Table lines disappearing

Question

Recently had an issue when opening a DOCX file in Word 2003 with the Office 2007 compatibility pack.

The file included many tables, and in some of them the cell borders disappeared. After some playing around I suspected that tracked changes might have been causing the problem. I opened the file in Word 2007 and accepted all changes. When I opened next in Word 2003 all was well.

Just posting this in case someone else experiences a similar problem.

Answer 1

Hi Stefan,

It might be "well know" but I have never seen any discussions about that limitation anywhere.

Also, in this case, accepting the tracked changes with the document open in Word 2003 didn't help. I had to open in 2007 and accept changes for the formatting to reappear.

Anyway, I just posted this to make it easier for others in the same boat to find the solution.

Answer 2

Also, in this case, accepting the tracked changes with the document open in Word 2003 didn't help. I had to open in 2007 and accept changes for the formatting to reappear.

I haven't encountered that specific issue, but I suspect that the underlying cause might be that Word 2003 doesn't fully support the newer *.docx file format.

Answer 3

It might be "well know" but I have never seen any discussions about that limitation anywhere.

I haven't searched recently, but there should be several threads in this forum that mention different formatting issues in conjunction with "unresolved" tracked changes. In that respect, it is clear that you have encountered a well-known limitation of the tracked changes feature.

Usually, though, the Track Changes problem affects fields and auto numbering, though.

Answer 4

It is a well-known limitation in Word that formatting may not appear properly until you have accepted (or rejected) tracked changes.