Thursday, October 21, 2010

Repair Excel File by Using Excel Repair Tool

Excel spreadsheet application in MS Excel is widely used by sales executives, marketing executives, accountants and other professionals' in both large and small organizations. With Excel spreadsheet, it is easy to calculate, do listing, tabulating and more. MS Excel stores the excel spreadsheet in a XLS format on saving. However, some times it happens when the XLS file catches corruption. Reasons for corruption can be numerous, but what it does that it makes all the data stored inside the XLS file, Inaccessible. Due to this, you may not be able to see or make changes in your data and you may also lose some important information. In such case, a backup file for your data may prove handy. However, if no backup file is there, then use an Excel Repair Software to retrieve your inaccessible data.

For Example – You are working on your XLS file, which has your most important business contacts and lists. But unfortunately, while you were still working, XLS file closes abruptly and never opens again, leaving you totally perplexed. You have no idea why such thing happened; all that you know is that your data is no more accessible.
But, what’s the reason for such a behavior. Let’s find out.

There are a number of reasons that can damage your XLS files. Few of them are stated below:
  • Unintentional or accidental system shutdown
  • Software crash
  • Trojan Infection
  • Virus attack

If any of the aforementioned factors occur while your XLS file was open, it may go corrupt. But, there is no need to worry as your data is just inaccessible, not lost forever. It can be retrievable with the help of an exclusive Repair Excel File Tool. The tool employs high-end methods to bring back your data from the corrupted XLS file. In addition, the application is very easy to use and you do not require any prior technical skills.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

How to Recover a Corrupt Excel File

An Excel workbook is prone to corruption, just like other MS Office files. Corruption can occur in an Excel file due to many reasons including application errors, failed network connections, unexpected computer shutdown etc. To battle the corruption problem, users strongly believe in maintaining backups. Backup copies, however, won't always contain the updated information, and you have to re-enter the data and required content. In order to avoid such nagging problems, it is better to consider repairing an affected Excel workbook. Microsoft provides various methods to help you perform Excel repair on your own .See the tips section for them. You may want to try them first, or a combination with the list below.

Step:

1. Close down Excel, re-open it and try to open the file again.

2. If this doesn't work, restart the computer, open up Excel and try to open the file again

3. If this doesn't work, delete the contents of your c:\windows\temp directory then reboot. Try again.

4. If this doesn't work, restart the computer, open up Excel and try to open the file again
  • Click on Start then Run then enter (including the quotes and the /s extension): "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\excel.exe" /s ("C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\excel.exe" /s (for Excel 2002, Office XP, click cancel if the MS Office Installer starts, Excel in safe mode will still start)
  • Try to open the file.
5. If this doesn't work, be sure to scan the file for viruses. Make sure your macro heuristics scanning option is turned on. Ask your IT administrator how to do this.

6. If you don't find a virus, find the file in Explorer, right click on it and rename it, replacing the .xls extension with the .doc extension. Try to open it as Word document.

7. If this doesn't work, try to determine if the file is unrecoverable on the disk. Open the file in Explorer and try to copy it to another location.
  • If you can copy the file to another location, If not, then the actual sectors on the disk may be corrupted
  • If the data is valuable enough to you, seek professional services as a damaged hard disk file recovery is not for the faint at heart.
8. Try to open any damaged disk recovered file immediately, miracles do happen.

9. If the recovered file won't open or you could copy the file to another location, try to open the file in a more recent version of Excel. As the version numbers increase, their ability to recover corrupt files increases. If this doesn't work or such a version of Excel is not available, see if some other spreadsheet application is and try to open the file in that program.

