Knowledge Base

XL2000: Error Message: This File Is Not in a Recognizable Format

PSS ID Number: 224135

Article Last Modified on 11/5/2003

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Excel 2000

This article was previously published under Q224135

ERROR MESSAGE

When you open a file in Microsoft Excel, the following error message appears:

This file is not in a recognizable format.

If you know the file is from another program which is incompatible with Microsoft Excel, click Cancel, then open this file in its original application. If you want to open the file later in Microsoft Excel, save it in a format that is compatible, such as text format.

If you suspect the file is damaged, click Help for more information about solving the problem.

If you still want to see what text is contained in the file, click OK. Then click Finish in the Text Import Wizard.

NOTE: Microsoft Office 2000 has built-in functionality that allows you to get more information about difficult-to-troubleshoot alerts or error messages. If you want to enable this functionality for this and other error messages in Microsoft Office 2000, please download the Microsoft Office 2000 Customizable Alerts file from the Microsoft Office Update Web site at the following address:

http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/alerts.aspx

NOTE: If you reached this article by clicking the Web Info button in an error message, you already have Customizable Alerts enabled.

CAUSE

File Corruption

Opening a Multiplan File

THINGS TO TRY

File Corruption

If you are opening an Excel workbook file, the file may be damaged. For suggestions on how to recover data contained in a damaged workbook, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

179871 XL2000: Methods for Recovering Data from Damaged Workbooks

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Opening a Multiplan File

Microsoft Excel cannot open Multiplan files. You must save the Multiplan file into a format that Excel can read. To save the file into a compatible format, use either of the following methods.

Method 1: Convert to SYLK Using Multiplan

Open the file in MultiPlan and export it into the Symbolic Link (SYLK) file format. The versions of Microsoft Excel listed at the beginning of this article have a built-in converter for the SYLK file format.

Method 2: Convert to Excel Workbook Using Excel 5.0

Open the MultiPlan file in Microsoft Excel version 5.0 and save the file as a Microsoft Excel workbook file. You should then be able to open the file because Microsoft Excel version 5.0 includes a MultiPlan converter.

For more information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

214250 XL2000: Cannot Open Multiplan Files