I've never had this issue before. I always provide a slightly modified Excel spreadsheet for my students to fill in as part of an assignment. Now, when they try to download it, it just shows as a blank document. The samples I provide to show them how the project is done download fine, but my template won't.
Thank you for contacting the Instructure Community. Thanks for providing the file here. It looks like it is mostly blank for me - there is a cell filled out with "day 1" and that is essentially it. If you have a file on your computer with more information than that, you may want to check that you don't have similar or matching file titles and are mixing them up. Additionally, if you still need help you could always speak with your school's IT help desk. This file definitely is empty besides that one cell. Hopefully this helps.
Thanks. The “Day 1” was to get things started for them AND to slightly differentiate the content so that Canvas might see it as a different file from the one that wasn’t working. What I really needed, though, was for the students to get the whole Excel grid to be able to fill it in for their assignment. It has always downloaded fine in previous semesters. My workaround was to send it to the whole class as a file attachment through Google; neither the Announcement nor Canvas email wanted anything to do with the file.
In answer to a "Did you get the answer you needed?" email, no, I didn't.
As I mentioned in my reply of Wednesday, I found a workaround that did not involve Canvas but rather used G-mail directly to the students. The students were able to download the file from the email, and it worked fine.
I have used this same file with Canvas in previous semesters without problem, so I'm confused about it not working this year.
