Commas Change to Decimals in MS Excel Chart Pasted as Picture

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a

SYMPTOMS

If you paste a Microsoft Excel chart into a Word for Windows document as a picture, edit the picture by double-clicking it, and then return to Word, any commas in numbers change to decimal points. For example, the number 54,321 appears as 54.321.

Note: If your chart contains vertical text, it changes to horizontal after you return to Word from the picture editor. This happens because Word does not support rotated text.

CAUSE

This is a display issue only. The numbers still contain commas, but the bottom of the comma is truncated, so the commas look like decimal points. The commas print correctly.

This problem occurs with charts created in either Microsoft Excel version 4.0 or 5.0.

WORKAROUND

1. Open the chart in the Word picture editor.

2. Use the Select Drawing Objects button on the Drawing toolbar to select one of the text boxes that contains truncated commas.

3. Drag one of the bottom sizing handles on the text box to enlarge it.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for any other text boxes that contain commas.

5. When you are done, choose the Close Picture button on the Picture toolbar.