I saved an Excel worrksheet on my laptop which runs on Vista. I then emailed
the file to my home computer which runs on Windows XP. When I try to open
the worksheet on the home computer it get an error message which says "This
file is not in a recongnizable format" I've downloaded a number of Microsoft
updates, but they have not helped - I still get the same error message. Any
help would be appreciated.

What is the file extension? XLSX?

Did you have Excel 2007 on your Vista PC? If yes and if you have Excel 2003
on your XP PC then you either need to save the file in Excel 97-2003 format
in your VISTA PC before mailing or download Excel 2007 viewer in your XP PX
with Excel 2003.

"JLS7" wrote:

I saved an Excel worrksheet on my laptop which runs on Vista. I then emailed
the file to my home computer which runs on Windows XP. When I try to open
the worksheet on the home computer it get an error message which says "This
file is not in a recongnizable format" I've downloaded a number of Microsoft
updates, but they have not helped - I still get the same error message. Any
help would be appreciated.

Assuming your home computer is running Excel 2003 or older and the laptop is
running Excel 2007.

BTW...........Operating System has nothing to do with the version of Excel

Installed Office version determines the Excel version.

You will need the Compatibility pack to open 2007 files on 2003 unless the
2007 file was saved as 97-2003 version.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Mon, 1 Dec 2008 17:16:01 -0800, JLS7
wrote:

I saved an Excel worrksheet on my laptop which runs on Vista. I then emailed
the file to my home computer which runs on Windows XP. When I try to open
the worksheet on the home computer it get an error message which says "This
file is not in a recongnizable format" I've downloaded a number of Microsoft
updates, but they have not helped - I still get the same error message. Any
help would be appreciated.

First, it's the Excel version, not the operating system which determines the
file format. From the info provided, we assume you have Excel 2007 on your
Vista machine, and Excel 2003 on your XP computer. If so, your choices a

1. In Excel 2007, use Save As... and save as Excel 97-2003 Workbook. This
file can then be opened in 2003.

2. For Excel 2003, download the Excel 2007 viewer, available from the
Microsoft website.

Regards,
Fred.

"JLS7" wrote in message
...
I saved an Excel worrksheet on my laptop which runs on Vista. I then
emailed
the file to my home computer which runs on Windows XP. When I try to open
the worksheet on the home computer it get an error message which says
"This
file is not in a recongnizable format" I've downloaded a number of
Microsoft
updates, but they have not helped - I still get the same error message.
Any
help would be appreciated.