XL98: Borders Appear in Printed Workbook When You Use Track Changes (181671)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition
This article was previously published under Q181671

SYMPTOMS

If you view a document in print preview or if you print the document, cells may appear or be printed with borders.

NOTE: This behavior occurs even if no border formatting is applied to the cell.

CAUSE

This problem may occur when all of the following conditions are true:
  • You are sharing the workbook.

    -and-
  • The Highlight Changes On Screen check box is selected in the Highlight Changes dialog box.

    -and-
  • You modify the workbook without first saving it.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, use one of the following workarounds.

Method 1: Clear the Highlight Changes on Screen Check Box

To prevent borders from appearing around cells when you share the workbook with unsaved changes, clear the Highlight Changes On Screen check box. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. On the Tools menu, point to Track Changes, and then click Highlight Changes.
  2. In the Highlight Changes dialog box, clear the Highlight Changes On Screen check box.
  3. Click OK.
By clearing the Highlight Changes On Screen check box, the changed cells are not highlighted (marked) on the worksheet, and the changed cells do not appear with borders in print preview or in the printed document. When changed cells are marked on the worksheet, borders appear in print preview or in the printed document; you cannot set these two options independently.

Method 2: Click "Since I Last Saved"

If you click Since I Last Saved in the When list (in the Highlight Changes dialog box), and then save the workbook, all modifications are saved. After you save the file, the cells that were marked as changed cells do not appear with a border. To use this method, follow these steps:
  1. On the Tools menu, point to Track Changes, and then click Highlight Changes.
  2. In the When list, click Since I Last Saved.
  3. Click OK.
  4. On the File menu, click Save.
NOTE: If you point to Track Changes on the Tools menu, and then click Accept Or Reject Changes, you are prompted to save the workbook before you can accept or reject the changes. After you save the workbook, the changed cells do not appear with a border.

STATUS

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel.

MORE INFORMATION

When you select the Highlight Changes On Screen check box, any cells that you change are marked on the worksheet with a colored border, and a small triangle appears in the upper-left corner of the cell. If you move the pointer over this triangle, a comment box appears with information about the latest modification to the cell. Also, if you manually add a comment to the cell, the text of the comment and the text of the changes message are combined to appear when you move the pointer over the triangle in either the upper-left or upper-right corner of the cell.

REFERENCES

For more information about tracking changes, click Contents And Index on the Help menu (or on the Balloon Help menu if you are using a version of the Macintosh operating system earlier than 8.0), click the Index button in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text 
   tracking changes, overview
and then click Show Topics. Select the "Limitations of change highlighting in Microsoft Excel" topic, and click Go To. If you are unable to find the information you need, ask the Office Assistant.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:9/11/2002
Keywords:kbinfo kbprb kbprint KB181671
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.