Excel Opening XLS as Template?

[RD Reynolds]

I am getting XLS documents from a vendor, and they continually open as
"Workbook 1" instead of by their proper file name. I have read up and
it appears this is due to them being templates. Is there any type of
program I can run the files through prior to them hitting Excel so
that they will NOT open as templates? We really need the file names
to carry through, as we get upwards of 200 of them a day...

Any help is MOST appreciated!

RD

 

[Gord Dibben]

If they are *.XLS files they are not Templates.

*.XLT are templates and will open as "templatename1"

i.e. templatename.XLT will open as templatename1, not some generic
"Workbook 1".

The name is not changed except for the appending of the "1"

Can you have another look at the names and extensions?

Post some examples of filenames and extensions.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Dave Peterson]

First, what is a typical name for one of the files you're receiving?

Is it book.xls or book.xlt? If it's .xlt, then tell the sender that they are
saving the file as a template and should stop doing that. They should save the
file as a normal workbook (with the .xls extension).

If you're getting files with the .xls extension and they're being treated as
templates, then I'd bet every file you've saved with a .xls extension is also
being treated like a template file.

If that's true, then you must be opening excel first, then using file|open
(ctrl-o) to open the file to edit (not create based on that file).

If those guesses are good, then it's not the files--it's your pc--how excel and
windows are talking to each other.

Try this first...

Close Excel and
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /unregserver
then
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /regserver

Then test it out.

If that doesn't work...

Close excel
start windows explorer
tools|folder options|file types tab
scroll down to the xls extension
click the advanced button
click on the Open item in the Actions box
click set as default
(ok your way out)

If the default action was set to New (bold indicates default), then that could
have been the problem.

 

[RD Reynolds]

Thanks for all the help. I've not yet found a solution. A bit more
background which I hope will help:

1) This is all being run on a Mac. I apologize, that should have been
mentioned on my first post. We've never had any issue with running
Excel documents, though, and have done so successfully for the past 5
years. This is the first time there's ever been a problem.

2) Files are definitely coming in as .XLS documents, not .XLT. Having
said that, when the file opens, it acts like a template - instead of
saying "filename123" on the top of the spreadsheet in Excel, it will
become "Workbook1", "Workbook2", etc..

3) Unfortunately, there is a system that generates these documents, so
it's not as simple as telling a co-worker to change the way they are
saving them. That is unfortunately not an option.

4) The obvious answer is to simply open the documents and resave them
with the proper file names. However, we get upwards of 200 of these a
day. It's really critical to find some way to automate this process.

Thanks to everyone for their assistance - trust me, it is most
appreciated!!!

RD

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you were on a WinTel machine, I'd still recommend the regserver stuff and if
that didn't work, changing the default action for .xls files.

I don't know enough about Mac's to know if the regserver stuff would apply (do
you feel lucky???).

But I thought that Mac's didn't use extensions -- there was something in the
file that they "preread" to determine what opens it.

Any chance that the sender is actually saving the file as a template--but naming
it with a .xls extension.

If this doesn't help (and I'd be amazed if it did), you should ask in this
newsgroup:

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.mac.office.excel


(Include the version of your OS, excel and anything else that may matter with
Mac's <vbg>.)

 

[RD Reynolds]

The Mac actually will look at things differently based on the
extension. Unfortunately, as the documents are already .xls the Mac
opens it Excel...as a template.

I thank you for your assistance and will definitely post over in the
Mac forum on this.

Thanks again!

RD

 

[Dave Peterson]

Maybe you can try saving a workbook as a template, then rename it to .xls.

See how your Mac handles that.