Excel warns that the file has changed when it hasn't

[Bill]

I have a rather large Excel file, with 15 sheets. I am finding that if I
open and then try to immediately close it, Excel warns "Do you want to
save the changes you made to ..", even though I haven't changed a thing
(or even typed anywhere in the file). What's going on? This is using
Office XP, with SP3 installed.

Bill

 

[Dave Peterson]

Do you have any of these volatile functions in your workbook?

AREAS()
INDEX()
OFFSET()
CELL()
INDIRECT()
ROWS()
COLUMNS()
NOW()
TODAY()
RAND()

These evaluate with each calculation. And cause excel to think your workbook
has changed.

And excel likes to recalculate workbooks created in earlier versions. Is this
the case in your situation?

 

[Bill]

No, I don't have any of those. And while it does appear to have been
saved in an earlier version (when I did a "Save as" the "Save as type"
was 97-2002 and 5.0/95 Workbook), saving it as "Microsoft Excel
Workbook" did not cause the problem to go away when I opened and tried
to close the newly saved version. The good news is the file is smaller .

Also, this problem never existed previously with this file. It's only
after adding a couple more sheets to it, neither of which had anything
fancier than simple links to other sheets.

Bill

 

[Dave Peterson]

Newer versions of excel like to recalculate workbooks that were created in
earlier versions.

If I recall correctly, excel even explains that when it asks about saving the
workbook.

And when you save a workbook in 97-2002 and 5.0/95, you're essentially saving
two copies of that workbook. The version of excel that's running (97-2002 or
5.0/95) is smart enough to open the correct version in that compound document.

 

[Bill]

Thanks for the info about it saving 2 copies. Did not know that.

As for the "file has changed" error, this problem did not occur
previously on the same file, even though it was saved in the dual modes.
And now it's only saved in the default format, and I am still getting
the message.

Bill

 

[Dave Peterson]

Do you have any macros running when the workbook opens (or any other event
macros that could be causing excel to think the workbook needs to be saved)?

I've seen some posts with xl2002 that said that the only way they could get this
prompt to stop was to copy the worksheets to a new workbook and then save that.

I never had to resort to this, though.