Format Overflow Causing Formating Loss When Saving as 97-03 file

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ben Solomon (BTS)
  • Start date Start date
B

Ben Solomon (BTS)

We had a problem today.

Format Overflow Problem:
When saving a 2007 .xlsx file as a 2003 .xls file, the formats did not get
saved. Reopeing the 2003 .xls file opens without the new formating. The
formating is lost.

Inference:
We found that there appears to be some kind of 'stack overflow' within the
Excel file, and not the Excel application.

Observed Symptons:
The original .xlsx file had a ton of formats inherited from many users. You
can check this by looking at 'Styles' in the Ribbon. It should show as the
std 4 colors. Our original 2007 file had some other formats, and clicking on
Styles arrow shows tons of inheritted styles, and far too many to delete
manually.

Our Fix:
1. Create a new Excel file.
2. Sheet by sheet copy and paste values.
3. Sheet by sheet copy and paste formulae.
4. Save new worksheet.
5. Close Excel!! Otherwise all the old formats are inherited into the next
spreadsheet you open.
6. Start up Excel, and open the newly created spreadsheet and you are up and
running.

Important point:
1. Remember to close Excel before opening your next file otherwise the
multidue of formats are inherited by the next spreadsheet you open.
2. Apparently, 'Create' works differently from 'Open' in this instance of
'format overflow'.

Ben

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Hi Ben,

A couple of points -
1. Excel 2003 and earlier support 56 colors in the spreadsheet, Excel 2007 supports 16 Million
2. Excel 2003 allowed 4000 styles in a workbook, Excel 2007 supports 65,536.

Before you save the 2007 file as a 2003 file you should run the compatibility checker - Office Button, Prepare, Run Compatibility Checker.

Cheers,
Shane
 
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