The shadow effect on a data label or on a legend is not displayed when you open an Excel 2003 worksheet that contains a chart in Excel 2007

In Microsoft Office Excel 2007, you open a Microsoft Office Excel 2003 worksheet that contains a chart. When you do this, the shadow effect on a data label or on a legend is not displayed. Additionally, when you try to add a shadow effect on the data label or on the legend, the shadow effect is not displayed.

This problem occurs if the following conditions are true:

• You created the chart by using Excel 2003.
• The chart does not contain a border or a fill.

To work around this problem, you must add a border or a fill to the data label or to the legend.

For example, you can use one of the following methods to work around this problem for a data label.

Method 1: Add a border to the data label

1. Open the chart by using Excel 2007.
2. Right-click the data label on which you want to add the shadow effect, and then click Format Data Labels.
3. In the Format Data Labels dialog box, click Border Color, and then click the border type that you want.
4. In the Format Data Labels dialog box, click Shadow, click the type of shadow effect that you want, and then click Close.

Method 2: Add a fill to the data label

1. Open the chart by using Excel 2007.
2. Right-click the data label on which you want to add the shadow effect, and then click Format Data Labels.
3. In the Format Data Labels dialog box, click Fill, and then click the fill type that you want.
4. In the Format Data Labels dialog box, click Shadow, click the type of shadow effect that you want, and then click Close.

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