how to remove all formatting

[Tom]

I am working on office 2007 prof - my spreadsheet should be read by
colleagues using 2003 and ideally 2000 versions.
While I was able to save the file as xls in the past, I am now getting error
messages re too many formats being used. Running the compatability chequer, I
have removed conditional formatting from two columns taking care of one
listed issue. The remaining one stating too many formats does not help me.
How can I deal with it?

Is there any function to remove all formatting. My spreadsheet would look
terrible but at least everyone has access to the data in there.
Any other way to sensibly work with or in older versions.

 

[FSt1]

hi
xl03 allows for 4000 different format cobinations. xl07 uped that to 64000
due to the larger sheets but since you are saving as an 03.xls for those with
03 and 00 you are stuck with the 4000 ceiling. since it is a ceiling, the
only real fix is dont' exceed the limit.
see this site for more info and possible fixes.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;213904
appies to 03 back to 97 i think...whenever excel went to 64536 rows.

regards
FSt1

 

[Tom]

Hi,

thanks for that - that explains a lot.

However after reading the link info and trying to follow the instructions I
am still baffled. Using the 2003 version, my file opened after advising that
there were too many formats and that some things will be lost. It looks blank
now with all the obvious formatting gone.

However, if I want to redo the sheet now, it still does not allow me to save
any new formatting. I am willing to remove all formatting to start with a
clean sheet but
despite the blank look of the sheet, there appears to be underlying
formatting. How can I get rid of it?

Cheers

 

[Tom]

In fact I just tried to use the autoformat function and have "none" set up
for the whole spreadsheet and the answer is still "too many different cell
formats".
Seems a bit silly to tell me this but not to allow to simplify the worksheet.

 

[FSt1]

hi
the sheet may look blank but did you just delete data. deleting data does
not delete formating. that is the most common mistake that users make. they
end up with "blank" cells but the cells still carry the previous formating.
and technically you can't remove all formating. each cell must have at least
the default formating.
select the sheet by clicking the small square at the upper right of the
sheet. left of the column header and above the row headers.
right click the selected sheet and click format cells.
set the number format to general
set the fond to Arial(or your faviorate.)
remove all font colors(set to automatic)
remove all borders(set to none)
remove all background colors(set to no fill_
you might even unwrap all cells and unmerge cells(if there are any)

after all that, the sheet should be fairly default.

Regards
FSt1

 

[Tom]

FSt1, thanks but when I try to do exactly that I get the answer "too many
different cell formats" - it seems something is preventing me from making the
changes even though I want to redo the sheet in the basic formatting as per
your instructions.

 

[FSt1]

hi
puzzling. if you want you can send me the sheet at
(e-mail address removed)
i'll look at it. it's late in atlanta so i may not get back to you until
tomorrow.

Regards
FSt1

 

[Tom]

Thank you for your offer but in this case I am afraid I cannot release the
doc as it's confidential company info. I will see if I can figure something
out when I have access to both types of software at the same time.

Kind Regards
Tom

 

[Gord Dibben]

Have you tried selecting all cells and Edit>Clear>Formats


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Tom]

Sorry, I can highlight the whole spreadsheet by clicking the arrow in the top
left corner (using Prof 2007) but where is the edit button/function?
Clicking format only provides me with the editing individual settings but no
clear all function.

 

[ozgrid.com]

"Clear All" is the far right (under Clear) of the Home ribbon in Excel 2007.

 

[Tom]

Thanks - found that and used clear all format. When saving as xls format, I
am still getting "too many formats" and the compatability report states 1
occurrence but does not tell me where. I don't have access to 2003 today to
test but Version 2000 does not allow me to open this stating too many formats.

 

[Billns]

Thanks - found that and used clear all format. When saving as xls format, I
am still getting "too many formats" and the compatability report states 1
occurrence but does not tell me where. I don't have access to 2003 today to
test but Version 2000 does not allow me to open this stating too many formats.

You might try copying the entire worksheet to a second worksheet, then
use Paste Special to paste only those characteristics you need. You can
paste special multiple times to get several of these items -- formulas,
values, comments, validation, all except borders, column widths,
formulas and number formats, values and number formats.

When satisfied that all the information you need has been transferred to
the second sheet, delete the first sheet, then save your workbook.

You might even be able to paste special to a new blank workbook instead.

Bill

 

[Tom]

Thanks Bill - that will work . I just did a test with only pasting the values
and this saved fine and can be opened in Version 2000, so at least I can
access the information from a site does not run the later version .

Thanks to everyone for their help.

Tom

 

[XLGeek]

Many people seem to run into this problem in both 2003 and 2007. In Excel
2007 most often the issue is related to the exessive number of unused often
corrupted styles and not so much cell unique cell format combos (hard to
imagine someone can actually hit over 64,354 combos). I wrote
a utility to fix XL2007 OOXML files that can also be saved down to XL2003
after the clean up.
Here is the link to the blog post:
http://sergeig888.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!53E1D37F76F69444!534.entry

Requres .Net3.5 and MS Excel 2007. Will fix xlsx or xlsm files. Won't work
on binary xlsb or password protected files (read-only passwords are OK).

No need to run the risk of further corrupting your file by using Open Office
like some people recommend in other Excel forums. Utility is free and comes
as is.