Access Import - Strange Behavior

[J Austin]

I've been successfully using Access 2007 to import sheets from Excel 2007 for
several months. Last week, without any changes to my computer (that I'm
aware of, other than MS automatice updates), when importing I get a message
that the Excel file is in an Office 2007 beta format and cannot be used. I
never had Office 2007 beta on my machine. After a systematic set of
diagnostics, I found that if I save the Excel workbook in .xlsx rather than
..xlsb (which I had used without issue for months), the issue does not
reappear. While this workaround does not impact me, I wonder if anyone else
has seen this behavior. I duplicated the issue on a brand new laptop with
very little activity (again, other than MS automatic updates). This is in an
important production program and it makes me nervous when these type of
anomalies pop-up without apparent basis. My suspicion is that a MS update
broke something, but have no proof.

J Austin

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

The proper format for saving Excel 2007 files is .xls or .xlsx. Your
question may be better answered in an Excel newsgroup which is appropriate
to your problem. This newsgroup is dedicated to the Microsoft Access
database product. The Microsoft website may have misdirected you.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Free MS-Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
http://www.accessmvp.com

 

[J Austin]

Arvin,
Thanks for responding. I actually posted to both Access and Excel forums as
both programs were involved in the error. Not sure what you mean by the
proper format is xls or xlsx. I've been using the xlsb very successfully up
until this error poped up.

Thanks again,

J Austin

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

..xlsb is Excel 2007 binary format. .xls is the format to save any Excel
file, and .xlsx is an Excel 2007 only format. There may be something wrong
with your XML generation, which would lead to this error. Personally, I only
use .xls since it can be read by anything that reads any Excel format. But
again. Someone in Excel may be able to shed more light on why .xlsb is
failing.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
http://www.accessmvp.com

 

[J Austin]

Arvin,
Thanks. I've been using the binary format as it seems to create smaller
files and is faster. My application doesn't require having others needing to
read the files. Haven't gotten any responses from the Excel forum yet.

J Austin