"Just like the much-ballyhooed open office software, which coughed up a whole bunch of #NAME's when trying to digest my Excel 97 spreadsheet. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, there's no free lunch, and read the fine print."
I just tried to do the same thing, but with a works 98 ss. Did you ever get it open?
It opens, but any cell with an incompatible formula gets the formula error message of #NAME. Then of course you have to re-enter the formula using the open office syntax. Bottom line: If you want want seamless switching between Excel and open office, dream on.