If the above-suggested methods do not help you in repairing a corrupt Excel workbook, then you should not lose hope. Using one of the professional Excel repair tools, you can repair a damaged workbook without putting in too much efforts . you should download Stellar Phoenix Excel Recovery without any qualms. The application repairs corrupt workbooks, created with MS Excel 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000 versions. Incorporating simple GUI, this repair Excel file utility scores much higher than other recovery applications in terms of performance and user-friendliness.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Excel quits abruptly post editing header information? Here are repair tips

Excel allows you to insert descriptive text such as dates, titles and page numbers through 'header and footer' option. You can add some notes or references inside an Excel workbook by using headers and footers. This option helps you in providing additional information to a reader which cannot be accommodated in the original text or data area. However, you might run into problems while updating or editing an Excel workbook's header and footer information. Events like abrupt exit from the application might end up corrupting the workbook in question. In such scenarios, the best solution lies in replacing the affected workbook with an updated backup copy. However, if no such alternate solution exists, then the best way to recover your corrupt Excel workbook is using a third-party Excel repair software.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you have an Excel 2003 spreadsheet containing vital information about the performance of your team members in a particular year. You try to edit the information in the header, but fail to do so as the Excel file crashes unexpectedly. When you make an attempt to open it again, it doesn't open. All of the information stored in the affected Excel file goes inaccessible, leaving you in a miserable and helpless condition.

Cause

The Excel workbook might have gotten corrupt due to unexpected crash it suffered while you tried to edit header information. Corruption could also occur if you created an Excel sheet in an earlier version and imported it into a later version of Excel.

Resolution

Workbook corruption is a serious problem for any user who loses access to the important information stored in it. You can derive the information from a clean and updated backup, but in case you do not have a valid copy available to perform Excel Recovery things can go really tough to handle.

Nevertheless, you have a good chance of recovering data from a corrupt Excel file provided you select and download an efficient Excel repair application. Though, you might find a number of such applications on the Internet, it is not advisable to trust just any. Proper research must be done before considering an application for the repair and recovery process. After all, you do not want to lose the information forever.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

How to fix 'Workbook that you selected cannot be opened' error

Excel services work with Excel 2007 and allows you to share, load, calculate Excel workbooks on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 portals and dashboards. You can share an entire Workbook or just few parts of it like charts, tables etc. By using a Web browser, end users can view and interact with the workbooks. However, at times, when you publish a workbook to Excel Services and try to load it in a browser, you might run into an error message. Such situations erupt when you try to load a corrupt workbook. You can use a healthy backup copy of the Excel file and upload it again to the server. However, if you cannot access a backup copy or if it is not an updated one, then you must consider using an Excel repair software.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you have created an Excel 2007 spreadsheet containing information about the sales revenue of your company. You have an online meeting with your colleagues where you have to discuss the figures and stats given in the Excel sheet. You save the file in .xlsx format and publish it to Excel Services. When you use a Web browser to load the particular Excel workbook, Excel Services doesn't load it. Additionally, you receive the following error message:

"Unable to Load Workbook

The workbook that you selected cannot be opened.
The workbook may be in an unsupported file format, or it may be corrupt.
Would you like to try and open this file in Excel?"

Cause

The error message can be received in the following situations:

• If the workbook contains a formula which has a space character in front of the (^) caret operator.
• Or if the workbook in question is corrupt or damaged

Resolution

The following Repair excel file steps must be considered to resolve the problem:

• You must do away with the space character which is placed in front of the caret operator in the formula
• You can also save the affected workbook in non-XML binary format (.xlsb) and then try to republish it to Excel Services
• If the problem doesn't get resolved, then it is for sure that the workbook is corrupt. You must employ a third-party Excel repair application and fix the errors in an easy way.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

How to address workbook corruption in Excel 2007

Corruption of Excel workbooks is not a new phenomenon. Irrespective of the version of Excel, a workbook is quite prone to getting damaged in many instances including improper shutdown of application, power fluctuations or abrupt system shutdown. Despite incorporating advanced features, Excel 2007 can annoy users with corruption problems. What to be done? If you have an Excel 2007 workbook and you are encountering problems while opening it, then it is quite evident that it is corrupt. In such scenarios, you can obviously turn up to a backup copy provided if it is updated and in a clean state. However, if you cannot bank upon a backup copy, do not think you have lost valuable data forever. Many Excel repair tools have been launched lately which promise to repair damaged or corrupt Excel files without modifying the original data.

