Not all characters appear in a worksheet cell in Excel for Mac (180278)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac
  • Microsoft Excel X for Mac
  • Microsoft Excel 2001 for Mac
  • Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition
This article was previously published under Q180278

SYMPTOMS

When you type characters or enter a formula in a worksheet cell in Microsoft Excel, the number of characters that appear in the cell may be fewer than you expect.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs if the number of characters exceeds the number of characters that can appear in a cell. The following versions of Excel have the following limits:
  • In Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac, approximately 1,054 characters can appear in a cell.
  • In Microsoft Excel X for Mac, in Excel 2001 for Mac, and in Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, approximately 1,085 characters can appear in a cell.
  • In versions of Excel for the Macintosh that are earlier than Excel 98, approximately 1,024 characters can appear in a cell.

MORE INFORMATION

In the versions of Microsoft Excel that are described in this article, a cell can contain up to 32,767 characters. However, if a cell contains more than the maximum number of characters that can appear in a cell, the following rules apply:
  • Characters that do not appear in the cell do appear in the formula bar when you edit or select the cell.
  • You can detect and work with characters that do not appear in a worksheet cell. To do this, use worksheet functions and macro commands.
  • If you copy a cell and then paste the contents in another cell, all the characters are copied into the new cell. However, not all characters may appear in the destination cell.
  • Characters in a cell that do not appear in a cell are not printed and may not appear in print preview.
Note You may be able to display more characters by increasing the row height and the column width of the worksheet.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:1/24/2005
Keywords:kbprb kbui KB180278
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