Excel is unable to read a file

[Andrea]

I tried to open an Excel file today that I have opened before, but
when I tried to open it today I got a messge that said "Unable to read
file." I could open other Excel files, but not that one. I tried
restarting the computer, but that didn't help. If you know what I
need to do to fix it so I can open this file, please let me know.
Thank you.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I tried to open an Excel file today that I have opened before, but
when I tried to open it today I got a messge that said "Unable to read
file." I could open other Excel files, but not that one. I tried
restarting the computer, but that didn't help. If you know what I
need to do to fix it so I can open this file, please let me know.
Thank you.

Sounds like your file became corrupted.

If you have access to a windows machine with XL2002/2003, those versions
have advanced features for opening corrupted workbooks.

If you have Appleworks installed, you might try that, or another
spreadsheet such as Mariner Calc.

Otherwise, I've had success opening corrupted workbooks with OpenOffice
(http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/ooo-osx_downloads.html) under
Apple's X11 (unix windowing software -
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/x11/)

It's not a trivial installation, but it works.