Think of a situation, wherein, you have an Excel 2007 worksheet containing contact and personal information of your team members. One fine day, when you try and open it, you might not be able to access its contents. In addition to this, you might receive the following error message:

"Excel found unreadable content in Book_Name. Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook."

After clicking Yes to the error message, you receive the following error message report:

Removed Records: PivotTable report from /xl/pivotCache/pivotCacheDefinition1.xml part (PivotTable cache

Cause

The above Excel error could erupt in the following conditions:

• Presence of a PivotTable in the workbook which uses key performance indicators (KPIs)
• If the KPIs are made in the Analysis Services Business Intelligence Development Studio
• If one or more KPIs have an expression in the Current Time Member property
• Lastly, the error might also surface if the Excel 2007 workbook is corrupt

Resolution

Try the following workarounds which would assist you in executing Excel file repair:

• The issue can be resolved if you take out expressions from all Current Time Member properties
Being an optional property, it can be done away with to get rid off the error message.
• If the above solution doesn't really work, then you must have to employ effective Excel recovery strategies to fix corruption

Friday, August 27, 2010

Excel recovery solutions when Workbook is Damaged

Excel is one of the most commonly used spreadsheet application, owing to its ease of use and the a large number of features, including arithmetic operations, graphing tools, pivot tables, and more. Despite extending all these features, it has not been able to escape a few drawbacks and bugs. Amongst many, one is damage to workbooks, due to power surge, human error, virus attack, abrupt shutdown of the system, file becoming too large, incompatible upgradation, application malfunction, network issues, improper coding etc. In such case, one may try to repair Excel file, manually or using Excel file repair tools.


If one fine day, a person opens an Excel file to make changes in it, and finds that is is damaged, he/she is in a state of shock. When that initial stage of shock passes, it is only then that a person can think rationally. And, then it is recommended to think of that backup, which was created when work had just been completed in that file. But what to do if the backup doesn't work, or worse you forgot to created a backup.


In case a file is damaged, it may either not open, or may not show data in correct form (may be garbled text) after opening. To resolve this problem, and extract your data, follow the directions given underneath:


If the file doesn't open: Try to open your workbook with the 'Open and Repair' feature. When we select Open from the File menu of Excel application, then the dialog box which opens allows you to select the file which has to be opened, after which you need to click on the small arrow on the right side of the 'Open' button. Thereafter, you should select 'Open and Repair'. Following this, you need to click on 'Repair' when prompted.


If the file opens:

You may be able to filter it, by saving it as HTML Web Page, or XML Spreadsheet format. After this, you should close the file, and then reopen, and save it as Microsoft Excel Workbook. You may not be able to save everything, but most of the things.


If neither works, then you need to opt for a third-party Excel file repair tool. These tools apply complex algorithms to repair Excel file and extract maximum data from it.

Friday, August 20, 2010

How to overcome 'The workbook may be in an unsupported file format...' Excel 2007 error

Microsoft Excel 2007 comes equipped with new results-oriented user interface and has the capacity to accommodate 1 million rows and 16, 000 columns. Besides advantages like rich data visualization, PivotTable views, Excel 2007 lets you share a spreadsheet with the introduction of a new technology called Excel services. By sharing a spreadsheet using Excel 2007 and Excel Services (a feature of MS Office SharePoint Server), you can navigate, sort, filter, input parameters, and interact with the PivotTable views directly on the Web browser. However, at times, you might not be able to load a spreadsheet, published to Excel Services, and receive an error message. This situation hints towards possible corruption in an Excel sheet. To overcome such issues, it becomes essential for you to use the backup copy of the spreadsheet. And, if there is no backup available, then you must opt for a professional Excel repair software.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you have a workbook which is created in Microsoft Excel 2007 (.xlsx). You publish this workbook to Excel services and when you use a Web broswer to try to view the workbook, it doesn't load. And, you receive the following error message:

Unable to Load Workbook
The workbook that you selected cannot be opened.
The workbook may be in an unsupported file format, or it may be corrupt.
Would you like to try and open this file in Excel?

