Microsoft Software Compatibility

I have just seen an example of a motorhome user who presumably is using a later version of MS Office and says he is not being able to open a previous version ie:xls format.

If he is using MS Office, or the Free Online Excel (in Outlook) or Libre Office these will all open xls and the later xlsx file and then can be saved as such.   It has just taken me all of 2 minutes to perform this.    

I wonder how many people pass emails back and two for this reason?

Hi  

roli wrote:I have just seen an example of a motorhome user who presumably is using a later version of MS Office and says he is not being able to open a previous version ie:xls format.

 
Ahh! As someone who uses it heavily on a daily basis I could go into a rant and say how much I hate MS Office but I’ll resist the temptation. How Microsoft ever got this pile of junk accepted as the standard office suite I’ll never understand.
 
The latest version of Excel should of course open an .xls file but there is a fair chance that it’s been corrupted. Odd how MS Office comes up with “This file is corrupted” and “unrecoverable” or just sits there doing nothing while the file opens quite happily in Libre Office. Save it again in the MS format and it’s OK. It happens to my colleagues and I on a regular basis. 
 

roli wrote:If he is using MS Office, or the Free Online Excel (in Outlook) or Libre Office these will all open xls and the later xlsx file and then can be saved as such. It has just taken me all of 2 minutes to perform this.

 
Or better still just keep using Libre Office.
 
Since my lords and masters require documents in MS format, I’ve taken to using Libre Office to create the documents and then convert them to the equivalent MS file at the end. It saves a lot of time and hassle.
 

roli wrote:I wonder how many people pass emails back and two for this reason?.

 
Just in my environment quite a few.


Brod

This post was pointed at someone who possibly comes on here Brod.  SWMBO does in fact use Libre Office which will open anything for free

brodco wrote: 
Since my lords and masters require documents in MS format, I’ve taken to using Libre Office to create the documents and then convert them to the equivalent MS file at the end. It saves a lot of time and hassle.
Brod

When the company I worked for 'merged' with another, we had to stop using Lotus Approach and 1-2-3 and switch to MS Access and Excel.
The Lotus programmes were far better than the MS ones - in my view.

Frank

I can't understand why anyone even uses Windoze, never mind M$ Office.

Maybe because MS has such a tight control over what is bundled in with the price of a new PC that it's quite difficult to buy one without Windows already on it? And the fact that MS has a history of bundling a "free" copy of Office with some versions of Windows?

Several years ago there was a period when it was easier to buy PCs with another OS installed (Ubuntu being the main alternative IIRC) but that quickly died out - allegedly because MS responded by making things difficult for any PC manufacturer that did it - though i've never seen any independent confirmation of that!

To be fair, I am still running XP, and Access.

Try this, worked for me when customers send me .xls files

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

And if you think MS is bad, Apple is a joke !!