"SYLK: File format is not valid" error message when you open file (323626)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Office Excel 2003
Microsoft Excel 2002
Microsoft Excel 2000
Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

This article was previously published under Q323626

For a Microsoft Excel for Macintosh version of this article, see 215591.

SYMPTOMS

When you try to open a text file or a comma-separated variable (CSV) file, you may receive the following error message:

SYLK: File format is not valid

CAUSE

This problem occurs when you open a text file or CSV file and the first two characters of the file are the uppercase letters "I" and "D". For example, the text file may contain the following text:

   ID, STATUS
   123, open
   456, closed

Note This problem does not occur if the first two letters are lowercase "i" and "d".

WORKAROUND

To open your file in Excel, open the file in a text editor, and then insert an apostrophe at the beginning of the first line of text.

How to Insert an Apostrophe

To add an apostrophe to the beginning of the first line of text in your file, follow these steps:

Open the text file in a text editor, such as Notepad. Click before the first character in the first line of text. Press the APOSTROPHE key on your keyboard (').
On the File menu, click Save. Quit the text editor. You can now open the file in Excel.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

MORE INFORMATION

A SYLK file is a text file that begins with "ID" or "ID_xxxx", where xxxx is a text string. The first record of a SYLK file is the ID_Number record. When Excel identifies this text at the beginning of a text file, it interprets the file as a SYLK file. Excel tries to convert the file from the SYLK format, but cannot do so because there are no valid SYLK codes after the "ID" characters. Because Excel cannot convert the file, you receive the error message.

For more information about a similar error message, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

224134 Error message: File format is not valid

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	9/19/2005
Keywords:	kbbug kberrmsg kbpending KB323626