Cause

The above error message can be encountered in the following conditions:

  • The issue occurs if one or more cells of your workbook contains a space character in front of the caret (^) operator in a formula
  • Or if your workbook is damaged or corrupt (as stated in the above error message)

Resolution

To overcome the problem, you can try the following Excel file repair steps:

  • Remove the space character that is in the front of the caret operator (^) in the formula
  • Or save the workbook in non-XML binary format (.xlsb), and then publish it to the server
  • If the above-mentioned steps fail to address the problem, then you must consider using a third-party Excel repair software.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

How to troubleshoot 'This file is not a recognizable format' Excel error

Microsoft Excel, a popular spreadsheet application, has become an integral part of every organization, small, medium or large. This application is extensively used for executing quick calculations, maintaining financial data or records in lists and tables. Corruption is quite common in sophisticated Excel files. The many reasons behind corruption include abrupt system shutdown, virus infection, human error factor, application malfunction etc. Due to corruption data stored in an Excel file becomes inaccessible, making you completely dependent on a valid backup copy. However, if you do not have a backup, you can try repairing a corrupt Excel file on your own by employing various Excel file repair strategies provided by Microsoft.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you create a workbook containing information regarding your team members' salary details in Excel 2007. You try to open the Excel sheet in 2003 version on your office computer, and instead receive the following error message:

"This file is not a recognizable format."

As a result of the above error message, you are unable to access the content of your Excel workbook since it is virtually unreadable.

Cause

The above error message and strange behavior exhibited by the Excel file in question suggest it is a case of corruption. The Excel file is corrupt and its content should be recovered using the strategies provided in the next section of this article. (Resolution)

Resolution

To fix the above error and corruption issue, you must execute the following Excel repair steps:

  • Set the recalculation option in Excel to manual
1.Open Excel, open a blank workbook
2.Go to Tools menu, click Options
3.Click the Calculation tab
4.In the Calculation section, click Manual and then click OK
5.On the File menu, click Open and try to open the file
  • Use external references to link to the corrupt file
1.Go to File menu, click Open, browse to the folder which contains the damaged file, click Cancel
2.Click New on the File menu, and click OK
3.Type=FileName!A1 in cell A1 of the new workbook (File name refers to the name of the damaged workbook). If the Select Sheet dialog box appears, select the appropriate sheet and click OK
4.Select cell A1, on the Edit menu, click Edit. Then, select an area which is approximately the same size as the range of the cells which contain data in the damaged workbook, and then click Paste on the Edit menu
5.With the range of the cells selected, click Copy on the Edit menu
6.On the Edit menu, click Paste Special, select Values, and click OK. By doing this, you remove the links to the damaged file leaving only the file data

If the above-mentioned steps do not come to your rescue in recovering data from a corrupt Excel file, then grab a third-party Excel repair software.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Excel Workbook Corruption - Prevention and Recovery

With the ever growing importance of Excel application, chances of Worksheet corruption have also increased manifolds. And people who have been hit by this problem already know what it is like to be in such a situation. Mostly, people today take measures to prevent damage to their files, apart from maintaining a backup of their all important data. But what about those who have either not taken backup, or find that their backup is either not updated, or not working? Don't fret! It is possible to recover files, retrieve your data, and if regular methods do not work, then use third-party Excel repair software.

