Personal.xls in Excel 2007

[Peter K]

I used to have in previous office versions an XLstart folder uinder the
Office10 folder, containing Personal.xsl as well as two templates, sheet.xsl
& Book.xsl.

The templates apparently were moved with the 2007 installation to
C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates. (For simplicity, I'll
call this Pathxx\Templates.) The Perrsonal.xsl is in the Office12\XlStart
folder. In addition there appeares a Personal.xlsb (Binary?) in
Pathxx\Excel, the xlsb file being 50kB, compared to the xls file being 35 kB.
There are also several shortcuts to these files, I assume, some leftover &
redundant.

Anytime I try to open an Excel file, I get an error message: "Excel cannot
open file Personal.xslB because the file format or the file extensionis not
valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file
extension matches the format of the file." The same error has also been
given for the .XLS file.

Since I have another machine running Office 2007, I copied the .XLS file
from there. Since it works there, I'm sure it's not corrupted.

What is wrong & what is the correct file type & file location for
Personal.xls in Office 2007? (Unfortunately, no info in Excel help.)

(Both machines run under Vista Ultimate.)

Any advice will be appreciated.

Peter K

 

[Bob Phillips]

The file type is xlsb and mine is in

C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART

--
---
HTH

Bob


(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)

 

[Peter K]

Thxs, Bob.

You are apparently still under Win XP. My copy of the .xlsb file is in the
corresponding Vista folder.

Based on your reply, I had an idea: I deleted all personal.xls files,
including shortcuts, except for the one in the Office 12\Xlstart folder.

Then I opened a new document, opened Visual Basic & that personal.xls file,
still .xls, not xlsx, was there. I made a minor change in it (dummy change
would be OK.) As I saved it, in the project pane 'personal.xls' changed to
'personal.xls (persoal.xlsb)', implying the .xlsb file had been created.

I doubt that it really is a binary file & I have no idea why MS would want
to save the personal.xl* file in binary form or why they use the file
exension for binary files.

However, doing this got rid of the error messages, implying incorrect file
type &/or a corrupted file.

Thxs again, Peter K

 

[Bob Phillips]

Thxs, Bob.

You are apparently still under Win XP. My copy of the .xlsb file is in
the
corresponding Vista folder.

Based on your reply, I had an idea: I deleted all personal.xls files,
including shortcuts, except for the one in the Office 12\Xlstart folder.

Indeed I am, and that is the way it is going to stay. I see no reason to go
Vista.

Then I opened a new document, opened Visual Basic & that personal.xls
file,
still .xls, not xlsx, was there. I made a minor change in it (dummy
change
would be OK.) As I saved it, in the project pane 'personal.xls' changed
to
'personal.xls (persoal.xlsb)', implying the .xlsb file had been created.

I doubt that it really is a binary file & I have no idea why MS would want
to save the personal.xl* file in binary form or why they use the file
exension for binary files.

I would think it is, the binary file type loads much faster, and is useful
for that purpose.

 

[shjco]

The file type is xlsb and mine is in

C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART

--

Bob-

I got this working OK with some help from Microsoft last June when I bought
a new computer and upgraded to Office 2007 (XP Pro OS), but a mounth or so
ago it quit loading with startup of Excel. I tried your suggestion putting
the personal.xlsb file in C:\Documents and Settings\Shephen H.
Jones\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART but it still didn't work. So
I tried it in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART anbd it still didn't work. I have to manually
load it each time. Also it will not run any macros in it using buttons I add
to the Quick Access tool bar, so I always have to use F8 and search for the
macro name (pain in the butt!).

Any suggestions?

Steve J.