How to use Excel 97 spreadsheet w/ macros, in Excel 2010 or newer?

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dratkinson
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Location: Centennial CO

How to use Excel 97 spreadsheet w/ macros, in Excel 2010 or newer?

Post by dratkinson »

About 2yrs ago, I upgraded from Win97 to Win10, and been gradually learning my way around the newer OS.

But I'm still tracking my investing on my old PC (Dell P2, Win 98SE, MS Office 97).

Knowing that I must eventually move everything to the newer PC, I'm having a problem that has me stumped. Excel on the newer PC (refurbished Lenovo I5, Win10, MS Office 2010) will not allow me to open my old spreadsheet (Excel97) except as read-only, and the macros are disabled.

I've tried searching for answers on internet. It's been awhile so I've forgotten some of what I've tried: can't get Excel2010 to ignore warning messages and accept my spreadsheet.

Searched on MS and it says Excel2010 is too old and that I should try Excel360. Tried Excel360. No joy. Same warnings. Same read-only spreadsheet.

I'm hoping there are some settings (Excel2010) that will allow me to do what I want... maybe need a magic utility to convert macros to newer format,....

I suppose, if I had too, I could try stripping out all macros on a copy of my spreadsheet, bring it over, then rewrite the macros once I got Excel2010 to accept the spreadsheet---allow me to edit/save it.

Any suggestions for how to proceed from those who have moved to a newer Excel and were able to keep their spreadsheets intact?
d.r.a., not dr.a. | I'm a novice investor; you are forewarned.
jayjayc
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Joined: Tue Jun 25, 2013 11:38 pm

Re: How to use Excel 97 spreadsheet w/ macros, in Excel 2010 or newer?

Post by jayjayc »

Open your newer Excel. Go to File - Options - Trust Center - Trust Center Settings. Click on enable all macros. See if that works.
mary1492
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Re: How to use Excel 97 spreadsheet w/ macros, in Excel 2010 or newer?

Post by mary1492 »

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Last edited by mary1492 on Thu Sep 29, 2022 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
exodusNH
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Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2021 7:21 pm

Re: How to use Excel 97 spreadsheet w/ macros, in Excel 2010 or newer?

Post by exodusNH »

dratkinson wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 5:31 pm About 2yrs ago, I upgraded from Win97 to Win10, and been gradually learning my way around the newer OS.

But I'm still tracking my investing on my old PC (Dell P2, Win 98SE, MS Office 97).

Knowing that I must eventually move everything to the newer PC, I'm having a problem that has me stumped. Excel on the newer PC (refurbished Lenovo I5, Win10, MS Office 2010) will not allow me to open my old spreadsheet (Excel97) except as read-only, and the macros are disabled.

I've tried searching for answers on internet. It's been awhile so I've forgotten some of what I've tried: can't get Excel2010 to ignore warning messages and accept my spreadsheet.

Searched on MS and it says Excel2010 is too old and that I should try Excel360. Tried Excel360. No joy. Same warnings. Same read-only spreadsheet.

I'm hoping there are some settings (Excel2010) that will allow me to do what I want... maybe need a magic utility to convert macros to newer format,....

I suppose, if I had too, I could try stripping out all macros on a copy of my spreadsheet, bring it over, then rewrite the macros once I got Excel2010 to accept the spreadsheet---allow me to edit/save it.

Any suggestions for how to proceed from those who have moved to a newer Excel and were able to keep their spreadsheets intact?
You could also try uploading the spreadsheet into Google Sheets (clever naming...) and see if it can pull the formulas in.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: How to use Excel 97 spreadsheet w/ macros, in Excel 2010 or newer?

Post by Valuethinker »

dratkinson wrote: Wed Aug 17, 2022 5:31 pm About 2yrs ago, I upgraded from Win97 to Win10, and been gradually learning my way around the newer OS.

But I'm still tracking my investing on my old PC (Dell P2, Win 98SE, MS Office 97).

Knowing that I must eventually move everything to the newer PC, I'm having a problem that has me stumped. Excel on the newer PC (refurbished Lenovo I5, Win10, MS Office 2010) will not allow me to open my old spreadsheet (Excel97) except as read-only, and the macros are disabled.

I've tried searching for answers on internet. It's been awhile so I've forgotten some of what I've tried: can't get Excel2010 to ignore warning messages and accept my spreadsheet.

Searched on MS and it says Excel2010 is too old and that I should try Excel360. Tried Excel360. No joy. Same warnings. Same read-only spreadsheet.

I'm hoping there are some settings (Excel2010) that will allow me to do what I want... maybe need a magic utility to convert macros to newer format,....

