Excel to AW6 spreadsheet

[Jane]

When I translate a large Excel spreadsheet to AW 6 via MacLink, not all of the sheet comes through. I'm missing many columns to the right. When I click on the xls file, it opens in AW 6 in sometning that says it's Excel Mac 5 spreadsheet. That version has all the columns to the right of the original PC file. I can save that version as an AW file, and it gets the ending xls.cwk.
Can anyone tell me what's happening here? Should I keep the plain xls version or change it to xls.cwk. Which one is the most stable? And which one will best take changes and additions?
The original Excel spreadsheet came from an Access database prepared on a PC.

[Barry]

1. When I translate a large Excel spreadsheet to AW 6 via MacLink, not all of the sheet comes through. I'm missing many columns to the right.

2. When I click on the xls file, it opens in AW 6 in sometning that says it's Excel Mac 5 spreadsheet. That version has all the columns to the right of the original PC file.

3. I can save that version as an AW file, and it gets the ending xls.cwk.
Can anyone tell me what's happening here?

4. Should I keep the plain xls version or change it to xls.cwk. Which one is the most stable? And which one will best take changes and additions?
The original Excel spreadsheet came from an Access database prepared on a PC.

Hi Jane,

I've numbered your questions to make it a bit easier to keep the answers straight.

1. No idea what's happening here. Possibly MacLink is hitting a character in the file that tells it "That's it. There's no more."

2. The "Excel Mac 5 spreadsheet" likely comes up as a message from the translator telling what format the file is being translated from. The Excel 5 (Mac) format may have been very similar, or have had a similar file code to that of the Excel (Win) file you are opening. AppleWorks is probably using a Claris XTND translator (supplied with earlier versions of AppleWorks/ClarisWorks) to open the file. From the results, it appears to work better than the MacLink translator for this file.

3. AppleWorks adds the .cwk suffix to all AppleWorks files. When you save the spreadsheet as an AppleWorks file, the suffix is added to the full file name, including the .xls suffix added when MS Excel saved the original. You can delete the .xls part before clicking Save, or edit the filename in the Finder after closing the document.

4. Neither file format is inherently more stable than the other. While you are working on the file (in AppleWorks), it's an AppleWorks file, no matter which form it was saved as on the disk. Which format you should keep it in depends on what you're going to do with the file.

If you will work with it only in AppleWorks, it makes sense to keep it as an AppleWorks file as that avoids the step of going through the translator each time you open or save it. It also avoids the annoying message resulting from AppleWorks not considering a file to have been saved until it has been saved as an AppleWorks file.

If you are shuffling the file back and forth between your Mac and a PC, and making changes at both ends of the journey, then saving it as an Excel file makes sense, unless the PC also has Appleworks 6 installed.

Regards,
Barry

[Jane]

Thanks, Barry. This Excel file came to me from someone working for me, using a PC and some sort of Windows program. I am using only AW, so I will keep the cwk version and scrap the rest. Looks like there are details about these programs I don't need to know, but I'm glad you do.