Let us know more about preventing Excel Workbook loss, before delving into its recovery.
Despite being an efficient tool, Excel is prone to failure and data loss. However, we can follow simple strategies to prevent Excel data loss. Read on to know them:

  • Excel features AutoRecover that saves a copy of file at user specified location after fixed interval of time.
  • Another way that is not known to many users of Excel data file is that they can enable 'Always Create Backup' option of 'Save As' dialog box, by clicking 'General Options' on the 'Tools' menu. This creates a backup with information that was saved before you last exited the file. You can also make changes to the template for default startup.
  • Take good care of your hard disk because if area where file is stored becomes bad, the file will become corrupt. Perform disk maintenance by running Scan Disk to examine
  • file structure of disk, once a week
  • surface scan of the media, once a month
  • Regularly run anti-virus scan.
  • Make sure you exit Windows systematically, even if you want to shut down, or restart your system.
  • Keep sources of electromagnetic radiation away from your storage media.
  • Prevent dust from building upon and around your storage media.
  • And most importantly, maintain a remote backup, either online, or on network.

However, if you have encountered this grave Workbook data loss situation, and have already tried various repair methods, followed by data retrieval methods, then a third-party Repair excel software is a safe bet for you!

Monday, July 19, 2010

How to fix corrupt Excel 2002 workbook containing macros


Microsoft Excel is by far the remarkable spreadsheet product in the market. Excel has a rich collection of formulas which allow you to manipulate data in sophisticated ways. End users can create various macros within Excel spreadsheets which allow the automation of formatting, charting and other frequently-used spreadsheets' tasks. Moreover, you can seamlessly integrate an Excel workbook with other applications by using macros. However, at times you may encounter problems opening an Excel file with macros. For instance, when you try to open an Excel file, you will be restricted by an error message or you will see no formatting at all. Such symptoms indicate possible corruption in an Excel file. And, hence it becomes essential for you to recover data from a backup copy. If there is no clean and updated backup available, you must consider grabbing an Excel repair utility.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you open an Excel spreadsheet in 2002 for editing purpose. The spreadsheet contains many macros and are working fine. You add another set of macros and test each one successfully. You save the worksheet and when you try to reopen it, you may get the following error message:

"Damage to the file was so extensive that repairs were not possible. Excel attempted to recover your formulas and values, but some data may have been lost or corrupted."

You managed to get past the above error, only to find that the Excel file has lost its formatting. In addition, the macros are all disabled.

Cause

The above error and symptoms depict that the Excel file is corrupt.

Resolution

In order to isolate the above error message, you can try the following Repair excel file steps:

  • Use the Revert to Saved Document command
  • This will work if you have edited an Excel file and the file becomes corrupt before you have saved changes to the file. You can recover the corrupt file by following these steps:
1.Go to File menu, click Open, select the name of the file you are editing. You will see a dialog box saying: "Revert to saved document?"
2.Click OK and the file you are editing reverts to the last saved version
  • Save the file in SYLK format
  • Save the file in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) format

If you are unable to repair the Excel file, then you must download an Excel repair software from the Internet. Such tools efficiently repairs corrupt Excel files, irrespective of the cause behind corruption.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Fixing 'Cannot insert Excel 4.0 macros in a restricted or password protected workbook' Excel 2007 error

Microsoft Excel application lets you organize, edit and analyze data, which can be arranged in tables. Therefore, it comes across as a very handy application to store financial data. Often Excel workbooks get corrupt. The reasons behind corruption include application malfunction, storage media corruption, virus attacks, power fluctuations, improper system shutdown and more. When you try and access a corrupt Excel file, you may receive an error message and data stored inside the Excel sheet also become inaccessible. In such situations, you must execute the Open and Repair option, which would let Excel carry out necessary rectifications and display the data. However, if corruption is severe, you may lose a great deal of information. But, the good news is that you can repair a corrupt Excel spreadsheet by opting for an Repair Excel File software.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you save an Excel 2007 file that has an Excel 4.0 macro sheet in the .xlsb format. You close and re-open the file, and set a password to protect the file. You again save the changes and close the file. Now, when you open the file again, you may receive the following error message:

'Cannot insert Excel 4.0 macros in a restricted or password protected workbook.'

After you click OK to recover the file, you may receive the same error message again and again.

After repeated attempts, you may receive the following error:

"The workbook cannot be opened or repaired by Microsoft Excel because it is corrupt."

