Excel 2007 Compatibility Issues

A reader called to say he bought a new PC with MSOffice 2007, which includes Excel 2007. His previous spreadsheet program had been an older version of MSWorks. The reader had two questions: "How do I get my old MSWorks spreadsheet files onto my new computer? And how can I open them in Excel 2007?"

Well, the easiest way to get files from an old computer to a new one is to copy them onto an external USB hard drive or flash memory device, from which they can be copied onto the new PC. Sending files as email attachments also works if the files are not too large.

In the caller’s case, however, the bigger problem was likely to be the lack of compatibility between old MSWorks spreadsheet files and Excel 2007. Previous versions of Excel could open most MSWorks spreadsheets by clicking File>Open, and choosing an MSWorks version from the "Files of Type" list at the bottom of the page. Sadly, however, Excel 2007 does not recognize all MSWorks spreadsheet files.

Well, the best workaround I’ve found is to use Google Spreadsheets to help forward the files. Go to docs.google.com and click on Docs & Spreadsheets, where you will be invited to create word processing and/or spreadsheet files that are compatible with Microsoft and WordPerfect applications. After creating a blank Google spreadsheet, go to the target spreadsheet on your old computer (whether it was made with Works, Excel, QuattroPro, Lotus 1-2-3, or whatever) and mouse-select the entire file. Then do Edit>Copy (or Ctrl+C).

Next, click into the upper-left Google Spreadsheet cell (A1) and do Edit>Paste (or Ctrl+V). This will paste your copied spreadsheet into the online blank Google page. Now open Excel 2007 on the new computer and log onto Google Docs & Spreadsheets. At this point you will re-trace the above steps to copy the spreadsheet from Google and paste it into Excel 2007.

Of course, the above steps are contingent upon being able to get online with both your old and new computer. If they are not both currently connected to the Internet, you can temporarily swap your cable or phone line from one PC to the other.

All the above also applies to compatibility issues among different word processing programs, such as MSWord, WordPerfect, Wordpad, and the MSWorks text processor. However, copying and pasting files from one application into another does not work properly in all cases. Relatively simple and basic word processing documents and spreadsheet files should give you no trouble, but pages with complex formatting may not come out looking exactly like the originals. You may occasionally have to redo formatting in the copied document.

Also, when creating files with MSWord 2007 or Excel 2007 it’s a good idea to save the files as earlier versions, such as MSWord 97-2003 and Excel 97-2003. This is because documents saved as 2007 files format cannot be opened by users of earlier versions of MSWord and Excel.

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