title: How to process old excel .xls files using POI?
body: <p>I switched from jxl to poi since POI has more features. However, I wasn't able to process the xls files that were generated in the old format. Now I am getting this error:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>org.apache.poi.hssf.OldExcelFormatException: The supplied spreadsheet
    seems to be Excel 5.0/7.0 (BIFF5) format. POI only supports BIFF8
    format (from Excel versions 97/2000/XP/2003)</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Now I am thinking to use both JXL as wells as POI depending on the xls version so for old format xls files I will use jxl while for newer versions I will use POI. Is this a good solution? Are there any alternatives?</p>