Excel 04 won't open Excel 07 Boot Camp file

[Stan The Man]

I'm having trouble opening Excel files created on my own computer. My
new Intel iMac has Office 2004 running under Os 10.5.1 and Office 2007
running in Boot Camp under WinXP sp2. In Windows, I saved a very basic
Excel spreadsheet and then booted into MacOs and dragged the file out
of the Windows partition onto my Mac desktop. But Excel 2004 didn't
recognise it and only opened it as a text file full of gibberish.

I haven't had any problems before when opening Excel spreadsheets sent
to me by Windows users so I guess I've done something wrong. Thanks for
any help.

Stan

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Stan - for clarity, you're literally using *2* separate computers - one
is a Mac, the other is a Windows PC, even though they're both running on the
same hardware

Now, just in case you missed one of the most significant aspects of Office
2007, it's default file formats are radically different form *any* Office
file format previously used. These are zipped XML-based file "packages" that
cannot inherently be opened by any previous version of the programs. So, you
need to do either of 3 things:

Go to the Mactopia web site (or one of several other sources) and download
the necessary filters that will allow 2004 to open the .xlsx files, or

Save copies of the files from within Excel 2007 explicitly choosing the Save
As option for Excel 97/2003 (.xls), or

Wait until you upgrade to Office 2008 on the Mac side which will use the
same formats as Office 2007.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[JE McGimpsey]

For further clarification -

- MS hasn't released a converter that converts .xlsx files (yet). So
going to MacTopia's a waste of time.

- The converter that they HAVE released doesn't allow Office 2004 apps
to open the Open XML files. It's a stand-alone application that converts
Word and PowerPoint Open XML files to .doc/.ppt files, which can then be
opened by Word/PPT 04.

NeoOffice and iWorks Numbers can both open .xlsx files.

 

[Stan The Man]

Thank you, Bob. Looks like Save As in Office 2007 is the answer for now
then. I didn't consider the niceties of Office 2007, you're right - I
always want to get in and out of Windows as quickly as I possibly can
and it takes me eons to figure out even how to do the most simple
things in there.

What I don't understand is how I haven't run into the .xlsx problem
before because I receive lots of Excel files from Windows users and
Office 2004 has always opened them fine. I don't know what version of
Excel they're all using but some of them have got to be running Office
2007. So have all Office 2007 users learned to Save As when
distributing a spreadsheet? Otherwise, why have I never received a
..xlsx file?

Stan
PS. How long before Mac Office 2008 ships? I was browsing the Mactopia
support FAQs yesterday and there are paragraphs in there giving
instructions specifically to Office 2008 users -- but no reference to
it yet on the product pages...

 

[JE McGimpsey]

What I don't understand is how I haven't run into the .xlsx problem
before because I receive lots of Excel files from Windows users and
Office 2004 has always opened them fine. I don't know what version of
Excel they're all using but some of them have got to be running Office
2007. So have all Office 2007 users learned to Save As when
distributing a spreadsheet? Otherwise, why have I never received a
.xlsx file?

Many XL07 users have chosen "Excel 97-2003 Workbook" as their default
file format (in Options/Save).

PS. How long before Mac Office 2008 ships? I was browsing the Mactopia
support FAQs yesterday and there are paragraphs in there giving
instructions specifically to Office 2008 users -- but no reference to
it yet on the product pages...

It's released on Tuesday (15 January 2008).

 

[CyberTaz]

For further clarification -

- MS hasn't released a converter that converts .xlsx files (yet). So
going to MacTopia's a waste of time.

- The converter that they HAVE released doesn't allow Office 2004 apps
to open the Open XML files. It's a stand-alone application that converts
Word and PowerPoint Open XML files to .doc/.ppt files, which can then be
opened by Word/PPT 04.

NeoOffice and iWorks Numbers can both open .xlsx files.

Thanks for the pickup, John! I was thinking the latest MS converters *did*
include Excel & couldn't get to the Mactopia site to confirm... Not to
mention the quandary of everybody else having the conversion capability%~}

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac