# how to fix: Excel file - you open it, immediately close it, and it still asks if you want to save it **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-excel-file-you-open-it-immediately-close-it-and-it-still-asks-if-you-want-to-save-it/687411 "2014-05-01T02:49:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Win\_Place\_Show](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/win_place_show/32/13469_2.png) [@Win\_Place\_Show](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Win_Place_Show)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-excel-file-you-open-it-immediately-close-it-and-it-still-asks-if-you-want-to-save-it/687411/1 "2014-05-01T02:49:58Z")
I normally fancy myself a pretty decent Excel guy; I can write the nested IF-THEN formulas, I’m the only one in the office who understands array formulas (“no, you gotta hit CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER”), and I’m somewhat proficient with macros. But we have a handful of files (multiple tabs, but no obvious external links - “Edit Links” is grayed-out), that whenever you open them - even if you try and immediately close out of them - you still get the “want to Save?” message. And yes - I get the whole “wow, #firstworldproblems” and all that - but any ideas of what else I could look for? We don’t ever use the TODAY() or NOW() function (that might automatically update a date/time within a cell upon opening), so that’s out. Any insight into ideas for trying to fix this? Guaranteed personal recognition if you come up with the solution - but of course “that and a quarter…” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-excel-file-you-open-it-immediately-close-it-and-it-still-asks-if-you-want-to-save-it/687411/2 "2014-05-01T03:50:50Z")
I’ve seen this recently, and have no idea why. It isn’t even consistent! It happens sometimes…but not always! (In Word, if I save a document as .docx, then save it as .pdf, then try to exit, it asks me if I want to “save changes.” No changes! Why does it ask?) (Um…what does CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER do?) ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-excel-file-you-open-it-immediately-close-it-and-it-still-asks-if-you-want-to-save-it/687411/3 "2014-05-01T03:58:17Z")
Have you checked to see if the files in question have an autorun macro in the files? ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-excel-file-you-open-it-immediately-close-it-and-it-still-asks-if-you-want-to-save-it/687411/4 "2014-05-01T04:18:37Z")
Are you opening it in a more recent version of Excel than it is saved as? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-excel-file-you-open-it-immediately-close-it-and-it-still-asks-if-you-want-to-save-it/687411/5 "2014-05-01T04:27:46Z")
> [@flight](#): > > Are you opening it in a more recent version of Excel than it is saved as? This is the commonest reason I have for getting this kind of message. I suspect that there are two solutions: (1) don’t save the file on closing it, if you have made no changes that you want saved. (2) save the file as the newer version if you want to avoid having this happen again in the future when you open the file. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-excel-file-you-open-it-immediately-close-it-and-it-still-asks-if-you-want-to-save-it/687411/6 "2014-05-01T04:53:39Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I’ve seen this recently, and have no idea why. It isn’t even consistent! It happens sometimes…but not always! > > (In Word, if I save a document as .docx, then save it as .pdf, then try to exit, it asks me if I want to “save changes.” No changes! Why does it ask?) > > (Um…what does CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER do?) In that case, it’s pretty simple. Saving as PDF doesn’t save absolutely everything, as it’s not a native Word format. So the software probably marks the file as unsaved when you save that way. Try doing it the other way around. Save as PDF, then as DOCX. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-excel-file-you-open-it-immediately-close-it-and-it-still-asks-if-you-want-to-save-it/687411/7 "2014-05-01T05:47:05Z")
> [@Win\_Place\_Show](#): > > Any insight into ideas for trying to fix this? Guaranteed personal recognition if you come up with the solution - but of course “that and a quarter…” 😃 My first guess is that this has nothing to do with the file itself, but with the particular printer that’s defaulted for the machine that you open the file on. When you change the printer “settings” of a file, MS Office programs consider that an edit. [QUOTE=Trinopus] In Word, if I save a document as .docx, then save it as .pdf, then try to exit, it asks me if I want to “save changes.” No changes! Why does it ask?) [/quote] It asks you this because when you save something as a .pdf you are effectively changing the printer for which the file is formated. That is, saving something as a .pdf is actually a kind of print job. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-excel-file-you-open-it-immediately-close-it-and-it-still-asks-if-you-want-to-save-it/687411/8 "2014-05-01T06:19:00Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > This is the commonest reason I have for getting this kind of message. I suspect that there are two solutions: > (1) don’t save the file on closing it, if you have made no changes that you want saved. > (2) save the file as the newer version if you want to avoid having this happen again in the future when you open the file. this was my thought. The other is an auto-date =now() formula.