Numeric Data May Be Lost When Saving File in PRN Format

In the versions of Microsoft Excel listed at the beginning of this article, if you save a worksheet in the "Formatted Text (Space delimited)(*.prn)" file format, numeric data may be lost in fields that are formatted with the Accounting format.

This problem occurs because the "Formatted Text (Space delimited)(*.prn)" file format does not support the number formats in the Accounting formatting category.

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel.

WORKAROUNDS

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

Method 1

To work around this behavior, change the number format for cells to a number format that is not in the Accounting category. A good alternative is a number format in the Currency category. To change to a number format in Currency category, follow these steps:

1. Select the cells that are formatted in an Accounting number format.
2. Click Cells on the Format menu, and then click the Number tab.
3. Click Currency in the Category list. Make option changes that you want and click OK.

Method 2

To workaround this behavior, format all of the data with a monospace (nonproportional) font, such as Courier New. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the cells that are formatted in an Accounting number format.
2. Click Cells on the Format menu, and then click the Font tab.
3. Click Courier New in the Font list and click OK.

In Microsoft Excel, you can save a worksheet as a .prn file by clicking Save As on the File menu and clicking "Formatted Text (Space delimited) (*.prn)" in the Save As Type list.

Microsoft Excel 7.0 and Microsoft Excel 97

For more information about the PRN file format, click the Office Assistant in the Visual Basic Editor, type "PRN" (without the quotation marks), click Search, and then click to view "File format converters supplied with Microsoft Excel."

NOTE: If the Assistant is hidden, click the Office Assistant button on the Standard toolbar. If Microsoft Help is not installed on your computer, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft Excel 5.0

For more information about the PRN format, click Search on the Help menu in Microsoft Excel, type the following text double-click the selected text, and then click Go To to view the "Overview of Opening and Saving Documents in Different File Formats" topic.