error too many cell formats??? why?

[Guest]

i keep getting this error message when formating cells. If I save the xls
file and go back into the file I can format again for a while and then I get
the error again. I don't understand why? Is there a way around this. I am
using office 2002.

 

[Stephane Rodriguez]

There are 4096 cell formats per workbook. A way to reduce how many cell
formats you are using is to use styles instead of individual cell formats :
in Excel, it's available in menu Format / Style. The way it works is as
follows :
- you need to create styles by going to Format / Style, type a style name,
and then set its formatting properties.
- then, to apply that style to a range of cells, simply select the cells,
choose Format / Style and select that style.

That said, there is something Excel won't do, and that's tell you how far or
how close to the 4096 limit you are.