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

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

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

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:

1. 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 (').
2. On the File menu, click Save. Quit the text editor. You can now open the file in Excel.

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

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: