External Linking Problems

[Cartridge Man]

I would appreciate some help/advice with External Linking. I have read all the help files and created an Excel spreadsheet which I wish to link to. I get ticks all the way (in Actinic) and have changed my "Product Reference" column to Text in the spreadsheet. All the items in the Excel spreadsheet moved left, confirming they were text. When I click on "OK" I get the error message "The Product reference column format in the excel workbook is not compatible with Actinic which requires it to be formatted as text." I am using Ver 8.

[leehack]

Copy and 'paste value' all contents from the spreadsheet into a brand new spreadsheet and then try linking using that instead.