Formatting changes to a pivot table are lost in Excel

When you format a pivot table in Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2002 or Microsoft Office Excel 2000, your changes may be lost when you close and then you reopen the file.

You may also notice that this issue occurs when you update data from an external source.

This problem occurs when you format one or more of the following table components:

• Header cells for table data
• Cell column width

To work around this issue, use the appropriate method:

Method 1: Header cell changes are lost

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

1. Start Excel, and then open the file you want.
2. Click to select all the header cells in the pivot table, right-click the selected cells, and then click Format Cells.
3. Apply the formatting changes you want, and then click OK.
4. On the File menu, click Save.

Method 2: Column width changes are lost

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

1. Start Excel, and then open the file you want.
2. Modify the pivot table with the changes you want.
3. On the Pivot Table toolbar, click Pivot Table, click Table Options, click to clear the AutoFormat table check box, and then click OK.
4. On the File menu, click Save.

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