Excel Viewer

I downloaded the Excel Viewer but when trying to open the Crusader Prod files I keep getting the message "Can't open file of this type".

Any suggestions?

I don't have the viewer, but I have regular Excel. With Excel you have to set it to open "All Files" instead of "Excel files". Don't know if that is any help with the viewer.

the viewer used to work with v1.0 mtw files,

all files option will not work with v1.1 files - damn...

HOWEVER, it will work with the production excel files - from the Medieval FAQ download section

- still excel view was handy for finding any mistakes you had made when modding the _prod_ files...

Hence my question. So far everything I've tried with those files has been a mistake.

Thanks anyway.

Once this is brought up, I wonder what are the specs you are keeping when editing the crusaders files using Excel... I mean do you change something in the text import wizard or you leave the defaults as they are ("delimited: tabs" etc.)???

I just right click on the file and choose open with Excel Viewer. Don't know much about these things but trying to mod and by reading posts I'm learning...sort of.

Trying to read in Word Pad causes http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...cons/dizzy.gif

You are right about reading the build files in wordpad, it is an almost impossible task to figure out anything past the faction build priority listings.
I have had zero success modding the build files in excel, but I find it is very useful to open and read them in excel because you then can learn what and where the various values are. Also I have learned to check build file modifications in excel before installing because some changes made in wordpad result in a tab shift of all the values to the right of the change and the game does not like that at all. If you don't have excel to check the spacing, only make a single change at a time and validate it before proceeding to the next change.
The startpos files are fairly simple to read and mod in wordpad.

i use excel from office 2000. i open the files as tab delimited files, build_prod and unit_prod. that seems to work fine, everything lines up perfectly. it's when you go to save them again that i'm either doing something wrong or excel is doing something wrong...or at least different from what CA is doing. thus, reading the files in excel is great, but writing them sucks, so far.

so i do like some of the other guys, i just read in excel for reference, but use wordpad to write and save. it's a bit tricky when you add in data where no data existed, as opposed to just altering an existing field, but as long as you follow the rules on tab placement, it does work.

oh, and back up all files before editing. i've messed up a number of files so far this way, so mostly this is a reminder to myself ;)
K.

you guys have some very weird strategies http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...cons/joker.gif
I edit duplicate the files in excel and then i simply paste the changes to the original txt files, you cant go wrong with that