More wierd behavior

[Sj]

I'm using Excel:Mac 2001 on a beige G3 w/ OS 9. However, I was previously using Office 98 and had upgraded to OS 9.2.2 on the same computer. Now the weird behavior: I've been using the same 2 workbooks for several years for financial records - just adding a new page each month. The only formulas I use are totaling columns. Out of nowhere I began having trouble w/ the dates, first in one workbook then the other. It started on the current page and then spread to all of the pages. There are 2 columns for dates. They suddenly showed only ####'s. I tried changing the formatting to other ways of displaying the dates, but nothing helped. After about a week, when I opened the workbooks all I had were gray pages. The names are there at the bottom, the program asks if it should update the one workbook w/ current info from the other (there's one cell linked), but there's nothing but a light gray color. No grid, no words.

Thinking that the problem had been with the Office 98 program, I upgraded to 2001 and started my records all over again. They lasted about 2 mos. and then the same thing happened again. This time I noticed that I also lost the automatic date in the header. Now when I opened it today, I have just gray pages again in the one workbook and can guarantee that I'll lose the other workbook soon.

I've been all through the Knowledge Base, but I can't find anything even remotely similar. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[J.E. McGimpsey]

I've been all through the Knowledge Base, but I can't find anything even
remotely similar. Does anyone have any ideas?

Sounds like a severely corrupted workbook, which wouldn't
necessarily be surprising if it's been used as long as you've said.

My first suggestion would be to, if you have someone with
WinOffice2002/2003 available, open and do a SaveAs with those
platforms - they have some advanced capability for opening corrupt
workbooks. I'd also suggest saving then reading back in as XML,
since that gets rid of all XL file format garbage.

An alternative that has worked well for me in the past is using
OpenOffice to read, then do a Save As. Unfortunately OpenOffice
requires (IIRC) OS X.

A third alternative would be to, in XL01, save the workbook as
HTML/Web Page. Close the file, then read the HTML file back into XL.
This will eliminate your formulas, but if all they are is column
totals, it should be easy to reconstruct (and I suspect that
previous months may not require even that).

I would also rename my Microsoft preferences folder, just for good
measure, and bring back only those components I really needed.

 

[Guest]

I think i know this person,he aint weird.is not a
junkie,i think he is very confused to who you all are.Hes
frustrated wityh computer stuff because if he dont do it
right everyone assumes he is weird behavoiur.Nope just
wants to see who freinds are and get on to bigger and
better things,with you all.

-----Original Message-----
I'm using Excel:Mac 2001 on a beige G3 w/ OS 9. However,

I was previously using Office 98 and had upgraded to OS
9.2.2 on the same computer. Now the weird behavior: I've
been using the same 2 workbooks for several years for
financial records - just adding a new page each month.
The only formulas I use are totaling columns. Out of
nowhere I began having trouble w/ the dates, first in one
workbook then the other. It started on the current page
and then spread to all of the pages. There are 2 columns
for dates. They suddenly showed only ####'s. I tried
changing the formatting to other ways of displaying the
dates, but nothing helped. After about a week, when I
opened the workbooks all I had were gray pages. The names
are there at the bottom, the program asks if it should
update the one workbook w/ current info from the other
(there's one cell linked), but there's nothing but a
light gray color. No grid, no words.

Thinking that the problem had been with the Office 98

program, I upgraded to 2001 and started my records all
over again. They lasted about 2 mos. and then the same
thing happened again. This time I noticed that I also
lost the automatic date in the header. Now when I opened
it today, I have just gray pages again in the one
workbook and can guarantee that I'll lose the other
workbook soon.

I've been all through the Knowledge Base, but I can't

find anything even remotely similar. Does anyone have any
ideas?

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi

In OS 8 and 9 it is up to you to manage the memory allocation to
applications. In OSX this is handled automatically, so upgrading may be a
good idea for you.

It sounds like as you gradually added to the workbooks you eventually hit
the limit of the memory allocation in Excel. If you keep adding worksheets
you'll need to add some preferred RAM in Finder's get info every once in a
while.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

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