Text and shape effects in earlier versions of Excel

If you apply certain Excel 2011 effects to text or objects, or if you change styles or settings for text inside an object that you created in Excel 2011 the effects, styles, and settings will not appear if the workbook is opened with versions of Excel for Mac released prior to 2008 or versions of Excel for Windows released prior to 2007.

If you edit the text or objects in an earlier version of Excel, the effects, styles, and settings will be lost. If you save the workbook in a previous version, but leave the text and objects unchanged, the effects, styles, and settings are preserved and will reappear when you open the workbook in Excel 2011.

The following effects will not appear for shapes when viewed in earlier versions of Excel.

• Glow

• Soft edges

• Inner shadow

• Reflection

• Gradient line

• 3-D rotation

• Bevel

• Contour

• Depth

The following styles and settings will not appear for text inside shapes when viewed in earlier versions of Excel.

• WordArt styles

• Text fill styles

• Text Line styles

• Outline styles

• Shadow styles

• Strikethrough styles

• Double strikethrough styles

• 3-D rotation settings (beyond 270 degrees)

• Bevel settings

• Depth settings

• Contour settings

• Surface material settings

• Text transforms

• Column settings

• Kerning

• Character spacing

• Indentation beyond 4 tabs

• Vertical stacking

See also

Sharing documents with other versions of Office

Best practices for working with Windows

Turn off Compatibility Report