No option to save Excel file as .xls

breadmonkey

Hi all,

I'm using Excel 2010 on XP and need to save a workbook in .xls format as I need a large number of columns. For some reason, I don't have this option in the drop down menu when doing a save as. I'm 100% sure I've done it before on this machine.

Anyone got any ideas?

**Timbuk2**

Press Save As, and under the filetype dropdown menu, there should be an option for Excel 2003 or similar... it'll say .xls in brackets. Is that there?

breadmonkey

No it doesn't have .xls anywhere. I managed to it now - it seems I had to option a seperate instance of excel and save as "Excel Workbook" which seemingly is equivalent to .xls??? I dunno, I have my columns anyway!

nemesisdg

When you look at the file in explorer can you see the file extension in the name. i.e. "File.xlsx" or is it just "File"?

If you can see the .xlsx (or whatever it is) rename the file to what you want with the file extension present. e.g. "File.xls"

If you can't see the file extension I think you can switch it on in the folder or view options.

Good luck.

yoyo

nemesisdg wrote: »

When you look at the file in explorer can you see the file extension in the name. i.e. "File.xlsx" or is it just "File"?

If you can see the .xlsx (or whatever it is) rename the file to what you want with the file extension present. e.g. "File.xls"

If you can't see the file extension I think you can switch it on in the folder or view options.

Good luck.

This will not work for the op as renaming an xlsx file to xls will still mean the file is using the open xml format. You need to convert from one format to the other, using save as and choosing xls is one way to do it!

Nick

FSL

nemesisdg wrote: »

When you look at the file in explorer can you see the file extension in the name. i.e. "File.xlsx" or is it just "File"?

If you can see the .xlsx (or whatever it is) rename the file to what you want with the file extension present. e.g. "File.xls"

If you can't see the file extension I think you can switch it on in the folder or view options.

Good luck.

Changing the extension of a file does not change the file. The purpose of the extension is to indicate how the file is to be opened. .xls and .xlsx are totally different formats.

nemesisdg

I sit corrected.

breadmonkey

Thanks all!