Cause

You can receive the above error message due to the following reasons:

  • Excel 2007 has some shortcomings
  • If your Excel 2007 workbook is corrupt

Resolution

  • Try the following workarounds in order to isolate the problem:
  • The issue can be fixed by obtaining the latest hotfix for MS Office 2007
  • If the spreadsheet is corrupt, you must follow these Excel file repair steps:
1.Set the recalculation option in Excel to manual
2.Open the Excel file in Microsoft Word or WordPad
3.Open the file in Microsoft Excel Viewer
4.If a chart is linked to the corrupted file, use a macro to extract the data

However, in order to achieve best recovery results, you must grab a third-party Excel repair utility at the earliest.

Such tools employ improved scanning algorithms in order to extract data from a corrupt Excel workbook

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

How to fix Visual Basic Error 35012 while opening a workbook with macros

Visual Basic Application is a programming language which can be used to build user-defined functions (UDF), automate processes, and other low level functionality through DLLs (dynamic link library). In Excel it can be used to develop macros and complex programs. At times, an Excel workbook with macros or VBA modules can become damaged in many scenarios including improper exit from application, abrupt system shutdown, application malfunction and more. In such events, you may receive an error message when you attempt to open a damaged workbook. Since, you cannot access valuable data stored in the Excel file, it becomes very important for you to look for a possible backup copy. However, if you don't have a clean and updated backup, you must consider employing various effective Excel repair strategies.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you have an Excel workbook related to employees' salary details with Microsoft Visual Basic for Application modules. When you try to open the same, you may receive the following error:

"Unexpected Error (35012)"

You may also see a dialog box with 'Disable Macros option. Even if you disable the macros included in the workbook, you might not be able to open the file. And, if you click OK in the error message, the application will close the workbook but leaves the program open.

Cause

The unexpected error message is a sign of corrupt workbook. You can receive the above error message, irrespective of the presence of macros in the Excel file. It is due to corruption that you are not able to open the file and access its content. In order to overcome corruption issues, you would be required to take appropriate Repair Excel File steps as discussed in the later part of the article.

Resolution

You can observe various steps to recover data from corrupt or damaged Excel workbooks. In case you are not able to open an Excel file, try the following workarounds:

  • Set the recalculation option in Excel to manual
  • Attempt to open the file in MS word or Word Pad
  • Open the file in Microsoft Excel Viewer
  • In order to ensure data integrity for new and other workbooks, you can use the option to create a backup. Consider these steps for the same: In the Save As, click Options, and then click Always create backup feature.

If you are still not able to extract data or repair a corrupt workbook, download a third-party Excel repair application from the Internet. Such tools employ improved scanning algorithms and recover data from corrupt workbooks efficiently.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

How to fix missing data validation arrows in Excel workbook

When entering data into a workbook, very often you will come across a situation when you have to enter the same data into cells. In such situations, data validation comes really handy. Instead of typing things again and again, you can create drop-down lists in the cells. This way you just need to select the item from the list and move on to the next cell. In a nutshell, if you add data validation drop-down lists to your Excel spreadsheet, you can easily enter the data. Though, at times, when you open an Excel workbook, you may find the data validation arrows missing. The reasons could range from objects being hidden to workbook corruption. While most of the reasons can be dealt by changing settings, but in case of a corrupt Excel sheet, you would be required to look out for efficient excel repair solutions.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you add data validation lists to your spreadsheet (which contains critical information about your company's clients), when you open the same workbook again to enter more data, you find the data validation arrows missing.

