Donate to Remove ads

Got a credit card? use our Credit Card & Finance Calculators

Thanks to johnstevens77,Bhoddhisatva,scotia,Anonymous,Cornytiv34, for Donating to support the site

Spreadsheet save

Seek assistance with all types of tech. - computer, phone, TV, heating controls etc.
cinelli
Lemon Slice
Posts: 550
Joined: November 9th, 2016, 11:33 am
Has thanked: 231 times
Been thanked: 160 times

Spreadsheet save

#462046

Postby cinelli » November 30th, 2021, 11:45 am

Does anyone know why, when I open a spreadsheet file then immediately close it, it asks the question, “Save changes to document abc.xls before closing?”? This happens only to some of my files. I am using Libre Office. This is not a big deal but it is annoying. Thanks.

Cinelli

kyu66
2 Lemon pips
Posts: 247
Joined: November 14th, 2016, 5:14 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 131 times

Re: Spreadsheet save

#462051

Postby kyu66 » November 30th, 2021, 12:10 pm

cinelli wrote:Does anyone know why, when I open a spreadsheet file then immediately close it, it asks the question, “Save changes to document abc.xls before closing?”? This happens only to some of my files. I am using Libre Office. This is not a big deal but it is annoying. Thanks.

Cinelli

Given this is not happening for all files, probably not a global LibreOffice setting.

A few possibilities:

1. The .xls is a Microsoft Excel format so on opening the document has to be imported and may be modified to comply with LibreOffice data structures (ready to be saved in the native .ods format.)

2. The spreadsheet uses some macro (built-in) function which changes a cell, e.g. a date-time based function such as NOW) which is computed on opening. This may be treated as a change.

Unfortunately, this may probably be one of those annoying things one has to live with.

kyu66

Breelander
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 4179
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:42 pm
Has thanked: 999 times
Been thanked: 1855 times

Re: Spreadsheet save

#462059

Postby Breelander » November 30th, 2021, 12:37 pm

cinelli wrote:Does anyone know why, when I open a spreadsheet file then immediately close it, it asks the question, “Save changes to document abc.xls before closing?”? This happens only to some of my files. I am using Libre Office....

kyu66's suggestion 1 is the most likely reason. I even get the same 'save changes...?' question when opening then closing some of my Excel spreadsheets in another version of Excel. The 'Do you want to save...?' box explains that "Microsoft Excel recalculate formulas when opening files last saved by an earlier version of Excel".

A third possibility is that a cell's value is linked to a cell on another spreadsheet, so will get updated every time you open it.

cinelli
Lemon Slice
Posts: 550
Joined: November 9th, 2016, 11:33 am
Has thanked: 231 times
Been thanked: 160 times

Re: Spreadsheet save

#462087

Postby cinelli » November 30th, 2021, 2:50 pm

Thank you both. The file in question doesn't have any fancy macro or references to other files. It does have quite a few tabs though. But then so do other files which do not insist on being saved. I will live with it.

Cinelli

UncleEbenezer
The full Lemon
Posts: 10690
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 8:17 pm
Has thanked: 1459 times
Been thanked: 2965 times

Re: Spreadsheet save

#462143

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 30th, 2021, 6:08 pm

I wonder if it's some accidental change, like resizing some column by about 0.0mm without realising it? Easy to do.

Or another possibility is if it had previously exited uncleanly, there might have been unsaved changes which it applied on opening the document. It will have warned you of that, but did you just click straight through a warning?

cinelli
Lemon Slice
Posts: 550
Joined: November 9th, 2016, 11:33 am
Has thanked: 231 times
Been thanked: 160 times

Re: Spreadsheet save

#462396

Postby cinelli » December 1st, 2021, 5:56 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:I wonder if it's some accidental change, like resizing some column by about 0.0mm without realising it? Easy to do.

It really is
Open file (with no error message)
Literally do nothing
Close file - generates "Save?" message

A further experiment is that if I save the file as type xlsx, I don't get this behaviour. So I think I will save the file in this format. There is no real reason to use xls. It is odd. though, that is is only this single file which shows this behaviour. Other files with virtually the same content can be opened and closed without a problem.

Cinelli

kyu66
2 Lemon pips
Posts: 247
Joined: November 14th, 2016, 5:14 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 131 times

Re: Spreadsheet save

#462403

Postby kyu66 » December 1st, 2021, 6:13 pm

cinelli wrote:A further experiment is that if I save the file as type xlsx, I don't get this behaviour. So I think I will save the file in this format. There is no real reason to use xls. It is odd. though, that is is only this single file which shows this behaviour. Other files with virtually the same content can be opened and closed without a problem.

Cinelli

This sounds like the .xls files may have been created with different versions of Excel and LibreOffice is doing something different with the versions on open/import. The .xlsx files are a newer standard of file which may be better supported by LibreOffice.

kyu66

BobGe
Lemon Slice
Posts: 550
Joined: November 5th, 2016, 12:49 am
Has thanked: 177 times
Been thanked: 125 times

Re: Spreadsheet save

#463692

Postby BobGe » December 7th, 2021, 3:01 am

For Libre I can't be sure as I'm not familiar with it but in Excel the use of a "volatile function" will cause this response (unless you turn auto-recalc off, IIRC).


Return to “Technology - Computers, TV, Phones etc.”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests