I'm upgrading/converting old spreadsheets (mostly Excel 2000, but with some Quattro Pro) to Excel 2010, and in one of them I encounter Error 1004 (Method 'SaveAs' of object '_Workbook' failed) with these commands:



In both instances, I've traced the problem to the FileFormat specification (which, if eliminated, allows the method to work, albeit saving in the default file format). I was able to get the first line to work by replacing xlExcel9795 with xlExcel8 to save the workbook in Excel 97-2003 format, but I haven't been able to find a replacement/alternate for xlDBF3 (which I believe is dBase III).

Any suggestions as to why the FileFormat values (which are given in the online Excel Developer Help) don't work, or something I can use to save as a DBF3 file?

Hi CGM3,

Is there a particular reason you want to save in formats that in most respects died long ago? IIRC, to be able to do so, you'd need to install the relevant file converters, and I'm not even sure you can get them any more. If you don't see those formats listed as options in the File|SaveAs dialogue, you don't have the filters installed. The reason the values remain in the Excel vba specification is because someone might still have files in those formats (plus the filters to go with them) and needs to maintain something for, eg DbaseIII.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

As I said, these spreadsheets were originally done in Excel 2000, and both access a dBase III database and save as a DBF3 file (which I think is used to transfer data into another dBase III database). The company is installing Office 2010 as the new standard, and my project is to upgrade a number of workbooks (including translating some Quattro Pro stuff to Excel) and Access databases.

It's possible that the dBase files are to be transferred to Access, but I haven't had a chance to check with the people who use the spreadsheets. It's also conceivable that saving as text (possibly tab-separated or CSV format) would serve the same purpose.

I tracked down the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 help site, which states that Excel 2010 does not save files in DBF3 or DBF4 format, so that pretty much settles that. Still, do you have any idea where I might go looking for file converters (it's always good to have options)?

Thanks for the timely response.

The last Excel version to support the DB3 format was Excel 2003. If you have that or an earlier version, you can run both on the same PC (but you don have to install the older one first). Alternatively, there are products that appear to work with Office 2007 (at least). See, for example:
http://xdbf.com/excel-2007-converter.html
http://download.cnet.com/DBF-to-XLS-...-10405779.html
http://www.brothersoft.com/xls-to-db...ter-71739.html

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks for the info, at least now I can offer alternatives to the users.

Unless anyone else has a response, I guess we can mark this matter as closed.