Running Excel 2004 & 2008 on the same computer

[Tim_McLeod]

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

I am a network administrator and all of our users are now on Office 2008, but one user still requires Excel 2004 for some government spreadsheets that are heavily VBA macro enabled. Both versions are installed and working on the computer, but the user would like Excel 2004 to be the default application for opening XLS files.

Changes made to the "Open with" settings are immediately discarded when you try to save the changes and the file reverts back to Excel 2008. Is there something that prevents Excel 2004 from being the default application once Office 2008 has been installed?

 

[CyberTaz]

Sorry, Tim, but that's not an option. There are a few workarounds, though;

1- Set Excel 2004 to launch on login - even if Hidden. Double-clicking a
..xls in Finder will cause it to open in 2004 rather than 2008 even if 2008
is already running as well,

2- Control/Right-Click the file icon & select Open With & specify 2004,

and of course

3- Launch Excel 2004 & use the Open command from within.

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

 

[Tim_McLeod]

Thanks Bob,

Not the answer I was hoping for, but at least I know to stop looking now.

- Tim

 

[Carl Witthoft]

Thanks Bob,

Not the answer I was hoping for, but at least I know to stop looking now.

- Tim

There is a better (??!!) answer which I found after some digging around
on the net. Basically the problem is that both excel2004 and excel2008
have the same BundleID, which makes it problematic to set the "Open
With" parameter to one over the other.
You have to dig into some of the parameter files inside the Excel
packages and change certain ID parameters so that, say, all File.xls
will open in 2004 while OtherFile.oxmlxsl (or whatever the new
extension is) will open in 2008.

Drop me an email if you can't find these instructions -- I found them
once but of course they're on a machine at a different location from
where I am right now, or I"d post them here.


Carl

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Carl;

Interesting find...

You have to dig into some of the parameter files inside the Excel
packages and change certain ID parameters so that, say, all File.xls
will open in 2004 while OtherFile.oxmlxsl (or whatever the new
extension is) will open in 2008.

But I can't help but wonder if it's "fixes" of this nature -- for what is
actually a minor inconvenience -- which might be responsible for some of the
reports of not being able to open 2004 files in 2008 or vice-versa???
Especially where the converters are involved.

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

 

[Tim_McLeod]

Thanks Carl,

That's actually the kind of information I was looking for, but couldn't find! Bob's point about tinkering inside the packages is certainly well taken, and while I wouldn't advocate doing this on a wholesale basis for a couple hundred users, I might experiment with it "in the sandbox" and perhaps implement it for the one exceptional case.

If you do come across the information at some time, I'd appreciate a link to it. You can email me offlist at (e-mail address removed).

- Tim

 

[Carl Witthoft]

Hi Carl;

Interesting find...



But I can't help but wonder if it's "fixes" of this nature -- for what is
actually a minor inconvenience -- which might be responsible for some of the
reports of not being able to open 2004 files in 2008 or vice-versa???
Especially where the converters are involved.

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

Well, no.... it only affects the action taken on double-click (of course
lots of n00bs have no idea how else to open a file). Drag&drop a file
onto either version of XL will use that version to open the file.

I would think that anyone who has the savvy to edit package contents can
handle the file management. Remember, this is not changing anything in
the documents themselves.

Carl

 

[CyberTaz]

Yeah, that's one I neglected to add to the list You can also drag the
file to the Dock icon for the preferred version.

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