Microsoft KB Archive/83970

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Cannot Save Word Documents as Spreadsheets or Databases

Q83970



The information in this article applies to:


  • Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0a-CD, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c





SUMMARY

The Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft Multiplan, and Ashton-Tate dBase spreadsheet converters available for use with Word for Windows 2.0 are designed only for reading the respective file formats into Word. Therefore, even though you can select each of these options in the Save File as Type field of the File, Save As menu, you will receive an error message similar to the following if you attempt to do so:

Word is unable to Save Excel Worksheet files. The converter for this format is only capable of opening files.

Workarounds

To export information from a Word for Windows table to your particular spreadsheet or database, use one of the following two workarounds:

Export Word Tables as Tab or Comma Delimited Text

  1. Determine what field delimiting character your spreadsheet or database software recognizes when importing ASCII or ANSI text files.
  2. In Word, from the Table menu, choose Select Table.
  3. From the Table menu, choose Convert Table to Text.
  4. In the Separate Text With box, select either Tabs or Commas, based on the delimiter your spreadsheet or database application accepts.
  5. From the File menu, choose Save As. Enter a new filename for the document, and save the file in Text Only format.

If your target spreadsheet is Excel, an alternative workaround to export the entire Word for Windows file is to copy the table information through the Windows Clipboard as follows:


  1. Select a portion of the table or the entire table with the Select Table command.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose Copy.
  3. Switch to the Excel application.
  4. Position the cursor in the appropriate cell, and from the Edit menu, choose Paste.

Additional query words: 2.00a XLS binary export textconv geninfo

Keywords : kbconversion
Issue type :
Technology :


Last Reviewed: November 4, 2000
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