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I have an Excel spreadsheet that was initially created with Excel 2007. However, Excel 97 is used regularly to edit this document and the annoyance is that Excel always prompts before saving:

The file was created using a later version of Microsoft Excel. If you save this file using Microsoft Excel 97, information created with features in the later version may be lost.

OK... I continue with the save. But it prompts again the next time I save. I would have hoped that this information would have been overwritten when I save the document, but it is not.

How can I prevent this dialog popping up every time I save this document, without recreating the document in the old version of Excel?

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1  
Is this any help (ie can you get at the 8 to change it to 0 - not that I know any consequences nor whether that would work anyway!)? – pnuts Oct 5 '12 at 9:47
@pnuts: Are you referring to the file format... BIFF8 for Excel 97 - is that what that code outputs? Although if I have already saved it from Excel 97 then the file format has presumably been overwritten although there is still a flag in the file that indicates that a later version created it. I have had a quick look at the file using a hex editor, but I don't currently know enough about the file format to make any changes! – w3d Oct 5 '12 at 12:02
Sorry, I’m way out of my depth. 8/BIFF8 are clearly not coincidence but this does not help you since BIFF8 is also the format for versions after Excel 97 and, based on the other question, it seems only Excel 97 preserves evidence that it created the file even if CalculationVersion is set/rest after creation (maybe??). OpenOffice.org do provide details of the Excel 97 file format, if you must, but definitely not something I would tamper with! – pnuts Oct 5 '12 at 14:00

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

The only way I can think to solve this is to open the file in Excel 2007 and do a Save as, choosing the Excel 97-2003 Workbook format. Then you should be able to use it with Excel 97 without the warning.

enter image description here

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Isn't this really "recreating the document in the old version of Excel"? – pnuts Oct 5 '12 at 14:08
No, it is not recreating, it is simply saving it in an older version Excel. – CharlieRB Oct 5 '12 at 14:19
Semantics!! ;-) – pnuts Oct 5 '12 at 14:23
up vote 1 down vote

Can you try setting a before save macro that would disable that warning? something like

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, Cancel As Boolean)
  application.displayalerts=false
  activeworkbook.save
  application.displayalerts=true
  cancel=true
End Sub
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Thanks for the suggestion, although this doesn't work unfortunately. The warning prompt appears before the BeforeSave event fires. – w3d Oct 5 '12 at 8:44
@w3d On open blank CalculationVersion? – pnuts Oct 5 '12 at 14:17

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