hi
xl03 allows for 4000 different format cobinations. xl07 uped that to 64000
due to the larger sheets but since you are saving as an 03.xls for those with
03 and 00 you are stuck with the 4000 ceiling. since it is a ceiling, the
only real fix is dont' exceed the limit.
see this site for more info and possible fixes.
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;213904
appies to 03 back to 97 i think...whenever excel went to 64536 rows.

regards
FSt1

"Tom" wrote:

I am working on office 2007 prof - my spreadsheet should be read by
colleagues using 2003 and ideally 2000 versions.
While I was able to save the file as xls in the past, I am now getting error
messages re too many formats being used. Running the compatability chequer, I
have removed conditional formatting from two columns taking care of one
listed issue. The remaining one stating too many formats does not help me.
How can I deal with it?

Is there any function to remove all formatting. My spreadsheet would look
terrible but at least everyone has access to the data in there.
Any other way to sensibly work with or in older versions.