I suppose, if I had too, I could try stripping out all macros on a copy of my spreadsheet, bring it over, then rewrite the macros once I got Excel2010 to accept the spreadsheet---allow me to edit/save it.

Any suggestions for how to proceed from those who have moved to a newer Excel and were able to keep their spreadsheets intact?
You are probably going to have to plan for migration to Windows 11?

The problem is once MS stops supporting a Windows for security updates, it is basically useless (the Wannacry virus led to tens or hundreds of millions of £ GBP losses in NHS hospitals - many of them were still running key systems on Windows XP).

Windows 11 continues the Microsoft tradition of "improvements" which are just basically tinkering with long established User Interfaces, making them unfamiliar and inflicting a new learning curve. And no, they are often not reversible ie there is no "classic" view.
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dratkinson
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Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:23 pm
Location: Centennial CO

Re: How to use Excel 97 spreadsheet w/ macros, in Excel 2010 or newer?

Post by dratkinson »

Thanks. I'll try:
--jayjayc's ideas to get Office2010 to accept my old spreadsheet.
--mary1492's idea to move my macros into a "cleaned" copy of my spreadsheet. Worst case, it's no great loss if I lose the macros.


Sandbox*. I also remember reading that it might be possible to install a sandbox on my newer PC to run Win98SE. If that worked, then maybe I could reload Office97 and my current spreadsheet. (* Another learning curve.)


Google sheets. I don't want to move my information to the cloud as it could be a problem for my old self after the onset of mental decline.


Mental decline. I'm getting older and don't know how many upgrade cycles (h/w, OS, office,...) I can continue to support.


MS subscription service. I want to avoid being forced to use a Microsoft subscription service to access my spreadsheet information. It's preferable to have an offline, standalone system; my old PC serves this function today, but I don't know how much longer the h/w will survive.


Moving from Win10 to Win11. My newer PC is one h/w version too old to run Win11. So the plan is to keep using Win10 until I'm forced to upgrade.
--My Old PC's h/w health ('95 Dell P2, 64MB RAM, 20GB HD) is driving force for this upgrade effort. It's an okay offline solution as long as it works.
--Will need to learn to do an image backup, if I stay with current newer PC/Win10 as an offline system, assuming I can get convert my spreadsheet.
--I have an acceptable PC recycler that could upgrade h/w, if I decide to go the Win11 route, assuming I can convert my spreadsheet.
--Or I could install a linux flavor and LibreOffice and try to break away from Windows. (My newer PC can support linux.)


If my old PC continues to survive, I'm good with continuing to use it and my existing spreadsheet to track my investments offline. It's physical health is the long pole in the tent; if it dies and I don't have a backup in place, I'll lose access to my non-covered cost basis information. Maintaining my non-covered cost basis information is what I'm trying to protect.

The benefit of an old PC is that, since it longer accesses the internet, it's isolated from attacks. Downside is spreadsheet updates must be manual.
--Every day I enter fund price information. Macros journal and track 1yr of price information. I implemented a version of livesoft's RBD* tracking, and my own version of 52wk price spread tracking. Since all of that information is now* available online, I lose nothing if I lose the macros.
* See RBD Alerts: https://www.gebele.com/charts-and-graphs/rbd-alerts
--Every month, I reconcile my spreadsheet against my investing statements.

So if my old PC survives, or if it doesn't and it's replaced by my converted spreadsheet on a newer offline PC running Win10/Office2010 or linux/LibreOffice, I could live with that.


My newer PC does not have anything on it that I care about: if it's eaten by viruses, I don't lose anything important. It's just nicer to use than trying to use my smartphone's tiny screen/keyboard (forum, email, IRA freefile tax s/w,...); could probably do same with a cheap Chromebook.


If all of this sounds like I'm rambling and don't know my way ahead, it's because I don't know my way ahead. My ideal solution should give me: (1) supportable offline spreadsheet data protection, (2) light internet access, (3) while avoiding MS upgrade cycles and subscription services.

I started this drill 2yrs back after getting my newer PC, but quickly ran into roadblocks (Excel2010 didn't like my old spreadsheet, may need to learn to install Win98 sandbox, may need to switch to linux/LibreOffice, may need to upgrade to Win11,...), so never came up with a solution.


One step at a time. But for now, the simple next step seems to be to try to get my spreadsheet working in Win10/Office2010... so I'll try your ideas. If successful, then I can worry about what to do when Win10 is no longer supported.

Thanks for your suggestions.
d.r.a., not dr.a. | I'm a novice investor; you are forewarned.
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