from Office 2001 ---> 2004, column widths messed up

[dasokol_1956]

I created a file in Excel for Mac 2001 (System 9) that uses the
following column widths: 5, 6, 7.5 (measured in units). The file also
has a picture (JPEG photo) inserted which is 4.75" W x 3.38" H.
When I upgraded to Excel for Mac 2004 and opened this file for the
first time in System 10.3, the same column widths are approx. 0.3, 0.4,
0.5 (measured in inches), respectively. The picture is formatted with
the same height but a width of maybe 3.5", so it's distorted to
look like an image in an amusement park mirror. All other formatting
properties (row height, alignment, print range, font, borders, etc.)
seem to be unchanged. Did I do something wrong in the upgrade process?
How can I open the file and retain the original column widths?
[Unfortunately, this is not a one time problem. I track baseball
statistics and have about 500 files in a similar format.]

Thank you for your help.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I created a file in Excel for Mac 2001 (System 9) that uses the
following column widths: 5, 6, 7.5 (measured in units). The file also
has a picture (JPEG photo) inserted which is 4.75" W x 3.38" H.
When I upgraded to Excel for Mac 2004 and opened this file for the
first time in System 10.3, the same column widths are approx. 0.3, 0.4,
0.5 (measured in inches), respectively. The picture is formatted with
the same height but a width of maybe 3.5", so it's distorted to
look like an image in an amusement park mirror. All other formatting
properties (row height, alignment, print range, font, borders, etc.)
seem to be unchanged. Did I do something wrong in the upgrade process?
How can I open the file and retain the original column widths?
[Unfortunately, this is not a one time problem. I track baseball
statistics and have about 500 files in a similar format.]

Column Widths are actually set in character widths (specifically, the
width of the "0" character in the default font). Make sure your default
fonts are the same, including the same size.

For your pictures, format them to not "move and size with cells".

This isn't anything unique to upgrading - it's what happens when any
file is opened on a machine with a different font metric.

 

[Roger Morris]

I created a file in Excel for Mac 2001 (System 9) that uses the
following column widths: 5, 6, 7.5 (measured in units). The file also
has a picture (JPEG photo) inserted which is 4.75" W x 3.38" H.
When I upgraded to Excel for Mac 2004 and opened this file for the
first time in System 10.3, the same column widths are approx. 0.3, 0.4,
0.5 (measured in inches), respectively. The picture is formatted with
the same height but a width of maybe 3.5", so it's distorted to
look like an image in an amusement park mirror. All other formatting
properties (row height, alignment, print range, font, borders, etc.)
seem to be unchanged. Did I do something wrong in the upgrade process?
How can I open the file and retain the original column widths?
[Unfortunately, this is not a one time problem. I track baseball
statistics and have about 500 files in a similar format.]

Column Widths are actually set in character widths (specifically, the
width of the "0" character in the default font). Make sure your default
fonts are the same, including the same size.

For your pictures, format them to not "move and size with cells".

This isn't anything unique to upgrading - it's what happens when any
file is opened on a machine with a different font metric.

In Excel 2004 the column width units are configurable - I use
centimetres but inches and millimetres are available as well.
(but /not/ Character widths)

Excel - Preferences - General - Measurement units

 

[JE McGimpsey]

In Excel 2004 the column width units are configurable - I use
centimetres but inches and millimetres are available as well.
(but /not/ Character widths)

The widths are still actually set in character widths, internally, and
you can see the character width in the screen tip when you drag a column
boundary.

You're right that you can't set them in character widths from Column
Width dialog. Personally, as a cross-platform developer, I find that
very frustrating, since setting a width to 1 inch in XL04 doesn't
necessarily correspond to 1 inch on other platforms.

In VBA, you can *only* set column widths in units of characters, even in
XL04.