Excel 2010 - Format as Table is greyed out

Today I was sent by e-mail an XLS file but that when I opened it the Conditional Formatting and Format as Table buttons were greyed out. I wanted to use Format as Table so I could more easily

Make sure you save the file as a real Excel 2010 xlsx. But in my case I found my file was 'Shared' and removing the 'Shared' status solved it for me. Here are the two solutions in more detail:


Convert to xlsx
On the top of the Excel window, to the right of the filename, if it says [Compatibility Mode] do the following:
Click File | Info | Convert
Save the file as xlsx (native Excel 2010 format)


Turn off Shared
On the top of the Excel window, to the right of the filename, if it says [Shared] do the following:

Click Review | Share Workbook

Disable (click to remove the tick) 'Allow changes by more than one user at the same time. This also allows workbook merging.'

Click OK





Click Yes


Click Home and you'll see the buttons are now active!



NOTE: You have to make a choice! If you received the file via e-mail then it should not matter that you have turned off Sharing. But if you opened the file from a shared network drive then you will stop it from being shared - other users will not be able to access this file until you've finished with it.