Compatibility Checker - minor loss of fidelity

[Horatio J. Bilge, Jr.]

I am running Excel 2007 on Windows 7.
I have a template (MyFile.xlt), and when I try to save a new workbook (Excel
97-2003) based on the template, the compatibility checker pops up. I have
tracked the issue to some cell coloration that I applied to one sheet. If I
change the cells to no color, then it saves without compatibility issues.

I have colored cells many times in the past with Excel2003 with no issues -
why is there a problem with it now?

Thanks for any advice,
~ Horatio

 

[EricG]

If you are trying to save an Excel workbook in Excel 2003 format (".xls")
after you have been working with it in Excel 2007, and you changed the color
of any cells using a color that Excel 2003 does not have (because it's
limited whereas Excel 2007 offers many, many colors), then you will get that
message.

If you want to avoid the message, do a Save As and save the workbook as
".xlsx", in other words as a 2007 file. When you do that, you will no longer
get the compatibility message. However, if you then open the file in 2003,
Excel will automatically change the cell colors to colors it can represent by
finding the closest match. Sometimes that doesn't look like the original
because the color changes a lot.

I hope that helps.

Eric

 

[Horatio J. Bilge, Jr.]

Thanks for the information. Instead of saving it as a 2007-type file, I
opened the template with Excel2004, changed the colors there, and now it
seems to work fine in 2007.

~ Horatio