Merged cells text > 255 chars causes "#" to be displayed

[NickHK]

I have one cell on a template that displays all "#########....." when I
insert more than 255 characters, although all text is present and can be
edited.
Merged cells are formatted as Text, Wrap=true, merged over 10 columns and 2
rows.
No validation or conditional formatting applied. No code running upon
change.

Reading:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP051992911033.aspx

shows no reason for this behaviour.
If the merged cells are formatted as General, then text is displayed as
usual.
As barcodes may be inserted in this area, I need it formatted as Text.

NickHK

 

[keepITcool]

Nick,

It's not merged cells that's causing the problem,
Appears to be the use of @ in the (custom) numberformat when
applied to text > 255 char.

Also i cant see that you have a problem:
I've never heard of a valid barcode that was longer than 255 chars..
... so just insert multiple barcodes in multiple cells.

or start the string with an apostrophe or vblf/linefeed

--
keepITcool
| www.XLsupport.com | keepITcool chello nl | amsterdam


NickHK wrote :

 

[keepITcool]

what can I say?

there's plenty of 16bit legacy in Excel.
and plenty of trouble with strings > 255

content is truncated when sheets are copied.
many functions wont work on "long" strings.
editing formulas/names
etc
etc
etc

silly?.. i'd use a stronger word myself.


--
keepITcool
| www.XLsupport.com | keepITcool chello nl | amsterdam


NickHK wrote :

 

[NickHK]

keepITcool,
I can work around, but it seems pretty silly that the only format
specifically for text cannot handle more than 255 characters, whilst all the
others display correctly.

Correction to above:
Looking at the Format cells>Number dialog, the "Sample" frame at the top
display correctly for all formats except General, Accounting & Text which
show "#####.." instead of the correct text. Of these 3, Accounting & Text
cause the cell to display "####..."

NickHK

 

[NickHK]

Given that I have just now seen this, after many years of Excel, it can't be
a major problem for me, just annoying.

NickHK