XL97: Identical Patterns May Be Printed Differently

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you print a worksheet or a chart or view a worksheet or a chart in print preview in Microsoft Excel 97, patterns applied to drawing objects and AutoShapes may be printed differently from identical patterns applied to other objects, such as worksheet cells and chart series.

Specifically, the following problems may occur:

• Patterns applied to chart series are not printed at all. Instead, the chart series are printed with a solid gray fill.
• Patterns applied to worksheet cells or chart series are printed darker and with more contrast than identical patterns applied to drawing objects and AutoShapes.

CAUSE

This problem occurs because of a difference in the way that Microsoft Excel 97 "renders" objects when you print a worksheet or chart or view a worksheet or chart in print preview. Drawing objects and AutoShapes use one rendering system, while all other objects use another rendering system. This may cause identical patterns applied to different objects to be printed differently. This problem is especially noticeable if the colors you use in the patterns do not contrast with each other.

WORKAROUND

Although there is no way to completely prevent these problems from occurring, you can minimize their effects by doing any of the following:

• When you format objects in the worksheet or chart, use solid colors whenever possible.

  The problems described in this article do not occur when you use solid colors.

• If you must apply a pattern to an object, use white as one of the two colors.
• If possible, use two colors that contrast with each other.

  For example, red and yellow contrast well with each other; sky blue and aqua do not.

• Before you print the worksheet or chart, use print preview to view the printed output.

  You can then reformat objects in the worksheet or chart as required. This step helps save paper and reduce unnecessary printer usage.

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.