Reading Vista files from XP

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djw

We have just started receiving Excel files from others that were created
using a MS Vista version of Excel. The file extension is XLS.

When we try to open the files using our XP version of Excel, the program
crashes.

I am wondering what can be done so that Excel files can be exchanged between
the 2 operating systems?

Clearly this must be a well known problem, but I have had no success
stumbling on the answer.

Thanks..................Dave
 
The operating systems have nothing to do with the files. The files are
created by Excel. There is no MS Vista version of Excel. There are several
versions of Excel, Excel 95, 97, 2000, 2002 (XP), 2003 and 2007. Excel 2007
has its own file format, .xlsx but can create files compatible with previous
versions of Excel, i.e. .xls. The version of Excel that is running has
nothing to do with the operating system. Your problem lies elsewhere, not
with the operating systems.

Tyro
 
Office 2007 has features not present in Office 2003. If you want 100%
compatibility, your customer should not use those features and save the
files to be sent to you in Office 2003 formats. Otherwise you'll have to get
Office 2007. Office files saved as, or converted to, PDF files are not
Office files and have nothing to do with Office. They are PDF files for use
with programs such as Adobe.

Tyro
 
Bernard ---

Thank you for your response. I have done what you suggested, and as I
suspected, it added the 2007 file formats to Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
That is very helpful, and is exactly the solution I was looking for in my
original posting.

What it didn't do was solve our problem - which I now understand to be
somewhat different than a simple file conversion problem.

Here is what has happened. We have a customer who has sent us an EMail with
3 attachments, 2 MS Word documents and 1 Excel file.

We are running MS Office 2002 SP3. Our customer is running Vista, so I
assume they are running Office 2007 (??).

The files we were sent had the familiar file extensions - XLS and DOC (not
xlsx).

When we go to open the files (directly from the Email attachment), the
correct software is automatically started (either Excel or Word), and the
document is read in - at least enough for the program to display the data
from the file, as the first screen of data is displayed. Then, before there
is a chance to do anything (one or two seconds after the file is displayed
on the screen), we get the "Microsoft Excel has encountered a problem and
needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." message with the offer
to send in an error report.

This same crash happens with both Word and Excel.

When the originator re-creates the files using the PDF format, they arrive
fine and we can view them.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help!....................Dave
 
Theoretically, Excel 2003 should not "crash", it generally should give an
error. Let's say you use an Excel 2007 function and send that back to
Excel 2003. In that case Excel 2003 should give a #NAME error as it does not
recognize the function name. However, in this imperfect world, anything
might happen. In Excel 2007 you can have any number of conditional formats
and in Excel 2003, you can have only 3. So I don't know what would happen
in that case. I have not played with sending Office 2007 files back to
previous versions. I use Office 2007. I have brought my Office 2003 files
into Office 2007 with no problems. My custom menus and toolbars are
maintained, albeit in slightly different formats.

Tyro
 
Tyro ---

Thank you for your response. Yes, I understand what you are saying and
agree.

What we seem to have here however, is a file that was saved as an XLS file
(presumably, a 2002 / 2003 compatible file format), that causes Excel 2002
to crash when the file is opened.

Are you saying that the user could be using a 2007 specific feature that
would somehow survive into an XLS file and cause Excel 2002 to crash when
the file was opened?

And, remember, I am having exactly the same problem with 2 MS Word files -
Word crashes in exactly the same way when either of the 2 DOC files are
opened.

..................Dave
 
I am wondering if you have found the solution to this issue. I also need to know how its done.



Posted as a reply to:

Reading Vista files from XP

We have just started receiving Excel files from others that were created
using a MS Vista version of Excel. The file extension is XLS

When we try to open the files using our XP version of Excel, the program
crashes

I am wondering what can be done so that Excel files can be exchanged between
the 2 operating systems

Clearly this must be a well known problem, but I have had no success
stumbling on the answer

Thanks..................Dave

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Vista is an operating system and has nothing to do with Excel.

I think you mean Excel 2007 from Office 2007 running under Vista OS

Excel 2007 files are saved as *.XLSX extension.

File extension of XLS means they were created in a version earlier than
Excel 2007 or saved in 2007 as 2003 version files

You should have no problem opening *.XLS files.

If the extension is actually XLSX there is a compatibility pack download you
can install.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923505


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP
 
In that case you should not have started a new thread, just follow up with
the other one.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP
 
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