Microsoft KB Archive/84878

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Excel 4.0 Err Msg: &quot;Data May Be Lost&quot; When Saving 2.x Files

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 4.0
 * Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, version 4.0

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SYMPTOMS
In Microsoft Excel 4.0, when you save a file created in Microsoft Excel 2.x in the Microsoft Excel 2.x file format, you may receive the following error message:

Data May Be Lost

This error message occurs if the file contains a large number of custom number formats. When you close and then reopen this file, some custom number formats may be lost. The numbers that were formatted with these custom formats will be formatted with the General number format.

CAUSE
Microsoft Excel 2.1 contains several number formats, such as &quot;$#,##0&quot; and &quot;h:mm&quot;, that are not standard formats in Microsoft Excel 4.0. Because Microsoft Excel 4.0 does not recognize these number formats, it saves them as custom number formats in the Microsoft Excel 2.x file.

If the document already has a large number of custom number formats, this may be enough to exceed the maximum number of custom formats allowed for Microsoft Excel 2.x. In this case, all custom number formats beyond 43 (the maximum allowed in Excel 2.x) will be dropped from the file.

STATUS
This behavior is by design. This problem does not occur in later versions of Microsoft Excel.