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geozinger · #1 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 06:18 AM

Greetings all,

I was trying to make a table in 6.5 yesterday, and when I went to import the data from an Excel file, the choice of my file was grayed out. When I opened the PC-native .XLS file in Office:10, it said it was read-only. :evil:

3 questions:

What the h*ll is a read-only Excel file?

How can I make it not read-only?

Is this the reason why Quark would not import it into a table? :x

As you can see, my exposure to MS Office is pretty narrow.

Bart · #2 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 07:24 AM

The Xls file is read-only because it is in use somewhere else. It may not be the Quark doc or actually open but is any other application using it?

gig0 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 07:24 AM

don't know if this will help but right click the file and select properties then uncheck "read only" in the attributes.

'Read only' retains file integrity by preventing it from being overwritten.

geozinger · #4 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gig0

don't know if this will help but right click the file and select properties then uncheck "read only" in the attributes.

'Read only' retains file integrity by preventing it from being overwritten.

Uggh...

Thanks for your idea gig0. But technology is out to get me again...

Well, I guess I should have been more specific. I'm on OSX 10.3.8. The file was generated on Windows (not sure which one). When I view the file on our old crappy Dell (Win Me), the file properties are NOT set to read-only. When I bring it into OSX, is where it becomes read-only (because of the security stuff in OSX, I assume).

In OSX I changed permissions on the file so anyone could read the file, but I am still not able to import this thing into Q6.5. :twisted:

Any other ideas?

gig0 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 08:32 AM

Can you create a pdf of the Excel file on the pc and import that pdf to the mac, if the design allows it?

I try to stay away from these 'PC MS Office translations to the Mac' conversions.

geozinger · #6 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gig0

Can you create a pdf of the Excel file on the pc and import that pdf to the mac, if the design allows it?

Yes, that's the issue. I really can't use the Excel chart at it's present size...

Quote:

Originally Posted by gig0

I try to stay away from these 'PC MS Office translations to the Mac' conversions.

So do I, but as you're well aware, it's d*mn near impossible anymore.

Thanks for the idea though...

I did manage to convert the file to a text format (tab delimited) and was able to get the text out of the Excel file. It's still more fooling around than I would like, tho... :roll:

gig0 · #7 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 08:55 AM

This is why I'm looking forward to Metro.

Job security

geozinger · #8 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gig0

Job security

Hmm... Some days it's more like Job InSanity 8O

prepress_brillance_43 · #9 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 11:39 AM

I forget exactly how, its been awhile, but you can make an .eps out of freehand with the excel file, I don't know if that helps but about a year ago I had a chart in a layout from excel and the ONLY WAY to get it to work was to create an .eps from freehand. Then use the .eps in quark. Good luck.

tuff_gong · #10 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 02:15 PM

I get a cretain job every month in excell. I print to file and distill, sometimes need to tweak w/pitsop, but usually works OK.