Question

I’ve noticed that Internet Explorer adds a number in square brackets to files downloaded from the internet (usually [1]). This creates a big problem with downloading Excel spreadsheets as square brackets are not a valid filename character inside Excel worksheet name. That problem is IE specific, others browsers are keeping same file name.

So, if you have a pivot table auto-refreshed on file opening for example, you’ll get an error message saying the name ‘file[1].yourPivotTableName’ is not valid.

Is there any solution to that problem ?

EDIT : It seems that whatever the filename suggested by HTTP directives, IE adds [1] in all cases, which cause the problem ! (So, answers about filenames aren’t helpful in that case)

EDIT : I’ve tried some VBA code to save file under another name when it’ll open. However, it doesn’t work (same error message than before). Do you think there’s a way to fix that with VBA ?

Answer 1

I’ve got it working using VBA provided by this cool guy (think of him fondly). It renames the file and then reattaches the pivots.

http://php.kennedydatasolutions.com/blog/2008/02/05/internet-explorer-breaks-excel-pivot-tables/