"File format is not valid" error when converting t

[lynnie77]

Hello,

I have several users that access an excel file on the share drive. The admin needs to pull this .xls file into a .doc file and is successful by right clicking on the .xls file and going to open with Microsoft Word for Windows. She then saves the file in word on her desktop. When she right clicks on the newly saved .doc file and right clicks and goes to open with Microsoft Word for Windows, she gets the error that "file format is not valid". Is there a way to do this or is excel not able to read the .doc file even tho initially it was a .xls file? The .xls file has 1350 rows.

Thanks!

 

[Joe4]

It certainly appears that you can open Excel files in Word, but you cannot open Word files in Excel (I tested it out myself).

Once you open an Excel file in Word, if you save it in Word, it becomes a Word file. It does not matter that it used to be an Excel file, it only matters what it currently is. As such, you will not be able to open it in Word again.

However, if you open an Excel file in Word and save it as an Excel file, it does NOT overwrite the original Excel file (that will still exist). So you actually end up with two files, one Excel and one Word. Now if you are making changes in Word before saving it, then obviously those changes will not be reflected in the original Excel file.

Of course, this begs the question, why are they opening this file in Word in the first place if it starts out as an Excel file and you inevitably want it to be an Excel file at the end?