"Excel found unreadable content"

[Arthurphil]

Hi,

I'm having real issues with Excel 2007, that my company IT guys don't seem
to be able to solve.

I run quite a large Excel document with about 25 different sheets, that on a
monthly basis I have to collate and then copy and paste various contents into
seperate Excel documents and then email to differing customers. The issue
occurs when I cut and paste into the seperate document, it will work fine and
then it pastes "blank". If I then save the document and re-open I get the
following messages

"Excel found unreadable content in "filename.xlsx". Do you want to recover
the contents..... yes or no"

Followed by

"Excel unable to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable
content.
-Removed records: styles from /xl/styles.xml part (styles)
Repaired records: format from /xl/styles.xml part (stlyes)"

The document then opens with no formating/styles at all. Initially I didn't
understand what styles were so researched and thought that it was because I
had reached the 4000 styles limit, so recreated the initial document and
created 10 styles that covered everything that I needed. This solved the
problem for a while but it has now reared its ugly head again and I have just
lost a huge amount of information. Sorry this isn't brief but please help!

 

[Jan Karel Pieterse]

Hi Arthurphil,

Could you perhaps email me a small version of the file that exhibits the
problem?

(email address at the bottom of each page of my website)

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com
Member of:
Professional Office Developer Association
www.proofficedev.com

 

[Arthurphil]

Hi Jan,

Thank you for your response. I think I may have found the answer- I have
saved the original document and the new document as an XML file and it seems
to have resolved the problem- for now.

If I find that the issue comes back at a later date, could I contact you via
your email and send you through a small file?

 

[Jan Karel Pieterse]

Hi Philip,

Your problem is caused by the copying process. I suspect this is a combination
of a bug in Excel 2007 and the formatting of your file.

To prevent your problem from happening, I suggest to streamline the formatting
of the source file(s) so the formatting is as consistent as you can get it (use
one font, use no borders, use just the bare minimum in colors).

Also I'd suggest to do the formatting after the copying: copy the data and do a
paste-special, values and then copy the formatting from the previous sheet in
the same file.

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
JKP Application Development Services
The Netherlands
Chamber of Commerce # 12052177
http://www.jkp-ads.com
Phone: +31 495 750546
Mobile: +31 648 628252
Founding member of:
Professional Office Developers Association
http://www.ProOfficeDev.com

 

[Ruud Duits]

Dear Jan Karel Pieterse,

I have a similar but different error. Instead of styles and format I get
the following message:

In Dutch
Verwijderde records: gedeelde formule van het onderdeel ... sheet2.xls
verijderde records: formule van het onderdeel /xl/calcchain.xml
(berekeningseigenschappen)

Translated:
Removed records: shared formulas from xl/worksheets/sheet2.xml
Removed records: formula from /xl/calcChain.xml (calculation ...)

I have zipped the the file and looked at the specific sheet 2. I was able to
see the sheet before and after the error occurred. In the specific open XML
sheet I found that the formula was translated in an "shared formula" in
another cell.

- <c r="I35" s="272">
<f t="shared" si="14" />
<v>-300</v>

Looking at that cell I found the formula back with a statement like this.

- <c r="I42" s="274">
<f t="shared" ref="I42:I46" si="14">G42-Q42</f>
<v>0</v>
</c>

But it seems that I42:I46 refers to a range and cell I35 is not in that range.

Could this be a known Excel 2007 problem and is there a known solution?

The error message is making my reports unreliable because formulas are set
to values.

Hope you can offer me al solution.

thanks in advance.

Ruud Duits
The Netherlands

 

[Jan Karel Pieterse]

Hi Ruud,

But it seems that I42:I46 refers to a range and cell I35 is not in that range.

Could this be a known Excel 2007 problem and is there a known solution?

This probably implies your file is corrupt somehow.
I'd run the file through a save-as to Excel 2003 format, see if that helps.

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com
Member of:
Professional Office Developer Association
www.proofficedev.com