One of the hallmarks of the Office suite is that its applications all work together, and sometimes very seamlessly. For instance, you can easily open Excel files from within Word. Doing so, however, can wreak havoc on your original workbook when you later save the Excel workbook from within Word. (Word assumes that you will want to work on the file in Word in the future, and so makes changes to the document format. This then makes the workbook of little value in Excel.)
Of course, routinely trashing original workbook files by opening then in Word and then saving them again is a great way to ruin a day. It is also a great way to waste a lot of time and money. If you are in an organization, one way to protect your Excel files is to only makes copies of the workbook available to others. That way your original is intact, but the copies are free to be messed up.
If it is imperative that others get to the original workbook (perhaps to make changes in the data), the only way to protect an Excel file so it is not "openable" in Word is to disable the Excel file converter for Word. You do this by starting the Office Setup program, choosing to add/remove features, and then turning off the converter. (The exact way in which you do this depends on the version of Office you are using.) Generally the converter is in an area of Setup called Text Converters; look for a converter called "Microsoft Excel Converter."
Once the converter is removed from Word, you can again start the program, but you won't be able to load an Excel workbook into Word.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2624) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
If you need to stuff the current workbook's filename and path into a cell or a header or footer, you'll appreciate the ...
Discover MoreWhen you save a workbook to disk, you may want to automatically save a duplicate workbook in a separate location. This ...
Discover MoreDoes your macro need to add information to the end of a text file? This is called appending, and is done using the ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)
Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2020 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments