Excel has detected a SYLK file and cannot load it.

Asked By simoncalm 0 points N/A Posted on - 08/04/2011

Hi guys, I have an issue here regarding my csv file, I downloaded from the internet a data sheet that I needed most, when I opened it with Microsoft Excel it cannot be opened instead it displayed an error message that the file is a SYLK file.

 

Microsoft Office Excel

Excel has detected that ‘test.csv’ is a SYLK file, but cannot load it. Either the file has errors or it is not a SYLK file format. Click OK to try to open the file in a different format.

OK          Cancel

I pasted above the error message for your reference of my problem. When I analyzed the error above, it seems that the file is corrupted, that is why I decided to download again another copy of the file. But when I opened it, same problem occurred.

Please help me look for some solution to my problem. Hoping to hear from you soon. Thanks.

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Best Answer by John Corner

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Answered By John Corner 0 points N/A #97957

Excel has detected a SYLK file and cannot load it.

Hello people,

There are text files that improve the CSV by including formulas and formatting and cell contents as well. You know that if you are old enough <g> in this coding field.

The method below should solve your problem:

• Click on OK button and the file will probably open fine
• Then open Office
• Then change the text in cell A1. Text in cell A1 should not be "id" (lower case) and this will avoid the problem.

Tried to give you the solution and hope this will solve your problem.

Thanks.

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• Posted on - 08/04/2011
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Answered By Davis Karrie 0 points N/A #97958

Excel has detected a SYLK file and cannot load it.

You have Microsoft Excel. You use this program but you face one problem that you can not open SYKL file in Microsoft Excel.

But Excel face you an error.

That this file is not open.

Because Excel has not SYLK format. So it can not open this file.If you want to open this file you need new Excel program. The program have SYKL format and then you open this file.

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• Posted on - 12/19/2012
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Answered By Sharath Reddy 590495 points N/A #309064

Excel has detected a SYLK file and cannot load it.

“SYLK” in the error message is the short term for “Symbolic Link.” It is a file format used by Microsoft to normally exchange data between applications particularly spreadsheets or the files created with Microsoft Office Excel and traditionally, SYLK files use the “.slk” extension or suffix. Variants of this format are supported by Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Works, Multiplan, Gnumeric, and OpenOffice.org.

Now, the reason why Microsoft Office Excel thinks that the CSV file is an SYLK file is because of the first two characters of the file. If the first two characters of the CSV file start with an uppercase without quotes “ID”, Microsoft Office Excel assumes that the file is an SYLK type or variant.

This problem goes back to at least Microsoft Office 2003 and is still present in Microsoft Office 2013. Now, to fix the problem, you need to open the CSV file with a text editor like Microsoft Notepad and change the characters to lowercase. Another workaround is to insert an apostrophe (‘) as the first character of the CSV file.

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• Posted on - 03/08/2018
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