XL: Text on Worksheet Tab Is Compressed or Clipped

• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel, the text on the sheet tabs in your workbook may appear compressed or clipped. For example, on a sheet with a name that contains the letter g, j, or y, the descender may be cut off on the sheet tab.

Also, sheet tabs may not be visible when you open a workbook.

CAUSE

These problems occur if you set the Scrollbar item size to a value smaller than 13 in Windows Control Panel. The Display Properties dialog box allows you to change the size of different items on your display, such as the scroll bar size, title bar size and text, and ToolTip text. In Microsoft Excel, because the sheet tabs are designed to be the same height as the horizontal scrollbar in the active workbook, the height of the tabs is controlled by the Scrollbar item size in Windows. If the scrollbar's height is set to a small number, the worksheet tab may appear compressed and the text may not display completely.

If you set the Scrollbar item size to a value less than 13, the characters on your sheet tabs begin to appear clipped, or the sheet tabs do not appear at all. This behavior is most noticeable with characters that have a descender; the descender begins to disappear.

The text that appears on sheet tabs is scaled in proportion to the Scrollbar item size. However, as the Scrollbar item size is decreased to values below 13, the text does not continue to scale. The point size of this text is not controlled through the Display icon in Control Panel.

Note that a lot of the pre-defined color schemes in Windows use a Scrollbar item size of 13.

RESOLUTION

To avoid this problem when characters on your sheet tab are being compressed or truncated, increase the size of the Scrollbar item in Windows by doing the following:

1. On the Windows taskbar, click Start. Click Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2. In the Control Panel dialog box, double-click the Display icon.

3. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Appearance tab.

4. In the Item list, click Scrollbar. In the Size box, enter a greater value than the value that appears, such as "13" (without the quotation marks).

5. Click OK and close Control Panel.

REFERENCES

For more information about changing the appearance of items on your desktop, click the Index tab in Windows Help, type the following text

   display, appearance