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Old 03-01-2012, 03:54 PM
office_ninja office_ninja is offline File compression Windows XP File compression Office 2007
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File compression
 
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Default File compression


I am working with Windows XP and Office 2010. I am attempting to compress an excel file (.xlsx). I need to access the file directory structure, so the compressed file should give me the option to 'extract all' when I right click the file.

The instructions I'm following (from a book) say to append .zip to the end of the file name in the file properties window. The file name should then be 'file_name.xlsx.zip'. This, however, does not compress the file.
I've attempted a couple of other ways to compress the file with no luck.

Any suggestions?
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Old 03-01-2012, 08:48 PM
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macropod macropod is offline File compression Windows 7 64bit File compression Office 2010 32bit
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Hi OfficeNinja,

The native file formats for Office 2007 & later already uses zip compression. The docx, xlsx, etc extensions are there so that Windows knows which applications to open them with. Applying further compression won't achieve much - and could actually increase the file size due to the space required for storing the compressor's file tokens.

If you change the docx, xlsx, etc extensions to zip, you can then use other software to examine these files' internal structure.
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Last edited by macropod; 03-11-2012 at 12:41 AM. Reason: typo
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Old 03-01-2012, 09:58 PM
office_ninja office_ninja is offline File compression Windows XP File compression Office 2007
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Paul, thanks for the reply. If the file were already compressed the 'extract all' option would be available. I attempted to change the file name extension to simply .zip and the directory is still hidden.

Do you happen to know any other form of accessing the directory structure?

O.N.
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Old 03-01-2012, 10:18 PM
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Hi OfficeNinja,

What are you trying to view the structure with? I don't know what directory structure you're especting to see, but it's a very simple affair. With the method I described, using WinZip on a basic document reveals the following folders:
_rels\
word\_rels\
docProps\
word\
word\theme
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Old 03-01-2012, 10:49 PM
office_ninja office_ninja is offline File compression Windows XP File compression Office 2007
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Exactly, I need to access the the xlm files in the a_rels folder. I understand windows xp has native compression capabilities. I might try winzip, though there might be a way around having to install software by having windows do it. idk

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Old 03-01-2012, 11:04 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by office_ninja View Post
I need to access the the xlm files in the a_rels folder.
I can't see what that has to do with compressing the xlsx file though, as that would make the xm lfiles even less accessible. If anything, extracting the file means de-compressing the file, for which see: http://www.jkp-ads.com/articles/Exce...leFormat02.asp
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Last edited by macropod; 03-02-2012 at 06:07 PM.
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Old 03-02-2012, 11:43 AM
office_ninja office_ninja is offline File compression Windows XP File compression Office 2007
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Because, as far as I know, the only way to access the 'extract all' option is first compress the file. Extraction can only be accomplished on a compressed file.
Thanks for the link! I'm going to try that out.
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Old 03-02-2012, 06:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by office_ninja View Post
Because, as far as I know, the only way to access the 'extract all' option is first compress the file. Extraction can only be accomplished on a compressed file.
Not with an Office 2007+ file format. As I said before, these are already zip archives - they just have a different extension. So, if you wanted to access the 'extract all' option, all you need to do is to explicitly open the files with a program like WinZip or change the file extension to zip so that you can do the extraction. Compressing the files beforehand will mean the only thing you can extract is the xlsx archive as a single file - it won't give you access to that file's internal structure.
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Old 03-11-2012, 01:00 AM
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Hi OfficeNinja,

I've lately had occasion to delve into extracting data from Office 2007 files. The following macro is based on that work. It probably does far more than you need. I can also be run from any Office 2007/2010 application, as none of the code is application-specific. After selecting the folder to process, the code extracts all files in each xlsx/xlsm file's _rels\ folder and outputs them to a new 'XlRels' folder in the parent folder. Each output file's name is prefixed with the parent file's name. If you want to extract data from just one file, the easiest way would be to put in into a folder on its own, then point the macro to that folder.
Code:
Sub ExtractXlRels()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim SBar As Boolean           ' Status Bar flag
Dim StrInFold As String, StrOutFold As String, StrTmpFold As String
Dim StrDocFile As String, StrZipFile As String, Obj_App As Object, i As Long
Dim StrFile As String, StrFileList As String, StrMediaFile As String, j As Long
StrInFold = GetFolder
If StrInFold = "" Then Exit Sub
' Store current Status Bar status, then switch on
SBar = Application.DisplayStatusBar
Application.DisplayStatusBar = True
StrOutFold = StrInFold & "\XlRels"
StrTmpFold = StrInFold & "\Tmp"
'Test for existing tmp & output folders, create they if they don't already exist
If Dir(StrTmpFold, vbDirectory) = "" Then MkDir StrTmpFold
If Dir(StrOutFold, vbDirectory) = "" Then MkDir StrOutFold
'Create a Shell App for accessing the zip archives
Set Obj_App = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
'Look for docx files to process
StrFile = Dir(StrInFold & "\*.xls?", vbNormal)
'Build the file list
While StrFile <> ""
  StrFileList = StrFileList & "|" & StrFile
  StrFile = Dir()
Wend
'process the file list
j = UBound(Split(StrFileList, "|"))
For i = 1 To j
  'ID the document to process
  StrDocFile = StrInFold & "\" & Split(StrFileList, "|")(i)
  ' Report progress on Status Bar.
  Application.StatusBar = "Processing file " & i & " of " & j & ": " & StrDocFile
  'Define the zip name
  StrZipFile = Split(StrDocFile, ".")(0) & ".zip"
  'In case the file is in use or zip file has no media
  On Error Resume Next
  'Create the zip file, by simply copying to a new file with a zip extension
  FileCopy StrDocFile, StrZipFile
  'Extract the zip archive's media files to the temporary folder
  Obj_App.NameSpace(StrTmpFold & "\").CopyHere Obj_App.NameSpace(StrZipFile & "\_rels\").Items
  'Delete the zip file - the loop takes care of timing issues
  Do While Dir(StrZipFile) <> ""
    Kill StrZipFile
  Loop
  'Restore error trapping
  On Error GoTo 0
  'Get the temporary folder's file listing
  StrMediaFile = Dir(StrTmpFold & "\*.*", vbNormal)
  'Process the temporary folder's files
  While StrMediaFile <> ""
    'Copy the file to the output folder, prefixed with the source file's name
    FileCopy StrTmpFold & "\" & StrMediaFile, StrOutFold & "\" & Split(Split(StrFileList, "|")(i), ".")(0) & StrMediaFile
    'Delete the media file
    Kill StrTmpFold & "\" & StrMediaFile
    'Get the next media file
    StrMediaFile = Dir()
  Wend
Next
'Delete the temporary folder
RmDir StrTmpFold
' Clear the Status Bar
Application.StatusBar = False
' Restore original Status Bar status
Application.DisplayStatusBar = SBar
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
 
Function GetFolder() As String
Dim oFolder As Object
GetFolder = ""
Set oFolder = CreateObject("Shell.Application").BrowseForFolder(0, "Choose a folder", 0)
If (Not oFolder Is Nothing) Then GetFolder = oFolder.Items.Item.Path
Set oFolder = Nothing
End Function
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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]
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