Cause

The above problem could surface in the following conditions:

  • You might not have clicked the cell with data validation dropdown arrow (considering you worksheet contains many cells with data validation)
  • If your worksheet contains other shapes like logos, text boxes and you have enabled a setting to hide them. Since they are objects too, the dropdown arrows will also remain hidden.
  • You could have turned off the default option for a dropdown list
  • Your worksheet may be corrupted

Resolution

Try the following steps in order to fetch the data:

  • Make it easy to recognize the cells that have data validation. You can color them or add a cell comment
  • Make the objects visible again
  • Turn on the default setting for a data validation list to show the arrow
  • In order to fix corrupt Excel file, you can observe the following Repair excel file steps:
1.Try copying the data to a new workbook, the data validation arrows may reappear
2.Or try to repair Excel file as you open it. ( Use Open and Repair feature)
3.If you are not able to get the desired results, opt for an excel repair software. Such third-party tools extract information from a corrupt Excel file by employing improved scanning algorithms.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Solutions for 'Excel found unreadable content in Book_Name'


A pivot table is the most efficient feature of Microsoft Excel 2007. It helps you summarize a table's data by its different fields. You can create the table by defining which fields to view and how the data should be displayed. Based on your selection, Excel organizes the data and enables you to get a different view of the data. Though at times, you may encounter various errors while trying to open an Excel workbook with pivot tables. A pivot table using key performance indicators (KPIs) or a corrupt workbook could be the reasons among others behind error messages. In order to access the stored data in a workbook, you should adopt corrective measures or use a backup. If nothing seems working, you can go for an advanced excel repair utility.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you try and open a Microsoft Excel 2007 workbook and receive the following error:

“Excel found unreadable content in Book_Name. Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook.”

When you click 'Yes', you come across the following Excel recovery report:

“Removed Records: PivotTable report from /xl/pivotCache/pivotCacheDefinition1.xml part (PivotTable cache)”

And, if you open the same Excel workbook in the Microsoft SharePoint Web Part report page, you may receive the following error message:

“The workbook that you selected cannot be opened. The workbook may be in an unsupported file format, or it may be corrupt. Would you like to try and open this file in Excel?”

Cause

The above error could have surfaced due to corruption (a cause itself stated in the above error message). But, there could be other reasons which are listed below:

  • If the Pivot Table uses key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • The KPIs are created in the Analysis Services Business Intelligence Development Studio
  • On or more of the KPIs have an expression in the Current Time Member property

Resolution

If one or more KPIs have an expression in the Current Time Member property, then you can combat the problem by removing the expressions from all Current Time Member properties.

In case, you still encounter an error, it suggests that your Excel file is corrupt. To fix corruption, you need to seek help from an repair excel file software. Such third-party tools apply improved scanning algorithms to extract data from corrupt Excel workbooks in an effortless way. You can easily download an Excel repair utility from the Internet.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Repair corrupt Excel files by converting them to SYLK format


A Microsoft Excel workbook can get corrupt in various instances including application malfunction, unexpected system shutdown, third-party plug-ins, operating system corruption, human errors and others. You can repair Excel file by converting it into another format i.e. Symbolic Link Format (SYLK) format. Converting a corrupt Excel file in this format makes sense as it helps filtering out the corrupted elements. SYLK is a Microsoft file format which is typically used to exchange data between applications specifically spreadsheets. A SYLK file has a .slk suffix.

If your MS Excel file, which is either created with MS Excel 2002 or MS Excel 2003, is corrupt and you can open it, then you must follow the below-mentioned steps to filter the file:

  • Open the damaged or corrupt Excel file, go to File and click Save As
  • In the Save As type list, click SYLK, and then save the file (If your workbook contains more than one spreadsheet, using this step you can only save the active sheet using the SYLK format. In order to save multiple sheets , you can save each sheet as a separate SYLK.)
  • You may encounter a message saying that the selected file type does not support workbooks that contain multiple sheets, click OK to save only the active sheet.
  • And, if you come across a message saying that your workbook contains features which are not compatible with the SYLK format, click Yes
  • Now click Close, if you see a message which says save the changes you made, click Yes
  • Go to the File menu and click Open
  • Select the .slk file that you saved, and then Open it
  • Go to File menu and then click Save as
  • In the Save as type list, click Excel workbook and then Save

To repair Excel file, this method is recommended and used very often. If you still fail to repair damaged excel file or it is severely damaged that you cannot open it, there are plethora of Excel repair utilities which perform repairing operation efficiently.