XL2000: Text on Worksheet Tab Is Compressed or Clipped (213975)

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel, the text on the sheet tabs in your workbook may appear compressed or clipped. For example, on a sheet with a name that contains the letter g, j, or y, the descender may be cut off on the sheet tab.

Also, sheet tabs may not be visible when you open a workbook.

CAUSE

These problems occur if you set the Scrollbar item size (under Display in Control Panel) to a value smaller than 13. The Display Properties dialog box allows you to change the size of different items on your display, such as the scroll bar size, title bar size and text, and ToolTip text. Because the sheet tabs in Excel are designed to be the same height as the horizontal scrollbar in the active workbook, the height of the tabs is controlled by the Scrollbar item size in Windows. If you set the scroll bar's height to a small number, the worksheet tab may appear compressed and the text may not be displayed completely.

If you set the Scrollbar item size to a value less than 13, the characters on your sheet tabs begin to appear clipped, or the sheet tabs do not appear at all. This behavior is most noticeable with characters that have a descender; the descender begins to disappear.

The text that appears on sheet tabs is scaled in proportion to the Scrollbar item size. However, as the Scrollbar item size is decreased to values below 13, the text does not continue to scale. The point size of this text is not controlled through the Display icon in Control Panel.

Note that a lot of the pre-defined color schemes in Windows use a Scrollbar item size of 13.

RESOLUTION

Increase the size of the Scrollbar item in Windows. To do this, follow these steps:

On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click the Display icon.
Click the Appearance tab.
In the Item list, click Scrollbar. In the Size box, enter a greater value than the value that appears. For example, type 13.
Click Apply. Click OK.