XL97: Text Is Cut Off When Printing or Viewing a Worksheet

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you print a worksheet or view a worksheet in print preview or page break preview in Microsoft Excel 97, the text and borders of cells at the edge of the page may be truncated or may be printed on another page.

CAUSE

This problem may occur when you apply a combination of rotated text, borders, and the Shrink To Fit formats to a cell.

NOTE: The "More Information" section in this article contains an example that demonstrates this problem.

WORKAROUND

You can work around this problem or lessen the severity of this problem by using any of the following methods.

Method 1

In the worksheet, select the range of cells that you want to print, including cells that surround the cells that contain rotated text. Then, point to Print Area on the File menu and click Set Print Area.

Method 2

Clear the Shrink To Fit check box for the cells that contain rotated text. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the cells with rotated text.

2. On the Format menu, click Cells. Then, click the Alignment tab.

3. Click to clear the Shrink To Fit check box. Then, click OK.

Method 2

Remove the border from the cells that contain rotated text. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the cells with rotated text.

2. On the Format menu, click Cells. Then, click the Border tab.

3. Click None and click OK.

If the rotated text still does not appear correctly, try deleting page breaks, inserting or removing columns, or manually adjusting the widths of columns in the worksheet.

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.

MORE INFORMATION

This problem occurs because of the way Microsoft Excel 97 calculates the position of page breaks when a column contains cells with rotated text and borders. Normally, when you rotate text in a cell in Microsoft Excel 97, the cell remains rectangular in shape. However, if you apply a border to the cell, the cell becomes a parallelogram. If the parallelogram crosses a page break, Microsoft Excel may truncate some parts of the cell or may display the parts on another page.

Example

To see an example of the problem, follow these steps:

1. In Microsoft Excel 97, create a new workbook.

2. In cell B2 of Sheet1, enter the following text:

   This is a test.

3. Select cell B2. On the Format menu, click Cells.

4. Click the Alignment tab. In the Degrees box, enter 30. Click to select the Shrink To Fit check box.

5. Click the Border tab. Click Outline and click OK.

6. On the View menu, click Page Break Preview.

7. Click 200% in the Zoom box on the Standard toolbar.

   Note that the last part of the text in cell B2 is cut off by the page break to the right of column B.

8. On the File menu, click Print Preview.

   Note that parts of the cell are also truncated in print preview.

9. Exit Print Preview by clicking Close.

10. Select cell B2. On the Format menu, click Cells. Click the Alignment tab. Click to clear the Shrink To Fit check box. Click OK.

    Note that the text is no longer truncated. However, the border around cell B2 is truncated.

11. Select cells A1:D2. On the File menu, point to Print Area, and then click Set Print Area.