I cannot open xlsx files with Excel 2003 even with the 2007 compatibility pack

hi, in office 2007 when saving a document choose "save as" and save the document as 97 - 2003 format. this will enable office 2003 version to open the files.

im not sure about the formulas being different, if you can save as 2003 format then maybe they are the same, hope this is of some help.

Thank you Michko & Matt Prime,

I have asked the sender to save the files as Excel 2003 and we are able to see them; but the problem is that he is a distributor that creates one form for all of his customers (we are one of them) and sends the same file to everyone. According to him, we are the only ones who have asked to resave the files as xls.

As for the form being created in Beta version; I don't thnk so, they have a full version of Office 2007 Pro and like I said, we were able to open files from him until next week.
Also, the spreadsheet we received this week was created on Monday.

Thanks,

Then if the converter won't convert it to a format that can be opened by your version, and the sender can't save in an earlier version, then I only see two options - either purchase a version of Excel 2007 (just buy Office 2007), or try OpenOffice.  Sorry, but there really aren't any other options.

another thought, do you have the lates office service pack? its available from microsoft update and may help you. i believe it is SP1.

Matt Prime,

We have Office 2003 SP3; the SP1 that just came out is for 2007, which we don't have and that's why this thread is here today.

Thank you,

oh yes of course, sorry got this thread mixed up with another.....

i cant think of any reason why the converter would suddenly stop working, have you tried reinstalling office or the converter. other than this im at a loss

see whether this helps

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/42a75e09-a6e1-4c0f-b77a-dcfa5b6f11c51033.mspx?mfr=true

Shasunder,

Thanks for the above link; I don't have Office 2007. Is there a similar tool for Office 2003?

Matt Prime,
It turns out the files were corrupted and we could not open them even with Office 2007.
Thanks for the help and the ideas.

Experts Exchange,

I have run into the same issue as user above except we access these excel files from a website is the solution the same to save file locally to open or is there another solution to be able to view excel spreadsheets from site?

Thanks
cortiz69

cortiz:
after I closed the discussion went into Microsoft's website and it turned out they were aware of the issue and were working on a SP to correct it.
First, download and install the compatibility pack: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en
Then, download and install the SP1:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9a1822c5-49c6-47bd-8bec-0d68693ca564&DisplayLang=en

I don't know if it works the same accessing files through the web but I assume it will work.

Let me know how it goes.

cortiz69 - rather than add a comment to a question that has been closed, you should ask a new question.
michko

Experts Exchange,

We are able to open files if saved to local drive, but if we attempt to open from site we get converter failed to open error message.

Thanks
Cortiz69

do you get a pop window with error: Document Converter failed to open file?

I think the problem gets solved by downloading the SP1.
do that and try to open it again. Let me know what happens.