XL2000: Text with Shrink to Fit Format May Disappear or Grow

When you apply the Shrink to fit alignment option to a cell in a worksheet, either of the following problems may occur:

• The text completely disappears from the cell.
• The text increases in size and is cut off by the border of the cell.

These problems may occur when the cell contains a large amount of text (for example, 60 or more characters).

Specifically, the problem occurs because Excel cannot display text you resized with the Shrink to fit option when the text is too small.

To work around these problems, increase the column width of the cell or reduce the amount of text in the cell.

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

In Excel, you use the Shrink to fit option to automatically scale text in a cell so that it fits within the cell. As you increase or decrease the amount of text in the cell, or as you adjust the width of the cell, Excel automatically resizes the text to fit within the cell.

When Excel resizes text that uses the Shrink to fit option, it must resize the text to a whole-number point size. If the point size is too small (for example, 1 or 2 points), the text may disappear from the cell.