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Text box margins are lost in an Excel 2007 or Excel 2010 workbook when the workbook is saved as Excel 97-2003 Workbook and then reopened in Excel 2003

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Microsoft Knowledge Base Article

This article contents is Microsoft Copyrighted material.
©2005-©2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Trademarks

Article ID: 983129 - Last Review: August 26, 2011 - Revision: 2.2

Text box margins are lost in an Excel 2007 or Excel 2010 workbook when the workbook is saved as "Excel 97-2003 Workbook" and then reopened in Excel 2003

SYMPTOMS

Consider the following scenario:
  • You insert a text box in a workbook in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 or in Excel 2010.
  • You type text, such as aaa, in the text box.
  • You save the workbook as the Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls) type.
  • You open the workbook in Excel 2003.

In this scenario, the text in the text box is aligned against the left side of the text box, as in the following example:
Collapse this imageExpand this image
Text box

CAUSE

This problem occurs because of a limitation in the Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls) text converter.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, reset the margins of the text box in Excel 2003. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Right-click the text box, and then click Format Text Box.
  2. Click the Margins tab.
  3. Under Internal margin, click to clear the Automatic check box. By default, the internal margins of the text box should match the following specifications:
    • Left: 0.1"
    • Right: 0.1"
    • Top: 0.05"
    • Bottom: 0.05"
  4. Click OK.

The position of the text should now resemble the following:
Collapse this imageExpand this image
Fixed Text Box


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Excel 2010
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2007
Keywords: 
kbsurveynew kbprb kbexpertiseinter KB983129
       

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