Microsoft KB Archive/172034

= XL97: Using Microsoft Excel to Save a File to an FTP Site =

Article ID: 172034

Article Last Modified on 4/26/2002

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q172034





SUMMARY
In Microsoft Excel 97, when you save a workbook or any other file to a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site, the name of the file is not always case sensitive. Therefore, you may inadvertently overwrite another file.

This article contains information about using Microsoft Excel to save files to FTP sites.



How to Save a File to an FTP Site
In Microsoft Excel 97, you can save a file to an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site by performing the following steps:  On the File menu, click Save As. In the File Name edit box, type the path to the FTP site. For example:

ftp://myftp

Press ENTER. Then, type the name of the file (myfile.xls, for example) in the File Name edit box, and click Save.

Note that you can combine steps 2 and 3 into a single step by typing the complete path to the FTP site and the file. For example, you can type the following into the File Name edit box

ftp://myftp/myfile.xls

and press ENTER.

Saving a File when a File with the Exact Same Name Exists
When you save a file to an FTP site, Microsoft Excel 97 determines whether a file with the exact same name already exists in that location. If such a file exists, you receive a warning message similar to the following:

The file 'ftp://myftp/myfile.xls' already exists. Do you want to replace the existing file?

If you click Yes, the existing file is replaced. If you click No, you are returned to the Save As dialog box. This is normal behavior in Microsoft Excel.

Saving a File when a File with a Similar Name Exists
If you save a file to an FTP site, and the FTP site already contains a file whose name is the same as the new file except for case, you do not receive a warning message.

For example, if the FTP site ftp://myftp already contains a file named "myfile.xls", you will not receive a warning message if you save a file named "MYFILE.xls" to the same location, because, technically, the file names are different.

However, the original file may be overwritten by the new file. This problem may occur if your FTP server is running Microsoft Windows NT, version 4.0 or earlier, or any other operating system that does not support case sensitivity in file names. NOTE: This problem does not occur when saving files to an FTP server that is running UNIX.

Following the example shown above, the new file "MYFILE.xls" may overwrite the original file "myfile.xls". To prevent this problem from occurring, make sure that your file names differ in some manner other than case; for example, add one or more other characters to the file name, so that it is unique.

Additional query words: XL97 File Inadvertently Overwritten Saving to FTP Site

Keywords: kbinfo kbweb KB172034

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