“File format not valid”

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Someone in our office modified two existing Excel spreadsheets, he saved the changes, and then attached both spreadsheets to an email message. Now, neither the original spreadsheets or the attachments can be opened. The error message reads:
“file name.xls: file format not valid.”

It won’t be too much work to recreate the spreadsheets because they are based on a simple template. However, I would like to know if the user may have mistakenly done something that created the problem.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

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Were the origina workbooks on a diskette. If so – sorry, look for backup.

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Hello Bob,

The two original spreadsheets are stored on the “C” drive of the user’s computer. Just like the attachments, these two files are not accessible any longer. Luckily, the files are quite simple and are based on an existing template, so re-creation is just as easy as recovery.

I just want to know if the error is avoidable in the future or was it just an unexplanable SNAFU.

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I doubt if it is possible to ascertain how the files became corrupt, maybe your friend did something in error or maybe there just happened to be a glitch in the system as he saved the files.

The error may not be avoidable but the consequences can be, or at least minimised, by Backing Up everything important.

Regards

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Thanks for your response. I am glad to find out that there wasn’t any particular “error” on our part.

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