"The specified file is not a valid spreadsheet or contains no data to import" Error in importing a Excel spreadsheet in BPOS

Just a quick post today.  I've been doing some work on hosted SharePoint which is part of the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

 

If you haven't taken a look you can get a months free trial here

 

I ran into an error today where when I attempted to import a spreadsheet into a list I was told "The specified file is not a valid spreadsheet or contains no data to import"

 

After lots of looking around with the online support guys it turned out that it was IE8 that was blocking the function.  In case you run into this here is the solution:

 

• In Internet Explorer click Tools --> Internet Options.
• Click Security --> click sites --> and add this URLs https://*.emea.microsoftonline.com  and https://*.microsoftonline.com 

 

 

I'm hoping to post some articles on branding and building web applications using BPOS SharePoint soon.