Can't open DBF file in excel, but will open in Open Office?!?

[lewisgmorris]

Can any one shed any light on why this DBF file will not open in Excel but will open in OpenOffice Calc?

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[XLRATOR]

I've encountered a similar issue few months ago, the only way I could open it is to open MS Excel as a new window then drag and drop the file over.
good luck.

 

[lewisgmorris]

I've encountered a similar issue few months ago, the only way I could open it is to open MS Excel as a new window then drag and drop the file over.
good luck.

This wont work for me already tried it

 

[XLRATOR]

As I said, it was the only way I could open the dBase file with.
Why don't you save it as txt file through open office then migrate to Excel using the External data Utility?

 

[Kenneth Hobson]

What version of Office do you have? If 2013, you will have some work to do before you can hand Dbase IV or Dbase V files. See MicroSoft.com for some files to download dBase for Access 2010.

 

[lewisgmorris]

What version of Office do you have? If 2013, you will have some work to do before you can hand Dbase IV or Dbase V files. See MicroSoft.com for some files to download dBase for Access 2010.

I have 2013, what should i download?

 

[XLRATOR]

As far as I can see, dBase file format has just been depricated by microsoft and Visual foxpro as well is about to be discontinued, so I am still not sure what you can download to keep working on this type of files.

 

[Kenneth Hobson]

When you find what works, please post back.

I would start a search first. Let me google that for you

From Microsoft, you might try the 2010 redistributable: https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=13255

Before doing anything, be sure to set a Windows Restore point.

 

[XLRATOR]

May be the best thing to do is to install Excel 2003, that's actually the last version that handles dBase files.
and that's what I do.

 

[lodger]

One not very elegant workaround could be to create an autoexecute macro in Open Office to open the dbase file and save it as an Excel file. You could write a vb routine to open Open Office, wait for it to do the conversion, close Open Office then pick up the converted excel file and do whatever you need to with that. I know!