Excel 2004 crashes "can't use more fonts in the current workbook" - too many graphs in my workbook?

[maccer83]

Is there any limitation on how many graphs I can have in an excel
workbook - or how complex those graphs can be?

I have an ecxel-workbook that contains, in addidition to some text-
only-worksheets,
- a worksheet with 5 graphs
- a worksheet with 1 graphs
- a worksheet with 31 graphs

I prepared this last worksheet with 31 graphs linked to data on the
same sheet. My plan was to duplicate this sheet a few times, and
change some of the data in the copies sheets without having to re-
create all the 31 graphs for every new sheet.

I had an Excel-document where I had made two copies of the 31-graph-
sheet. I thus had 5+1+31*3=99 graphs. When I tried to duplicate the
sheet again, I got the following error message (translated from
Swedish) 21 times in a row. Apparently it seems that it has nothing to
do with graphs:

"You can't use more fonts in the current workbook"
(Swedish: "Det går inte att använda fler teckensnitt i den aktuella
arbetsboken")

The sheet was duplicated correctly despite the error messages, but if
I try to create more graphs by, for instance, copying/pasting one of
the existing graphs, I get the above error message again. Quite often
Excel even crashes after I have done this.

One might believe that the allowed number of graphs would then be
the original number of graphs
plus
the number of graphs that I tried to add
minus
the number of error messags I got,
that is:
99+31-21=109

but that doesn't seem to be the case. I opened an older version of the
document where I had only 99 graphs. I took one of the graphs, copied
it, and pasted multiple copies into the same worksheet. I managed to
paste 17 graphs before the error message appeared again. That would
make the limit 99+17=116 graphs. I can't understand what's wrong.
Anyone have any idea?

After the error message has appeared, it doesn't matter if I delete
the newly duplicated graphs, it appears every time I try to do
anything with a graph such as right-clicking > select "Source Data".

I run Excel 10.3.3 on MacOS 10.4.8 on a Macbook Pro Core2Duo.


The first rows from an error report after Excel has crashed looks like
this:

Date/Time: 2007-02-05 14:55:24.555 +0100
OS Version: 10.4.8 (Build 8N1037)
Report Version: 4

Command: Microsoft Excel
Path: /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Microsoft Excel
Parent: WindowServer [65]
Rosetta: Yes

Version: 11.3.3 (11.3.3 (061213), © 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All
rights reserved.)

PID: 389
Thread: Unknown

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000008

 

[CyberTaz]

As I have never had occasion to attempt the type of thing you're describing
I don't claim to have the answer, but if my suspicions are correct it may
help troubleshoot the issue. There is no limit imposed by Excel on the
number of charts other than what the amount of your available system memory
(RAM) will accomodate, so that probably isn't the issue. If you search Excel
Help using the keyword <<limits>> you'll find that the complexity factor is
not likely the problem either.

I also don't claim to have any knowledge of Swedish, but I suspect that your
translation of the message could be a bit off - is it possible that the word
you're translating as "fonts" could also be interpreted as "Styles" or
"formats"? There *is* a limit to how many different cell formats can be used
in a wkbk file (4000). My suspicion is that the amount of
copy/paste/duplicate has caused the file to at least 'think' that limit is
being breached.
--
HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Is there any limitation on how many graphs I can have in an excel
workbook - or how complex those graphs can be?

I have an ecxel-workbook that contains, in addidition to some text-
only-worksheets,
- a worksheet with 5 graphs
- a worksheet with 1 graphs
- a worksheet with 31 graphs

I prepared this last worksheet with 31 graphs linked to data on the
same sheet. My plan was to duplicate this sheet a few times, and
change some of the data in the copies sheets without having to re-
create all the 31 graphs for every new sheet.

I had an Excel-document where I had made two copies of the 31-graph-
sheet. I thus had 5+1+31*3=99 graphs. When I tried to duplicate the
sheet again, I got the following error message (translated from
Swedish) 21 times in a row. Apparently it seems that it has nothing to
do with graphs:

"You can't use more fonts in the current workbook"
(Swedish: "Det går inte att använda fler teckensnitt i den aktuella
arbetsboken")

The sheet was duplicated correctly despite the error messages, but if
I try to create more graphs by, for instance, copying/pasting one of
the existing graphs, I get the above error message again. Quite often
Excel even crashes after I have done this.

One might believe that the allowed number of graphs would then be
the original number of graphs
plus
the number of graphs that I tried to add
minus
the number of error messags I got,
that is:
99+31-21=109

but that doesn't seem to be the case. I opened an older version of the
document where I had only 99 graphs. I took one of the graphs, copied
it, and pasted multiple copies into the same worksheet. I managed to
paste 17 graphs before the error message appeared again. That would
make the limit 99+17=116 graphs. I can't understand what's wrong.
Anyone have any idea?

After the error message has appeared, it doesn't matter if I delete
the newly duplicated graphs, it appears every time I try to do
anything with a graph such as right-clicking > select "Source Data".

I run Excel 10.3.3 on MacOS 10.4.8 on a Macbook Pro Core2Duo.


The first rows from an error report after Excel has crashed looks like
this:

Date/Time: 2007-02-05 14:55:24.555 +0100
OS Version: 10.4.8 (Build 8N1037)
Report Version: 4

Command: Microsoft Excel
Path: /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Microsoft Excel
Parent: WindowServer [65]
Rosetta: Yes

Version: 11.3.3 (11.3.3 (061213), © 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All
rights reserved.)

PID: 389
Thread: Unknown

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000008

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

This is a known problem and has to do with the font auto-scale option.
Change the setting on your charts and the problem Is likely to go away. See
this knowledge base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/215573/en-us

 

[Maccer]

This is a known problem and has to do with the font auto-scale option.
Change the setting on your charts and the problem Is likely to go away. See
this knowledge base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/215573/en-us

Thanks!

Even though the article was for the Windows version of Excel, I could
use the Visual Basic macro code provided to turn off the auto-scale
option in all my graphs in the document. Now I can duplicate my sheets
as many times as I like, but if If I try to duplicate it too many
times in a row without saving the file and restarting Excel, the app
just crashes. But that's probably another problem.