When I open an XLS file (I know the password), I get
Read-Error.
The encryption method used in this document is not supported. Only Microsoft Office 97/2000 compatible password encryption is supported
Is there some other tool (other than MSExcel) that will let me open the XLS and save it in a compatible format?
LO 4.1.2.3 on Ubuntu
Maybe you can try Excel Online or Google Docs… However if the file contents is so sensitive that you bothered to password protect it, maybe uploading it to the “Cloud” is not so wise…
That is why it is better to use a file format (like ODS) that doesn’t lock you to a single vendor (and in this case, absurdly to a specific version of the software…)
Thanks, I guess I can’t test those out, then. I don’t suppose there’s a Ubuntu tool that does this?
@JoshuaFox, you can also try Gnumeric. It’s a free open source spreadsheet from Gnome and it’s available at the Ubuntu Sotware Center.
It looks like you got this document from your friend using Microsoft Excel. The document was encrypted using encrypted method that LibreOffice does not understand.
There is also free (as money) version of Microsoft Excel Viewer: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10 you can open and print a Excel document. Because you are on Ubuntu that means installing Wine and then inside Wine install this program. So from terminal:
(1) Install wine:
sudo apt-get install wine
(2) Download Excel Viewer from above web page.
(3) Install Microsoft Excel Viewer:
wine path_to_the_file/file_with_exe_extension
If you are exchanging sensitive files with your friends, you could also use encryption of some external program like OpenSSL, see details: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16056135/how-to-use-openssl-to-crypt-decrypt-files - so creating spreadsheet file with Microsoft Office or LibreOffice and then encrypt document using openssl library.