Persistent warning when saving in .xls format

[Jeff_Dean]

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

I have just upgraded to Office 2008. I need to keep my files in the older formats so they can be shared with other users who have not upgraded. I have set the compatibility options in Excel and Word so that new documents are saved by default in .xls and .doc formats.

I have several older spreadsheets that have never been in any format other than .xls, and I have never invoked any of the new features incompatible with .xls, such as the Elements Gallery, which was mentioned in a reply by MVP Bob Jones to a similar question in December 2008.

Nevertheless, whenever I save these files, I ALWAYS get a warning window, "Some content in [filename].xls may not be saved because it is not compatible with the Excel 97-2004 Workbook (.xls) file format." Any such incompatible content has not been introduced by me -- it must have been imposed by Excel 2008 (if it is actually present at all).

Word 2008 does not impose this distracting and unnecessary warning on users saving .doc files. It appears to be a "feature" of Excel 2008 in particular (I do not use PowerPoint very much and have not yet tried to see what its behavior is in this respect). The warning in Excel 2008 is wasting my time, and I wish there were some way to disable it.

In Bob Jones's words, the "apparent expectation" is that users should always use .xlsx format, whether or not they have actually used any features of that format that are incompatible with .xls. This is annoying, distracting, and unhelpful. Why not have a button on the window, "Don't show this again", as in so many other instances? Even if it only disabled the warning for the individual file, it would save me a lot of time.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Jeff -

Bob Jones also said 'nobody who regularly monitors this group has anything
to do with how the program is written' so complaints here about what we
can't change are a waste of time. If you send your concerns to MacBU using
Help> Send Feedback they're more likely to be seen by those who are able to
act on them - although there's no guarantee, but they do monitor that data.

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

 

[Jeff_Dean]

Thanks, Bob. I do appreciate the point, which you must have made in a different thread, but which anyway is obvious enough!

I was hoping someone could tell me, "Actually, there IS a way you can get around this..." I'll do as you suggest and pass my gripe on to the MacBU.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Thanks, Bob. I do appreciate the point, which you must have made in a
different thread, but which anyway is obvious enough!

I was hoping someone could tell me, "Actually, there IS a way you can get
around this..." I'll do as you suggest and pass my gripe on to the MacBU.

Actually, there's a very easy workaround. Put this script in your Excel
Script Menu Items folder (in your MUD folder):

tell application "Microsoft Excel"
set display alerts to false
save active workbook
set display alerts to true
end tell


and use it rather than Save. If you name it, say,

MyNoAlertSave\mS.scpt

then when you type CMD-s, your script will fire and you won't get the
alert.

Note: because you're turning alerts off, there's no guarantee that
you'll be informed if there's a problem during the save.

 

[Jeff_Dean]

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I haven't ever experienced real problems when saving any of the files in question, so I'll trust that I won't be running a serious risk in turning off alerts.