can't open files with a # sign in the title

[guitar5]

Version: v.X Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel I just got a new imac and when I try to open files with a # in the title excel opens but the file won't appear.
if I remove the # from the title it opens again

 

[Michel Bintener]

We've had this discussion very recently in the Word discussion group.
The conclusion was that this mechanism seems to work fine in Office
2008, and that it is generally not a good idea to include special
characters, such as "#", in a file name. Sorry if this doesn't really
help you.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Version: v.X Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel I
just got a new imac and when I try to open files with a # in the title excel
opens but the file won't appear.
if I remove the # from the title it opens again

Yes, I remember that this was a problem. The only work around, as you
discovered is: don¹t use a # in the file name.

 

[guitar5]

thanks,

microsoft wins,

I bought office 2008

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Isn't # among the special characters the Mac-OS system calls reserved
characters. along with such items as : :: * + - / \ and some others I
can't remember? and reserved characters are not supposed to be used in
file names or folder names.

 

[CyberTaz]

I hope all works out for you but I really don't understand the meaning of
your comment. Microsoft has nothing to do with the Mac OS. Anything other
than alphanumeric characters & underscores in file naming have historically
been taboo in every OS going back to DOS, Apple II, CP/M, what ever.

In fact, it was Windows (i.e. Microsoft) that first allowed the use of
special characters when the file naming conventions were expanded with the
introduction of Windows 95. IMHO, that's what opened Pandora's box, because
Windows permitted the use of naming structures not allowable by other
operating systems including its own predecessor (DOS). It's created a real
conundrum for cross-platform files ever since.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi Phillip,

I don't think "#" is one of them. At least not according to this article:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filename>