asked on Excel Oddity
I have a customer running Excel 2013. She download spreadsheets from her payroll company. When she tries to open the spreadsheet it opens but no data displays. No error. No data. They are .xls (not .xlsx).
I copy the spreadsheet to my computer (Excel 2016) and it opens with the warning "The file format and extension of <filename.xls> don't match, The file could be corrupt. Do you want to open it anyway?" (she said this is normal). I say yes and it opens.
Here is the weird part. As long as I copy the spreadsheet to my computer (I don't even have to open it) and copy it back she can then open it. I don't do anything to it. Just copy it to my computer and turn right around and copy it back. Then she can open it.
She can open all her other spreadsheets just fine (.xlsx). Just not these until I copy them to my computer and copy them back.....
I copy the spreadsheet to my computer (Excel 2016) and it opens with the warning "The file format and extension of <filename.xls> don't match, The file could be corrupt. Do you want to open it anyway?" (she said this is normal). I say yes and it opens.
Here is the weird part. As long as I copy the spreadsheet to my computer (I don't even have to open it) and copy it back she can then open it. I don't do anything to it. Just copy it to my computer and turn right around and copy it back. Then she can open it.
She can open all her other spreadsheets just fine (.xlsx). Just not these until I copy them to my computer and copy them back.....
Microsoft Excel
Last Comment
Ashwin Rayaprolu
When you say "it opens but their is no data" do you mean that you see a blank workbook or the file opens but there is no workbook shown ?
What is the payroll company doing? Is payroll company creating .xls with OpenOffice or QuickBooks or some other program? Do they upload it to some place like Dropbox or something for her to access it and download it? Is she or the payroll company using a Mac? Does it work if payroll company emails a .xls file to her? What versions of Excel is everyone using?
ASKER
No cells and hence no data. The ribbons are there but the body is just a solid light-gray background. No cell divisions either horizontally or vertically. Screen shot attached. Copying them to a different location on her computer doesn't help.
Can't tell you what the Payroll Company is doing. She logs on interactively, generates reports and downloads the reports in .xls format. She is running Windows 10 and Office 2013.
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Can't tell you what the Payroll Company is doing. She logs on interactively, generates reports and downloads the reports in .xls format. She is running Windows 10 and Office 2013.
Capture.PNG
Try going to the 'View' tab and selecting ''New Window' - do you see anything ? If you do then somehow the system generating the workbook has made the workbook's default window indivisible. Let me know.
Also the 'file format doesn't match the extension' warning is commonly shown if the generating system creates the workbook in XLS format but gives it an XLSX extension.
XLS is a (old) binary format and XLSX is in reality a compressed file that contains (amongst other formats) multiple XML files.
XLS is a (old) binary format and XLSX is in reality a compressed file that contains (amongst other formats) multiple XML files.
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ASKER
How annoying. The right-click => Properties => Unblock did the trick. She downloads them to her "Downloads" folder. Anything she can do on a permanent basis so she doesn't have to "Unblock" each and every download?
Other than to use Linux or a Mac, I have no idea.
Hi. I'm not trying to change anything about this question status. Wanted to put some more info here in case it helps generate ideas for dealing with your unblock automation. This is about powershell scripting.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28961072/When-trying-to-export-from-Arena-the-file-is-not-opening-in-Excel.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28961072/When-trying-to-export-from-Arena-the-file-is-not-opening-in-Excel.html
There is an open source code to convert HTML Wrapped file to Excel (xls 2003 format). You can install that and embed that service and improve on it if required as its opensource.
https://github.com/ashwinrayaprolu1984/htmlwrapexcelconverterhttps://github.com/ashwinr
https://github.com/ashwinrayaprolu1984/htmlwrapexcelconverterhttps://github.com/ashwinr
There is an open source code to convert HTML Wrapped file to Excel (xls 2003 format). You can install that and embed that service and improve on it if required as its opensource.
https://github.com/ashwinrayaprolu1984/htmlwrapexcelconverter
https://github.com/ashwinrayaprolu1984/htmlwrapexcelconverter