You receive an error message when you open an Excel 97 file in Excel 4, in Excel 5, or in Excel 95 (170311)

MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel 97 or Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, you can save a file so that it is compatible with earlier versions; the earliest compatible version is Microsoft Excel version 2.1. However, functionality in Microsoft Excel 97 or Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition that is not available in the earlier versions is lost. You can also save a file in the "Microsoft Excel 97 & 5.0/95 Workbook" or the "Microsoft Excel 5.0 & 95-98 Workbook" format so that the file can be opened by Microsoft Excel 97 or Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition and Microsoft Excel 5.0 and 7.0.

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

157497 : XL97: Using the Microsoft Excel 97 & 5.0/95 Workbook Format

159361 : XL97: Read-Only Recommended Opening 97 & 5.0/95 File Format

167077 : XL97: "Cannot Convert" Error Saving File in Earlier Format

REFERENCES

For more information about backward compatibility, click the Index tab in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

   converting from

and then double-click the selected text to go to the "Key information for upgraders and new users" topic.

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel version 5.0 or 7.0, when you try to open a file saved in the Microsoft Excel 97 or Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition workbook format, you receive the following error message

<File name>: file format is not valid.

where <File name> is the name of the file you are opening.

If you try to open the file in Microsoft Excel version 4.0, you receive the following error message:

Cannot read this binary file. If the file was created in a version of Microsoft Excel later than 4.0, use that version to save it as an Excel 4.0 file. Open file as text?

CAUSE

In Microsoft Excel 97 or Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, the file format changed for the first time since Microsoft Excel 5.0. Because of this change, a file that you save in only the Microsoft Excel 97 or the Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition format cannot be opened by earlier versions of Microsoft Excel.