Knowledge Base

Text with Shrink To Fit Format May Disappear or Grow

Article ID: 176344

Article Last Modified on 8/19/2003

Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition
Microsoft Excel 98 for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q176344

SYMPTOMS

When you apply the Shrink To Fit alignment option to a cell in a worksheet, either of the following problems may occur:

The text completely disappears from the cell.
The text increases in size and is cut off by the border of the cell.

CAUSE

These problems may occur when the following conditions are true:

The cell contains a large amount of text (for example, 60 or more characters). -and-
The cell is not wide enough to display all of the text you want to shrink.

Specifically, the first problem occurs because Excel cannot display text you resized with the Shrink To Fit option when the text is too small. The second problem occurs only in Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition because of a screen redraw problem in the program.

WORKAROUND

To work around these problems, increase the column width of the cell or reduce the amount of text in the cell.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

In Excel, you use the Shrink To Fit option to automatically scale text in a cell so that it fits within the cell. As you increase or decrease the amount of text in the cell, or as you adjust the width of the cell, Excel automatically resizes the text to fit within the cell.

When Microsoft Excel resizes text that uses the Shrink To Fit option, it must resize the text to a whole-number point size. If the point size is too small (for example, 1 or 2 points), the text may disappear from the cell.

In Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, the text may grow in size and be truncated by the border of the cell.

Additional query words: XL97 XL98 edge stf shrink-to-fit vanish XL

Keywords: kbbug KB176344