Can't save in .xml format

[PurpleJAF]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to these forums, so thanks for having them. Right now I'm so frustrated, I could through my computer out the window.

I work from home and the project I am on requires Excel, which I don't have. I'm trying to use OO for this, but it needs saved in .xml format. The other day I opened the document and edited it and saved it fine. Today, I sit down to do my work and am unable to save the document. I've lost 4 hours of my life trying to figure this out.

I can save in other formats, but when I try to save in .xml it appears to be saving and then hangs up for a few minutes at the end of which time I get a "can't write" message. Is there any fix for this or does anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks!
JAF

[Villeroy]

XML is not a file format. XML is a meta-file format, a convention about how to define your own file formats. If you need one of the XML flavours that is generated by MS Excel then you've got to use MS Excel.

I can save in other formats, but when I try to save in .xml

How exactly do you try to save as xml. I don't manage to do that. All I can do is unzip the content.xml of a native office document but that might not be the flavour of xml you need.
And then I can export as XHTML which is an XML flavour readable by modern browsers.

[kingfisher]

Following the original post I have for the first time saved a Writer document as an .xml file. I don't know why anyone would use Writer to create such a document. In any case, I had no difficulty.

[PurpleJAF]

These are the instructions that I received for the project.

>>You will now be saving the files not as an .xlsx file, but as an XML Spreadsheet file going forward. That simply means that when you save the file, where it says "Save as type:, click and scroll down to "XML Spreadsheet 2003."<<

It appears that I was able to do it the first time I opened the document, but any of the times I have tried to save it subsequent to that, it doesn't save.

I hope that makes sense. I'm really not familiar with all the aspects of Excel and/or spreadsheet programs.

Thanks!
JAF

[Villeroy]

Oh, I forgot about the infamous XML flavour for Excel spreadsheets. OOo should support this better. But nobody improves the conversion filters while the core developers feel no need to waste their time with another exotic file format just because Microsoft offered it a decade ago.

Save the file in the native file format of your office suite (*.ods).
Then try some document conversion service such as http://zamzar.com
I believe that the "xml" file format they offer refers to that XML flavour of Excel 2003.

P.S. I can use OOo to convert simple spreadsheets to and from Excel.xml without problems. My spreadsheets are simple and clearly structured without too much formatting.

[PurpleJAF]

Not sure what you consider "too much formatting," but this project does require me to have some live links in some of the fields. It seems strange that I could save it with the first page completed, but as soon as I added something to the second page (tab) of the document this started happening.

Thanks for the help!
JAF