removed file extension by accident, file opens as gibberish now

[durandal05]

Hi,
Someone tried to rename an excel document but forgot to type the file extension, they clicked 'OK' even though Windows warns you that this may make the file unusable. They then opened it in Excel and it must have done some sort of conversion - it now displays a lots of gibberish and is indeed 'unusable.'

Does anyone know how to rescue the file or convert it back?

Very grateful for any assistance with this one
Seems like it's probably lost though...

Andrew

[jwhitwell]

If you didn't save the gibberish version, can't you just rename the file and put the Excel extension back on it? Seems like I've seen that happen and it works... ?

[durandal05]

I tried doing that, I thought it would work too but looks like the other person saved it or maybe Excel saves it when you press 'Yes' to convert upon opening. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Andy Pope]

The user must have saved the file as changing the extension in itself would not effect the contents of the file.

It is likely now that vital information has been lost making the file unusable.
You will need to re create the file. Either from scratch or backup.

[durandal05]

Feared as much
Thanks for taking time to answer
Regards
Andrew