Repairing damaged workbooks

The prompt that no one ever wants to see in Excel is the one that says a workbook has been corrupted and cannot be opened. Of course, there are varying degrees of workbook corruption. Low levels of damage can result in odd behaviors or prompts as you work on the document, while more severe damage can render the workbook inaccessible. In such situations, you might be able to repair the workbook in Excel for Windows. Make sure that you close the affected file because you cannot repair files that are currently open in Excel. Once you’ve done so, perform the following steps:

1. Choose File | Open.
2. Click on the arrow on the right-hand side of the Open button and choose Open and Repair..., as shown in Figure 2.14:

Figure 2.14 – The Open and Repair command

3. Click on Repair, as shown in Figure 2.15:

Figure 2.15 – The Open and Repair dialog box

4. Hopefully, Excel will display...