encrypted excel file will not open

I am tyring to open an excel file from NEEC. It is an energy compliance form used to evaluate energy usage in buildings. It opens easily in excel, without mention of encryption. But when I try opening in numbers all i get is the error message, "document encrypted and can't be opened"

Anyone passed this hurdle before?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Feb 18, 2012 8:48 PM

Reply
11 replies

Feb 19, 2012 7:27 AM in response to jmartinarch

As far as I know, it's not Apple duty to break the protection schemes delivered by M…oSoft.

Is M…oSoft delivering a way to open encrypted Apple's items ?

At this time, it doesn't deliver a way to open non encrypted ones 😟


Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) dimanche 19 février 2012

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.3

My Box account is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

Feb 20, 2012 12:44 PM in response to Wayne Contello

thanks I will give it a shot. someone else suggested openoffice.org.


Here is a comment from one of the administrators of the energy code.


"The forms do not require a password to open, however there are several auto-calculating cells that are write protected. If you select one of these cell you will likely see a pop-up window requesting a password for access to this cell. All cells that you need to input information into are not write protected. I use a Mac as well and do not experience any problems filling out the forms."


I wish I could open it in Numbers.

Feb 20, 2012 2:00 PM in response to jmartinarch

Numbers does not support 'locked' cells, with or without passwords. Without the password requirement, it might open the file, but the 'locked' cells would not retain that property (or their current value, but not the formula, would be imported.


For now, at least, LibreOffice or OpenOffice.org appear to offer workable alternatives.


Regards,

Barry

Apr 4, 2012 11:36 PM in response to jmartinarch

Hi

I can not comment specifically on NEEC, but:

I too have Excel files that are password protected to open and modify.

When I transfer this file from a PC (or a Mac) to another Mac, it does not open when i click on it, and gives the same message in this thread about encryption.

I solved it by going to Finder

Highlight/Select (don't double-click) the document in Finder

Go to "file" on finder menu bar

Go to "get info" on the drop-down list

Click on "open with"

Change the default from "Numbers" to "Microsoft Excel"

Click on your document

And you are away

You will of course have to have the relevant passwords

And I suspect, you can save back to Numbers


I hope this is useful to you


Thanks


Joe

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encrypted excel file will not open

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