How can I work with old (legacy) Microsoft files such as .xls and .doc?

Certain functionality is not available for files from old versions of Microsoft. These are files such as Excel 97-2003 workbooks (*.xls) or Word 97-2003 (*.doc), and files such as Office templates or macros (.dotx or xlsm).

With files from these old versions, Microsoft does not provide the same functionality as the current versions of Office. FYI utilises a lot of Microsoft’s more recent tools and functionality which are not compatible with these old file types. You cannot, for example, preview legacy documents from the FYI Drawer and they cannot be put into Co-edit. You also may not be able to open a legacy document in Office Online.

Files from an old version of Office display "Word - Legacy" or "Spreadsheet - Legacy" at the top of the drawer.

To ensure that all functionality is available in the current versions of Office, you need to export the file and add it to FYI as a new document.

  1. Select the document in FYI.
  2. Export the document, using the Export button.
    This exports the document to the Downloads folder on your computer.
  3. In your Downloads folder, open the file.
  4. In the Office application, use Save As and in the file type drop-down select a new file type (.docx or .xlsx).
  5. Drag and drop the file to FYI, or into your FYI - My Imports folder in OneDrive (refer to Drag and Drop and Using OneDrive FYI - My Imports to Automatically Import to your In Tray).
    This adds the file as a new document in FYI which you can file accordingly.
  6. Delete the FYI document that holds the original legacy file.

Note: We highly recommend that you use newer versions of the office applications and save files with the new file extensions.

 

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