The following sorting issues cause a minor loss of fidelity:

Issue Solution
A worksheet in this workbook contains a sort state with more than three sort conditions. This information will be lost in earlier versions of Excel. In Excel, you can apply sort states with up to sixty-four sort conditions to sort data by, but earlier versions of Excel support sort states with up to three conditions only. To avoid losing sort state information in earlier versions of Excel, you may want to change the sort state to one that uses no more than three conditions. In earlier versions of Excel, users can also sort the data manually.

All sort state information remains available in the workbook, however, and is applied when the workbook is opened again in Excel, unless the sort state information is edited in the earlier version of Excel.

In the Compatibility Checker, click Find to locate the data that has been sorted with more than three conditions, and then change the sort state by using only three or less conditions.

For more information, see:

A worksheet in this workbook contains a sort state that uses a sort condition with a custom list. This information will be lost in earlier versions of Excel. In Excel, you can sort by a custom list. To get similar sorting results in earlier versions of Excel, you can group the the data that you want to sort, and then sort the data manually.

All sort state information remains available in the workbook, however, and is applied when the workbook is opened again in Excel, unless the sort state information is edited in the earlier version of Excel.

In the Compatibility Checker, click Find to locate the data that has been sorted by a custom list, and then change the sort state so that it no longer contains a custom list.

For more information, see:

A worksheet in this workbook contains a sort state that uses a sort condition that specifies formatting information. This information will be lost in earlier versions of Excel. In Excel, you can sort data by a specific format, such as cell color, font color, or icon sets. In earlier versions of Excel, you can only sort text.

All sort state information remains available in the workbook, however, and is applied when the workbook is opened again in Excel, unless the sort state information is edited in the earlier version of Excel.

In the Compatibility Checker, click Find to locate the data that has been sorted by a specific format, and then change the sort state without specifying formatting information.

For more information, see:

The following filtering issues cause a minor loss of fidelity:

Issue Solution
Some data in this workbook is filtered in a way that is not supported in earlier versions of Excel. Rows that are hidden by the filter will remain hidden, but the filter itself will not display correctly in earlier versions of Excel. In Excel, you can apply filters that are not supported in earlier versions of Excel. To avoid losing filter functionality, you may want to clear the filter before you save the workbook in an earlier Excel file format. In earlier versions of Excel, users can then filter the data manually.

All filter state information remains available in the workbook, however, and is applied when the workbook is opened again in Excel, unless the filter state information is edited in the earlier version of Excel.

In the Compatibility Checker, click Find to locate the data that has been filtered, and then you can clear the filter to unhide the rows that are hidden. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Clear to clear the filter.

For more information, see:

Some data in this workbook is filtered by a cell color. Rows that are hidden by the filter will remain hidden, but the filter itself will not display correctly in earlier versions of Excel. In Excel, you can filter by a cell color, font color, or icon set, which is not supported in earlier versions of Excel. To avoid losing filter functionality, you may want to clear the filter before you save the workbook in an earlier Excel file format. In earlier versions of Excel, users can then filter the data manually.

All filter state information remains available in the workbook, however, and is applied when the workbook is opened again in Excel, unless the filter state information is edited in the earlier version of Excel.

In the Compatibility Checker, click Find to locate the data that has been filtered, and then you can clear the filter to unhide the rows that are hidden. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Clear to clear the filter.

For more information, see:

Some data in this workbook is filtered by a font color. Rows that are hidden by the filter will remain hidden, but the filter itself will not display correctly in earlier versions of Excel. In Excel, you can filter by a cell color, font color, or icon set, which is not supported in earlier versions of Excel. To avoid losing filter functionality, you may want to clear the filter before you save the workbook in an earlier Excel file format. In earlier versions of Excel, users can then filter the data manually.

All filter state information remains available in the workbook, however, and is applied when the workbook is opened again in Excel, unless the filter state information is edited in the earlier version of Excel.

In the Compatibility Checker, click Find to locate the data that has been filtered, and then you can clear the filter to unhide the rows that are hidden. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Clear to clear the filter.

For more information, see:

Some data in this workbook is filtered by a cell icon. Rows that are hidden by the filter will remain hidden, but the filter itself will not display correctly in earlier versions of Excel. In Excel, you can filter by a cell color, font color, or icon set, which is not supported in earlier versions of Excel. To avoid losing filter functionality, you may want to clear the filter before you save the workbook in an earlier Excel file format. In earlier versions of Excel, users can then filter the data manually.

All filter state information remains available in the workbook, however, and is applied when the workbook is opened again in Excel, unless the filter state information is edited in the earlier version of Excel.

In the Compatibility Checker, click Find to locate the data that has been filtered, and then you can clear the filter to unhide the rows that are hidden. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Clear to clear the filter.

For more information, see:

Some data in this workbook is filtered by more than two criteria. Rows that are hidden by the filter will remain hidden, but the filter itself will not display correctly in earlier versions of Excel. In Excel, you can filter data by more than two criteria. To avoid losing filter functionality, you may want to clear the filter before you save the workbook in an earlier Excel file format. In earlier versions of Excel, users can then filter the data manually.

All filter state information remains available in the workbook, however, and is applied when the workbook is opened again in Excel, unless the filter state information is edited in the earlier version of Excel.

In the Compatibility Checker, click Find to locate the data that has been filtered, and then you can clear the filter to unhide the rows that are hidden. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Clear to clear the filter.

For more information, see:

Some data in this workbook is filtered by a grouped hierarchy of dates, resulting in more than two criteria. Rows that are hidden by the filter will remain hidden, but the filter itself will not display correctly in earlier versions of Excel. In Excel, you can filter dates by a grouped hierarchy. Because this is not supported in earlier versions of Excel, you may want to ungroup the hierarchy of dates. To avoid losing filter functionality, you may want to clear the filter before you save the workbook in an earlier Excel file format.

All filter state information remains available in the workbook, however, and is applied when the workbook is opened again in Excel, unless the filter state information is edited in the earlier version of Excel.

In the Compatibility Checker, click Find to locate the data that has been filtered, and then you can clear the filter to unhide the rows that are hidden. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Clear to clear the filter. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Sort & Filter, and then click Clear to clear the filter.

Date grouping can also be turned off on the Advanced tab in the Excel Options dialog box. (Office Button button image, Excel Options).

For more information, see: