grits]

Chris, I am having the exact same problem. And I'm also doing this
for an online course. My instructor suggested contacting Microsoft
and see what they suggest...but go ahead and turn in the project
without that minor detail added.

 

[Erik Shrapnell EVRARD]

Exactly the same issue for one of my users.

we save the workspace the right way but end with the same error message.

 

[efrance]

I tried saving my workspace using the view tab, to no avail. I found that
the .xlw file format is the old Excel 4 file format which Microsoft says you
can open but you cannot save to. I think they have a file format conflict
because the only available option for saving a workspace is the .xlw format.

 

[dmerritt]

One of my users had this problem show up about a month or so ago. After
digging around I discovered that the problem is linked to the Microsoft
update found at '(KB 969682)' (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969682).


To fix it there are 2 options that I found.

One is to simply uninstall the update from the computer. That worked
for me. But I wasn't keen on leaving the security hole that the update
was to repair.

The other is to reinstall Office 2007. I found out that if you
uninstall Office 2007 and reinstall, then apply all updates, even
KB969682, with Office 2007 Service Pack 2, the problem is corrected.

I hope this helps you all.

 

[btoller]

Having seen these posts, i just decided to check Windows Update and download
the latest Service Pack (SP2) for Office, and voila! that solved the
Workspace problem right away. I did not uninstall Office 2007 first.

 

[dmerritt]

Having seen these posts, i just decided to check Windows Update an
download
the latest Service Pack (SP2) for Office, and voila! that solved the
Workspace problem right away. I did not uninstall Office 2007 first.

Yep, I tried that out yesterday to see if it would work since I hav
about 40 workstations that were affected by this problem. And sur
enough it fixed the problem. I was glad to know that all that needed t
be done was apply SP2 rather than reinstalling Office and then applyin
updates. So 1 batch file later the computers are now updated an
working