Message Text

• Engagement has detected this document has too many different cell formats. If you save a document in a format prior to Microsoft® Excel® 2007, and that document has approximately 4,000 or more styles, the document will become corrupt and may not open. We recommend you reduce the number of styles in the document. 
• Engagement has detected this document has exceed the number of cell formats. If you save a document in a format prior to Microsoft® Excel® 2007, and that document has approximately 4,000 or more styles, the document will become corrupt and may not open. We recommend you reduce the number of styles in the document. 
• Workpaper Manager has detected this document has [number] styles. If you save a document in a format prior to Microsoft® Excel® 2007, and that document has approximately 4,000 or more styles, the document will become corrupt and may not open. We recommend you reduce the number of styles in the document. 

Why the Error Occurs

The error may appear in all supported versions of Microsoft® Excel. This occurs when the workbook contains more cell format combinations than Excel can process. The format limit varies based on the type of workbook that is receiving the message:

• 4,000 different format combinations in Excel XLS format.
• 64,000 different format combinations in Excel XLSX format.

A combination is defined as a unique set of formatting elements that are applied to a cell, including:

• Font formatting 
  • Typeface
  • Font size
  • Italic
  • Bold
  • Underline
• Borders
  • Location
  • Weight
  • Color
• Cell patterns
• Number formatting
• Alignment
• Cell protection

If two or more cells share exactly the same formatting, they use one formatting combination. 

• If there are differences in formatting between the cells, each cell uses a different combination.
• In Excel, style counts may increase when copying between workbooks as custom styles are copied.
• A workbook that has more than 4,000 styles may open in XLSX format but result in an error in XLS format.

Common causes of exceeding the cell formatting limits include the following:

• Data pasted from other workbooks with excess styles
• Data pasted from other sources, such as the Internet
• External data
• Third party software
• File corruption  

Custom cell formats are often imported with data from external sources. These custom styles can multiply quickly and cause errors or become corrupt.
 

How to Avoid the Error

To avoid Excel formatting errors:

• Select Paste Special > Values or Text when pasting between workbooks.
• Configure external data so that styles are not imported with data

For additional information, see the following Microsoft articles related to this issue: 

• How to reset a workbook to default styles
  •  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/291321
• How to recover data from damaged workbooks in Excel
  •  How to repair a Microsoft® Excel workbook?

Current supported versions of CCH ProSystem fx Engagement will prompt with a notification if the Microsoft Excel XLS workpapers has excessive styles.

• If a workpaper is saved in an Excel XLS format and the workpaper includes over 2000 styles, the option will be given to reduce prior to saving the workpaper.
• Because Microsoft has a critical limit of approximately 4000 styles for Excel XLS format, your workpapers may become corrupt if saved.
• Convert the XLS workbook to the newer XLSX format to resolve the issue.

How to Resolve the Error in an Existing Workpaper

You will need to save the workpaper as the XLSX format and bring it back into Engagement as a new workpaper. For detailed instructions, see our article on converting documents from Microsoft Office.