One of my computers is now operating on Vista/Windows Mobile Device Center/MS
Office 2007 with the other still on XP/Active Sync 4.5/MS Office 2003.
Reading MS Word files in Office 2007 seem to be no problem, but I am unable
to read the spreadsheet files (.pxl) in Excel 2007. Do I need to convert
them and if so how ?

At 03 May 2008 15:26:00 -0700 mikes wrote:


There are two ways off the top of my head- convert them on the device (open
a .pxl file, select "Save As..." and select .xls in the "type" box) or just
e-mail them from the device- .pwd or.pxl files are converted when e-mailed
as attachments on the assumption that the recipient of the e-mail has no
Pocket PC, and therefore wouldn't have the conversion tools (which are
installed by Activesync.)

Thanks, Todd. Yes, I have tried saving as a .xls file, but then the device
can't see it. Maybe I'm hoping for a bit much. The current .pxl file can be
seen (and worked on) by both the device and the notebook working on XP/MS
Office 2003 through Active Sync. I assumed the notebook working on Vista/MS
Office 2007 through Windows Mobile Device Centre would be able to do the same
?. Apparently not ?

"Todd Allcock" wrote:

The device can't 'see' it, or can't open it? There is/was and option setting
that determined what file types the Excel file open dialog showed. It might
be set to only display pxl. Can you open an xls if you got to file explorer
and find the xls and click it?

AFAIK the PPC always supported native xls file types, to accomodate your
getting one via e-mail unconverted. Same was true for .doc files. The PPC
was defaulted to saving as the pocket version which was limited in features,
but also significantly smaller. The conversion from desk to device was done
by AS. More recently the pocket formats are no longer used on the devices at
all, so the conversion no longer exists in WMDC.

"mikes" <mikes@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:72B55AB1-5CA1-45F1-813C-5408BF1F87D5@microsoft.com...

At 04 May 2008 01:00:01 -0700 mikes wrote:
That's a setting in Pocket Excel's options- choose "all known file types"
rather than "Pocket Excel .pxl files."

No- "modern" devices (WM5+) have dispensed with Pocket formats, but can
read/write then for backwards compatiblity. For whatever rea on, MS left
out the conversion filters from WMDC as a result. (The automatic
conversion via e-mailing doesn't happen in WM5/6 devices either.)

Thanks, Sven. That worked !

"Sven" wrote:

"mikes" wrote:

At 16 May 2008 08:51:00 -0700 what is the answer wrote:


If you had the ability to repost this question from a few weeks ago, why
didn't you post any of the answers?

You can convert them on the device (Open the file, then select "Save As"
and .xls as type), or e-mail them from the device to the PC.

I have a similar problem but the answers so far do not solve my issue.
I want to sync excel files between my Vista PC and Windows Mobile 2003 PDA
PDA will only read .pxl files (it can see .xls files but not open them)
PC will only read .xls files

Yes I can on PDA save .pxl file as .xls but if you think about it this is
not a workable solution if I want to keep PDA and PC synchronised with latest
files.

Is there a solution other than to go back to XP?

At 18 Jun 2008 03:15:00 -0700 agesofman wrote:
That's odd- my Dell Axim X5 (PPC 2003) has no problems opening .xls files.
Keep in mind, however, the PPC only has a subset of "real" Excel functions-
perhaps the sheets you tried were too large, complex, or used functions the
PPC didn't understand? I've used sheets of up to 700kb in size on the Axim.


You can use an alternative spreadsheet program on the PPC that support more
functions, like Stephen Bye's SpreadCE, or Planmaker from Softmaker
(roughly $30 and $50 US respectively, IIRC, and both offer free trials,)
but the included Pocket Excel should be able to open your .xls files.

"Todd Allcock" wrote:

correct, my i-mate will read 'normal' excel files - however the reason I use
excel files as this was the only no cost way I could figure out to password
protect individual files (with the palm I used before you could designate any
file for password protection - so it was a real suprise to me I could not do
this on a pocket pc device!).

Once I PW protect excel file, I can no longer open it on i-mate.
rgds
bob

At 24 Jun 2008 08:51:01 -0700 agesofman wrote:

That's a poser...

Excel Mobile/Pocket Excel, AFAIK, don't support password protection of .xls
files. You might want to checkout the Excel Mobile alternatives I
suggested- both claim to support encryption (but I don't know if that means
the password protection works across a sync or only on the device itself.
Both programs- Softmaker's "Planmaker" and Bye's "SpreadCE" have free trial
periods to allow full testing.)

Good luck!