The impact of Saving in binary format

[Frank Situmorang]

Hello,

To reduce the size, since it runs very slow, my subbordinate save it in
Excel Binay workbook, without my knowledge. Some of the formula does not not
work, so I asked her to change the xls extention in the formula into xlsb,
and it works.

My question is what other aspects that may impact our worksheets. Anyoen can
explain to me what is the difference in function this 2 formats .xls and xlsb

Thanks in advance

 

[ShaneDevenshire]

Hi Frank,

Its not clear to me if you are using Excel 2003 or 2007. Here is a post
that explains some of the advantages in the new 2007 file formats:

New file formats offer numerous advantages
Office 2007 introduces the XML-based Open XML file formats for Word, Excel,
and PowerPoint. These formats offer a number of significant advantages:

More compact size (the files are compressed)
Less chance of corrupted files (components are stored as separate entities,
so if one piece is damaged, the rest of the document is still viable)
Better integration of business information (users can more easily assemble
documents from various data sources, exchange data between Office and other
systems, and publish, locate, and reuse information)
Interoperability (information can be used by any application that can read
and write XML, not just Office apps)
Security (because of the transparent nature of the format, sensitive
information can be readily identified and removed; the format also allows you
to identify, isolate, and manage embedded code and macros)
Compatibility (the .doc, .xls, and .ppt binary formats are compatible with
Office 2007 apps, and users of Office 2000/XP/2003 can install the
Compatibility Pack so that they can open, edit, and save documents in the new
formats)
Open and royalty-free specification
Easier integration (developers have direct access to specific contents
within the file, like charts, comments, and document metadata without having
to parse entire documents)
This MSDN article covers various aspects of the new formats in some detail.

----------------
Excel 2007 stores files with the extension xlsx (amoung others) but these
are really zipped XML files.
If my memory serves me correctly Excel 2003 stores is files with the
extension xls but they are binary.

I'm sure you will get other useful feedback on this topic from others.

 

[Frank Situmorang]

Hi Shane,

Thanks for your extensive explanation. we are using excel 2007. I am only
worried if something happened such as maybe the decimal will disapear or any
other effects as the impact of saving it in xlsb extention.

Because I did a formula in their invoice reports and let them use it I did
not check it in detail. They got a problem of slowness becasue the big size
of the file, so when they changed it to binary format it is fast enough, and
the only problem is the formula result does not come out correctly. What I
did is to ask her to change the extention of xls in the formula into xlsb
extention, and she said the resulst is ok but I am only curious to know if
any other effect of saving it in binary format.

Could you explain what would be the difference of this xls. and xlsb? in
fucntion?

Thanks very much.

 

[Alan]

Hi Shane,

Thanks for your extensive explanation. we are using excel 2007. I am only
worried if something happened such as maybe the decimal will disapear or any
other effects as the impact of saving it in xlsb extention.

Because I did a formula in their invoice reports and let them use it I did
not check  it in detail. They got a problem of slowness becasue the big size
of the file, so when they changed it to binary format it is fast enough, and
the only problem is the formula result does not come out correctly. What I
did is  to ask her to change the extention ofxlsin the formula into xlsb
extention, and she said the resulst is ok but I am only curious to know if
any other effect of saving it in binary format.

Could you explain what would be the difference of thisxls. and xlsb? in
fucntion?

Thanks very much.

--
H. Frank Situmorang








- Show quoted text -

Hi,

I'm afraid that the spread sheet may be damaged already, you'd better
prepare a backup. Once there shows any error, you may need recover the
file. If you still need more help, I think you can look for some
professional services. You may try a utility called Advanced Excel
Repair to repair your Excel xls file. Its web address is
http://www.datanumen.com/aer/ Hope this is useful

 

[Frank Situmorang]

Thanks Alan...for your comments. I need to explain again the background.
There is nothing wrong with the workbook/spreadsheet. The only thing that the
spreadsheet works very slow. So since there is an option to save it on the
..xlsb ( binary format). my subbordintate saved it in binary format. Then I
changed the formula that have xls extention into xlsb..then everthing wroks
faster and fine.

My concern is, since xlsb ( binary format) is new to us, we can only know it
when we update Office 2003 to Office 2007, so I want to know what would be
the risk or the consequences of saving it in binry format. Would the result
of the calculation formula be wrong? or decimal may be wrong.

We appreciate any idea on this.

Thanks in advance