Something changed but I didn't do it.

[Frustrated in AL]

I am trying to import an excel spreadsheet that has identical "headers" to
the previous 46 spreadsheets that were imported to an existing table. As
soon as I select the current excel spreadsheet, the Import Spreadsheet Wizard
informs me,

"The first rown contains some data that can't be used for valid Access Field
names. In these cases, the wizard will automatically assign vallid field
names.".

When I click "OK" and proceed with the import, with "Column Headers" and
selecting the existing table, the Import Spreadsheet Wizard informs me,

"An error occurred trying to import file'....'. The file was not imported.".

I have tried cutting and pasting the header row from a spreadsheet that has
already been imported, copying and pasting the headers from Access in the
design view and importing without the header row 9this resulted in not being
able to import to the existing table).

Can anyone give me some idea what I can do to fix this?

Thank you in advance for your time.

 

[Jerry Whittle]

Try cutting and pasting the entire worksheet into a new spreadsheet.

 

[Frustrated in AL]

Same Result.

Try cutting and pasting the entire worksheet into a new spreadsheet.

 

[Jeanette Cunningham]

Open the worksheet and carefully select only the cells in the columns you
want to import.
Make sure you don't select any cells from columns that may look empty, but
are not columns that you want to import.
Copy the selection to a new xl file, make sure you have the correct headers,
save and try the import again.

Jeanette Cunningham

 

[Frustrated in AL]

I highlighted just the applicable data, saved it to a seperate xl file and
got the same results. This is very frustrating because I have changed
nothing in the format of the Access or Excel files to cause this issue.

 

[gllincoln]

Hi Al,

This is starting to sound like a twilight zone feeling...

OK - let's try using my favorite next to last resort trick to get past
Excel's gremlins - Copy then Paste Special, Values Only. (my last resort is
to write a little VBA routine that cell by cell exports the data into a tsv
file format and I import that. That *works* ... but it's
expensive/time-consuming to do it.)

Open a new workbook, kill all but the first page. Save it (just one blank
sheet - no entries at all).
Now go to a sheet that worked - copy just the header row (column
names) -nothing past the rightmost column where there is a column name.
Right click on cell A1, select Paste Special, ValuesOnly, and paste that
into your new workbook. Now save the sheet to a new name.

Try to import. It should whine about no records found but it should not
complain about the field names.

If that works - go to the troublesome child spreadsheet - carefully
highlight only the live data. Nothing past the last row where there is data,
nothing past the last column where there is data, and ABSOLUTELY AVOID the
header row. Copy that and paste special values only that information into
your new spreadsheet at A2.

Save to a new name -

Knock on wood, say three Hail Mary's, bow towards Mecca five times. and try
to import this new version of the data.

If you follow these instructions carefully and this doesn't work - time to
give up computers and go shopping instead. <grin>

Hope this helps....
Gordon