Excel 07 looses formatting eventhough no compatibility issues found

Amphibia07 · 01-31-2009, 06:31 AM

I hope you can help me here.

I understand MS Excel 07 will loose some formatting when saved in compatibility mode, but usually there is some kind of warning on compatibility. And most important - it will loose only the formatting which is not supported by earlier versions. In this case, it looses the formatting eventhough earlier versions support such formatting (ex. normal borders on cells) and there are no compatibility issues found with Excel's compatibility checker.

I am attaching the excel file (zipped). I have deleted most of the data, but the structure of the file is left the same. To replicate the error, goto to Raw materials tab, select some data, change datatype to number (as pictured), or change color. I know there are compatibility issues with colour, but I don't know any with data format as number. You can also add some kind of borders on the cells. These are surely supported by both versions of excel. Close the file, reopen, and the formatting will be gone.

Some thoughts about the qualities of the error:

1. A single occurence of unsupported formatting may cause all other formatting to be lost, even if it is fully supported. Ex., if you change borders, these will save without problem; however if you make borders AND colour changes, BOTH borders and colour will be lost.

2. The likely cause of the error may be in other sheets. Ex. if you copy and paste the raw materials sheet into other excel document, and replicate same procedures, these will save perfectly well, but in this specific file - no.

Have you encountered something similar? What might be the cause of lost formatting? I lost quite some time formatting the file, and was very surprised to see all formatting gone. Just gone. No warning, no anything. It would be nice to know the culprit, so to avoid same things in the future.