wHY WON'T MOST DOWNLOADED .XLS FILES OPEN IN VERSION 5.0 ?

I am still using Excel Version 5.0. (Ha-Ha) When I try to open a .XLS file
from a Website, I get an error message reading something like: "not a valid
..xls file"

Is this because 5.0 is so old, or is there another issue here? How can I
deal with this?

Thank you.

When xl97 was released, the format of the .xls files changed. xl97 (and above)
can read those old file versions, but that old version can't read the newer
files.

Time to visit eBay (xl2k should be available/cheap)????

Al the Elder wrote:
>
> I am still using Excel Version 5.0. (Ha-Ha) When I try to open a .XLS file
> from a Website, I get an error message reading something like: "not a valid
> .xls file"
>
> Is this because 5.0 is so old, or is there another issue here? How can I
> deal with this?
>
> Thank you.

--

Dave Peterson

You would have to have the file saved for you as an Excel 5 file. using
File, Save As in the later Excel version.

If you have no control and don't want to update, AND you don't need
macros you can open the file with Open Office (I think it's about 72MB download
when you count all the parts you need) and then
I think you can save the file as Excel 5 from there with Save As (see links in)
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/backup.htm


Open Office is free Open Source project nothing to do with Microsoft,

---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Al the Elder" <Al the [email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I am still using Excel Version 5.0. (Ha-Ha) When I try to open a .XLS file
> from a Website, I get an error message reading something like: "not a valid
> .xls file"
>
> Is this because 5.0 is so old, or is there another issue here? How can I
> deal with this?
>
> Thank you.