XL7: Formatting Applied After Accepting Changes in Shared File

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel, when you make a change to a worksheet in a shared workbook that conflicts with the change that another person made to the same worksheet, formatting may be applied to the conflicting cell or cells on the worksheet when you accept the changes to the worksheet.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs when you accept a change in the Conflict Resolution dialog box that results in a new row being inserted on the shared worksheet. For example, if one person changes a value in cell A2 on a shared worksheet, and another person deletes row 2 on the shared worksheet, the Conflict Resolution dialog box appears when the second person saves the file. If this person chooses to accept the Cell Change rather than the Row Delete, a new row is inserted on the worksheet in the instance where the row had been deleted. The cells in this new row contain the formatting of the cells from the previous row, although technically the row was not inserted, but restored, instead of being deleted from the worksheet.

This behavior occurs because Microsoft Excel cannot distinguish when to retain the formatting from a previous row and when to suppress the formatting when a new row is "inserted" on a shared worksheet.

Note that because you cannot modify the cell formatting in a shared workbook, the last person to save the file saves the formatting that appears in that instance of Microsoft Excel. To format cells on a worksheet in a shared workbook, you must stop sharing the file first.

RESOLUTION

To avoid the behavior described above, do not delete rows in a shared workbook while another person has the file open.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

REFERENCES

For more information about creating a shared list in Microsoft Excel, click the Index tab in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

   shared lists