Columns in a text box do not generate a compatibility conflict in the Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats when you open an Excel 2007 workbook in Excel 2003

Consider the following scenario. You have a Microsoft Office Excel 2007 worksheet that contains a text box. Additionally, the text box is formatted to use columns. When you open the Excel 2007 workbook on a computer that is running Microsoft Office Excel 2003 together with the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats, the file is converted to the Excel 2003 format as expected. However, the column formatting is lost. Additionally, the Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats does not notify you that the text box column formatting will be lost during the file conversion operation.

This problem occurs because the text box Columns setting in Excel 2007 is not flagged by the compatibility checker in the Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

Steps to reproduce the problem

1. Start Excel 2007.
2. On the Insert tab, click Text Box. Then, draw a text box from cell C4 through cell K4.
3. Type a long string of text in the text box. For example, type the following text in the text box:
   This is a very long string of text to fill the text box that we inserted in the Excel 2007 worksheet
4. Right-click the text box, and then click Format Shape.
5. In the Format Shape dialog box, click Text Box, and then click Columns.
6. In the Number list, type 3, in the Spacing list, type .5", click OK, and then click Close.
7. Save the workbook as an Excel workbook in the default file format, and then exit Excel 2007.
8. Copy the workbook to a computer that is running Excel 2003, and then use Excel 2003 to open the workbook.

Notice that the following behavior occurs:

• The file conversion operation is completed successfully as expected. However, the column settings that you configured in step 6 are lost.
• The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats does not notify you that the column formatting will be lost during the conversion operation.

To obtain the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats, visit the following Microsoft Web site: