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Question

How can formatting on a spread sheet be lost?

May 17, 2011 3:38PM PDT

I opened a spread sheet I have used and updated many times and there was no formatting. Every cell had become "general" and every underlining, bolding, word wrap etc wazs gone. I reformatted, saved under a different name, with no success. It opened unformatted once a gain. Has anybody got any idea what might be causing this and how I can fix it?

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Does it happen also if you use another program?
May 17, 2011 4:53PM PDT

We've got MS Excel and OO Calc to try.

Kees

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Spread sheet formatting
May 18, 2011 6:35AM PDT

Hi Kees. No, it only happens with this one spreadsheet in Excel. I have a second one I use as regualarly and update monthly, and that one is fine. I saved the first one as an xlsx file (I usually use the 97-2003 format even though I am using Office 2007 as I have to send these to subsidiaries, and the virus protectors abject to the xlsx format), and it seems to be fine on my computer, but we managed to get it past the virus protector and it lost its formatting when it was opened by the subsidiary.

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(NT) So it's their problem? Not your problem?
May 18, 2011 5:25PM PDT
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Yep, that's a good clue
May 18, 2011 8:46PM PDT

I'm with Kees on this. If the spreadsheet continues to work well on your computer, but fails on others, then the problem is elsewhere other than your system.

You say that you used to save it as an xls file, (97-2003 format) even though you use Excel 2007. Does this mean that these subsidiaries 'do not use' Excel 2007, (or 2010)? If so, then you may need to continue saving it as an .xls file so they can open it properly in their versions of Excel.

It makes it more difficult of course, but the change from Office 97 - 03 to Office 2007/10 was a big change, and until everyone moves over to the newer versions of Office, this type of problem will remain.

Mark

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Just another thought
May 18, 2011 8:47PM PDT

How about sending the subsidiaries both versions?

Mark

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Answer
Spread sheet formatting
May 19, 2011 6:04AM PDT

The subsidiaries do use Windows 2007, but as I mentioned it seems to be problematic to send the .xlsx files by email, as the virus protector we use (barracuda, I think, on the server) sees them as program files and blocks them, and then we have to get the IT guys to release them.
And agin, why only this file?

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Answer
Spread sheet formatting
May 19, 2011 6:06AM PDT

I have sent them both versions of the file, and both opened with no formatting.
I think my only option is to redo the spread sheet from scratch - a wearisome task as it has 15 sheets and a lot of cross referencing between sheets.
Thanks for all the suggestions, Kees and mark.