Pivot Table in Mac '08 ==corrupted file==> MS office '07

[msft]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Can't seem to open a file that began its life as raw data in Excel (PC) '07, was worked on (created pivot tables and charts) on Excel '08 for Mac and now can't be shared with colleagues in MS Office '07.

It is a giant file exceeding the column limitations of older excel versions so it has to stay in .xlsx format.

Has there been any workaround to this?

(*sigh* compatibility issues are so '90s)

 

[Pat McMillan]

Could you tell us the message that you get (if any) in Windows Excel when
trying to open the file? Also, although I understand it might not be
possible due to confidentiality issues, if you could send us a file with
this problem it would be a great help.

Thanks,

Pat McMillan
(e-mail address removed)

 

[msft]

due to confidentiality issues, I most certainly cannot send the file. However, these are the error messages I get when I try to open it:

"Excel found undreadable content in 'file'. Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook? If you trust the source of this workbook, click Yes."

(then a series of messages flashing on the bar at the bottom window about attempting to repair and open the file)

finally:
"The workbook cannot be opened or repaired by Microsoft Excel because it is corrupt."

Again, this file contains a huge data set prepped for Pivot table use and a series of charts.

Can this be fixed in the immediate future?

 

[Pat McMillan]

Thanks. I of course completely understand about your inability to share the
workbook with us. At the same time, it's going to be hard to figure out how
the problem originated if we don't have more information. Although we're
kind of shooting in the dark here, if you can answer these questions it
might help:

1. Is the Mac on which the file was saved to .xlsx an Intel or PPC-based
Mac?
2. Is it possible that the raw data in Windows Excel was actually formatted
in some way with a Windows Excel feature that Mac Excel does not support,
such as certain types of conditional formatting? This would generally
manifest itself by an alert upon opening the workbook in Mac Excel 2008.
3. Did the file ever open up in Windows Excel after modifying it and saving
it in Mac Excel 2008? If so, it would help to know what the last changes
made to the workbook were before it stopped opening in Windows Excel.

Thanks,

Pat

 

[msft]

1. Intel Mac, Quad Core 3 Ghz (I forget how much RAM I have in there... 3Gigs?)
2. No possibility. It was created straight up as data. It only got more complex (again, Pivottables and Charts) once I started working on it with my Mac.
3. Never tested it during the interim stages. I hindsight, that would have been prudent.

Some other observations: processing the data set for Pivot table use takes a long time on my Mac where it is instantaneous on my older, less powerful work PC laptop. Also, the lack of a Pivottable field list in Mac makes creating PTs so much more time intensive...

When I get some time, I will strip all the meaningful nomenclature from the data and forward it to you... or is there still some risk to doing that i.e. recovering previous iterations from the file?

I'd love to see a fix to this, as the ability to do Excel work from my Mac setup is directly tied to my productivity...

 

[Pat McMillan]

Thanks a lot for the additional detail. It definitely helps. If you could
strip out the meaningful data from the file and save it out and send it to
me or put in on a web server I could access it would be hugely helpful. Each
of your answers helps point us in the right direction, but there could be
any number of aspects of the pivottable(s) or chart(s) that lead to the
problem when opening in Windows Excel. I don't think modifying the data
itself and then saving out with a new name will cause any problems. Most
likely if the file already has some formatting or property that's causing
the problem it will still be there after modifying the data. If you can keep
the charts and pivot tables intact as much as possible and save out the file
in the same format as the original that should work.

Thanks again for your help. I hope we can get to the bottom of this.

Pat

 

[Alan124]

due to confidentiality issues, I most certainly cannot send the file. However, these are the error messages I get when I try to open it:

"Excelfound undreadable content in 'file'. Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook? If you trust the source of this workbook, click Yes."

(then a series of messages flashing on the bar at the bottom window about attempting to repair and open the file)

finally:
"The workbook cannot be opened or repaired by MicrosoftExcelbecause it iscorrupt."

Again, this file contains a huge data set prepped for Pivot table use and a series of charts.

Can this be fixed in the immediate future?

I think you may try a popular Excel file recovery tool called Advanced
Excel Repair to repair your Excel file. It is a powerful tool to
repair corrupt or damaged Excel files.

Detailed information about Advanced Excel Repair can be found at
http://www.datanumen.com/aer/

And you can also download a free demo version at http://www.datanumen.com/aer/aer.exe

Alan

 

[Stuart]

I'm seeing the same problem with one of my users. The Workbook was created
from scratch in Excel 08, but since they started pivot tables, it is now
corrupted. Do you have any Mac tools to repair corrupted files? Right now,
we're pulling the backup which could be up to a week old.

I don't know how much data we can pass on to you, but I will get you what I
can.

Stu