The vertical character spacing in stacked text is very tight in PowerPoint 2008 for Mac or in Excel 2008 for Mac

Consider the following scenario. You create a presentation by using the Windows version of Microsoft Office PowerPoint. In the presentation, you format some text, and you change the text direction to Stacked. Then, you transfer the document to a Macintosh computer, and you open the presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint 2008 for Mac. In this scenario, the vertical spacing between characters is tighter than it was in the Windows version of the program.

This issue also occurs in Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac.

To work around this problem, follow these steps:

1. Locate and select the stacked text in the presentation or in the workbook.
2. On the Format menu, click Font.
3. Click the Character spacing tab.
4. Next to Spacing, select Expanded.
5. In the by box, type a value for the number of points by which you want the characters separated. Typically, this value is approximately half the font size of the stacked characters. You may have to adjust this value, depending on how tight or how expanded you want the vertical character spacing.
6. Click OK.

Note This workaround is for use only in PowerPoint 2008 for Mac and in Excel 2008 for Mac. If you return the presentation or the workbook to a Windows version of these programs, you must reset the character spacing to Normal. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Locate and select the stacked text in the presentation or in the workbook.
2. On the Format menu, click Font.
3. Click the Character spacing tab.
4. Next to Spacing, select Normal.
5. Click OK.

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