Column width changes from Excel 2004 to 2008

[drewellison]

When I open a workbook which was created in Excel 2004 in Excel 2008, the column width increases on every single column. The set width on each column doesn't change much according to the display (e.g. 5.50 column width in 2004 shows as a 5.57 column width in 2008), but on the display and on the printed page it appears about 20% wider. The font size looks the same in both spreadsheets.

Any ideas why this is happening. My workbook has about 30 sheets and each column width is hand-set, so it would be a ton of work just to resize each column by hand to make the layout correct.

Thanks. --Drew

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

When I open a workbook which was created in Excel 2004 in Excel 2008, the
column width increases on every single column. The set width on each column
doesn't change much according to the display (e.g. 5.50 column width in 2004
shows as a 5.57 column width in 2008), but on the display and on the printed
page it appears about 20% wider. The font size looks the same in both
spreadsheets.

Any ideas why this is happening. My workbook has about 30 sheets and each
column width is hand-set, so it would be a ton of work just to resize each
column by hand to make the layout correct.

Thanks. --Drew

Make sure you are using the latest print driver. Make sure the fonts are the
same. What you are describing sounds like font substitution.

 

[drewellison]

Hello Bob,

I checked the fonts - exactly the same. When I resave the file in Excel08 (as a xls file) and open it with Excel '04, it looks the way it did before, i.e. correct.

In fact, there's a graphic element in the spreadsheet which appears and prints stretched out in Excel08 but normal in Excel04.

Regarding the print drivers, I'm running the latest and the issue is on the same computer, so it's the same printer driver for both Excel04 and Excel08.

This happens in at least two different spreadsheets, which are multi-column full page things. Maybe it's in the formatting someplace but I can't figure it out.

I'll keep trying different things, trying to figure it out.

Thanks for any help you might have.

--Drew

 

[kyti]

I have the exactly same problem.
Please tell me if someone find a workaround for this.
It's really "a ton of work" to readjust the column width in every old (2004) sheets.
I am suspecting the reason is that I don't use Microsoft fonts in the affected sheets -- I haven't check the sheet with MS fonts yet . It looks like this is because Excel is recalculating the column width based on the font information in a different way from 2004.
Drew, do you use MS fonts for the problematic sheets?

 

[kyti]

I tested my assumption posted above, and it turned out to be right.

When I change all the fonts into MS fonts in Excel 2004 before I open the file in 2008, the column width will not change.

Also found out that the Scaling option in the print dialog - you can check the "Fit to:" box, then adjust the number of "page(s) wide." If you have 2 pages with horizontal layout, choose "2 pages wide" and "1 page tall." With this workaround, the print result (font size) is scaled down a little bit.

Hope this helps.

 

[drewellison]

Hello kyti,

I'm not sure how to tell an MS font from a non-MS font. My spreadsheet with the problem uses Geneva, which is a system font, is it not?

The scaling option won't help me, because it will scale the height of the doc also, which messes my layout and page breaks.

I'll try experimenting with the fonts on '04 before bringing into '08, and let you know.

Thanks for the tip!
Drew

 

[Phillip Jones]

Yes Geneva is an Apple Font.

Hello kyti,

I'm not sure how to tell an MS font from a non-MS font. My spreadsheet
with the problem uses Geneva, which is a system font, is it not?

The scaling option won't help me, because it will scale the height of
the doc also, which messes my layout and page breaks.

I'll try experimenting with the fonts on '04 before bringing into '08,
and let you know.

Thanks for the tip!
Drew

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[kyti]

Drew:
2004 seems to keep copies of MS fonts in the Microsoft Office 2004 folder. You might have ones in the following path: Application/Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Fonts.
"Arial" and "Trebuchet (MS)" look similar to Geneva.
kyti