XL2000: Text Is Cut Off When You Print or View a Worksheet

When you print a worksheet or view a worksheet in Print Preview or Page Break Preview, the text and borders of cells at the edge of the page may be truncated or may be printed on another page.

This problem may occur when you apply a combination of rotated text, borders, and the Shrink to fit formats to a cell.

NOTE: The "More Information" section in this article contains an example that demonstrates this problem.

To work around this behavior or lessen the severity of this behavior, use any of the following methods.

Method 1

In the worksheet, select the range of cells that you want to print, including cells that surround the cells that contain rotated text. Point to Print Area on the File menu and click Set Print Area.

Method 2

Clear the Shrink to fit check box for the cells that contain rotated text. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the cells with rotated text.
2. On the Format menu, click Cells, and then click the Alignment tab.
3. Click to clear the Shrink to fit check box, and then click OK.

Method 3

Remove the border from the cells that contain rotated text. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the cells with rotated text.
2. On the Format menu, click Cells, and then click the Border tab.
3. Under Line and Style, click None, and then click OK.

When you print the worksheet or view it in Print Preview or Page Break Preview, the cells with rotated text appear correctly.

NOTE: It may be necessary to use two or more of these methods to correct the problem.

If the rotated text still does not appear correctly, try deleting page breaks, inserting or removing columns, or manually adjusting the widths of columns in the worksheet.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

This problem occurs because of the way Microsoft Excel calculates the position of page breaks when a column contains cells with rotated text and borders. Normally, when you rotate text in a cell in Microsoft Excel, the cell remains rectangular in shape. However, if you apply a border to the cell, the cell becomes a parallelogram. If the parallelogram crosses a page break, Microsoft Excel may truncate some parts of the cell or may display the parts on another page.

Example

To see an example of the problem, follow these steps:

1. In Microsoft Excel, create a new workbook.
2. In cell B2 of Sheet1, enter the following text:
   This is a test.
3. Select cell B2. On the Format menu, click Cells.
4. Click the Alignment tab. In the Degrees box, type 30. Click to select the Shrink to fit check box.
5. Click the Border tab. Click Outline and click OK.
6. On the View menu, click Page Break Preview.
7. Click 200% in the Zoom box on the Standard toolbar.
   
   NOTE: The last part of the text in cell B2 is cut off by the page break to the right of column B.
8. On the File menu, click Print Preview.
   
   NOTE: Parts of the cell are also truncated in print preview.
9. Exit Print Preview by clicking Close.
10. Select cell B2. On the Format menu, click Cells. Click the Alignment tab. Click to clear the Shrink to fit check box. Click OK.
    
    NOTE: The text is no longer truncated. However, the border around cell B2 is truncated.
11. Select cells A1:D2. On the File menu, point to Print Area, and then click Set Print Area.

The text and borders of cell B2 are no longer truncated because the print area completely encompasses the cell with the rotated text.