Any Way (Free Preferably) to Open Flawlessly Microsoft Office 365 .xlsm Excel Files?

[Alvin777]

Hello, Pages opens .xlsm Excels files but it's format & data is garbled & missing (the document is fine)- another .xlsm document says that it's protected and I must "Enable Editing" & "Enable Content" which I can't find the buttons to enable those. Same thing happens with LibreOffice & OpenOffice. If there a preferably free way to open an .xlsm documents on macOS (or Windows via Boot Camp or virtual machine is ok but macOS is preferred). The screenshot below is how Pages opened the two .xlsm files. I'm not sure if the one on the left is password protected or Pages has really no way of entering the password, to open it or it really can't open it, even though it somehow opened the other one.

 

[DeltaMac]

The usual answer to that:
If you need particular features of MS Office, and need to correctly edit Office documents, and free substitutes don't do an adequate job. then perhaps your best way forward is to use Office -- particularly if you have a business interest (you need to share Office documents)
There's some free apps that support opening Office documents, but maybe not in every circumstance.
If you often need to open and edit Office documents - third-party tools may not support all the features that Office provides. Some apps get closer than others - and of course, it depends on what YOU do, and how the documents are created/modified by the Office software.
Can you control ANYTHING by asking the creator of those Excel documets to make them easier to open?
If they need to be secure in some way - I suspect that you can't ask the sender to make the docs less secure, eh?

But, you can use Office/Excel online free. You just sign up for an account - and you have to be online to use Excel (or other Office apps. (you can't use it off-line), and Office is not full-featured. You would need to discover if the free version gives you what you need.

Free Microsoft 365 Online | Word, Excel, PowerPoint

With Microsoft 365 for the web you can edit and share Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files on your devices using a web browser.

www.microsoft.com

Maybe that will suit your needs.

 

[bogdanw]

A document with “Enable Content” might be a sign of malware.
I would scan those on https://www.virustotal.com/
Some recent changes
Microsoft Tech Community - Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros now restricted by default for customer protection
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com...stricted-by-default-for-customer/ba-p/3057905
More on the subject
ZDNet - Microsoft: Now we're switching off Excel 4.0 macros by default
https://www.zdnet.com/article/micro...ault-to-protect-you-against-security-threats/
Malwarebytes Labs - Microsoft is now disabling Excel 4.0 macros by default
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/repor...is-now-disabling-excel-4-0-macros-by-default/

 

[Slartibart]

But, you can use Office/Excel online free. You just sign up for an account - and you have to be online to use Excel (or other Office apps. (you can't use it off-line), and Office is not full-featured. You would need to discover if the free version gives you what you need.

Free Microsoft 365 Online | Word, Excel, PowerPoint

With Microsoft 365 for the web you can edit and share Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files on your devices using a web browser.

www.microsoft.com

Maybe that will suit your needs.

Still won’t open the password protected/encrypted document.

 

[Slartibart]

At least for the not encrypted XLMS-files Google Sheets might be another option to try.

 

[Alvin777]

Thank for the info. I'll try that

Is that free one different from the one I saw on Microsoft Store which sells for US$99?

 

[Slartibart]

Thank for the info. I'll try that

Is that free one different from the one I saw on Microsoft Store which sells for US$99?

Sounds about right - this is the latest offer on the Microsoft Office 365 webpage.

I would check wether everything works taking advantage of the 1 month free-trial. ?

 

[Alvin777]

Still won’t open the password protected/encrypted document.

Hi. Sadly (I logged in the Microsoft site) it uploaded the .xlsm document but it said I have to use the Desktop app (I guess that might mean it's the US99 one that you can buy from the Microsoft Store app) because the documents has macro stuff.

I had the sender convert it to PDF, hopefully it's easily convertible, I can read it on macOS Preview.

Thanks again.

 

[Lihp8270]

Tried libreoffice?

Edit: ignore. I clearly can’t read

 

[biffuz]

DON'T OPEN THAT DOCUMENT.

It's a virus. Old trick.

You're already reading it, and all it says is "PLS turn macros on so I can encrypt your data".

 

[Alvin777]

A document with “Enable Content” might be a sign of malware.
I would scan those on https://www.virustotal.com/
Some recent changes
Microsoft Tech Community - Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros now restricted by default for customer protection
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com...stricted-by-default-for-customer/ba-p/3057905
More on the subject
ZDNet - Microsoft: Now we're switching off Excel 4.0 macros by default
https://www.zdnet.com/article/micro...ault-to-protect-you-against-security-threats/
Malwarebytes Labs - Microsoft is now disabling Excel 4.0 macros by default
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/repor...is-now-disabling-excel-4-0-macros-by-default/

Thanks for info. I read some malware scanners may produce false positives, I guess I'll open this in a Virtual Machine just to be really safe. I scanned it on Virus Total, the results are divided, some good scanners say it has malware, the others say it's safe. It's sad, none of the power office suites that are free can open it (LibreOffice, OpenOffice, etc) but I guess that's a good thing coz' I may need to purchase the Desktop app at US$100 (the online Microsoft 365 can't open it as well, they want you to use the Desktop app) just to open Excel files (rarely do they get sent as attachment from a client but when they do it's quite important). But I do hope the client can convert it PDF so we can save money and then I'll open that in a virtual machine unless PDFs can't be coded with malware.

 

[biffuz]

none of the power office suites that are free can open it (LibreOffice, OpenOffice, etc)

NO!

LibreOffice already opened it!
You're already reading ALL that's in it!
I saw this EXACT file several times.
It is JUST a virus begging you to run it!

(ok, maybe not exactly the same, there are several variants)

 

[bogdanw]

Thanks for info. I read some malware scanners may produce false positives, I guess I'll open this in a Virtual Machine just to be really safe. I scanned it on Virus Total, the results are divided, some good scanners say it has malware, the others say it's safe.

My rule of thumb: if Kaspersky says it’s malware, it’s most likely malware.
If Kaspersky, Bitdefender and Microsoft agree, even if they gave it different names, it’s sure to be malware.
Here is how a known macOS trojan is reported https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file...540e13ce40b88adc096c8f1b3311187e6fa/detection
Not all vendors used by VirustTotal are detecting it because some are not designed for macOS, others are in development/testing (BitDefenderTheta) and others are just garbage