Excel Input Mesage Box incorrectly sized when Windows Display Scale is set to higher than 100%

Question

Hi,

Many Excel applications I have developed for clients use the Excel Input Message (Data Validation > Input Message). This functionality displays a neat yellow box next to the selected cell instructing a user what to enter.

However, I have reived many complaints that not all text is shown and there is no way to scroll or resize. When I recently changed laptop (Running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit version 1803 and Office 365 64-bit version 1807 (16.0.10325.20036), I experience the same issue.

After some testing it seems that it is connected to Windows 10 Display Scaling (Settings > Display > Scale and layout). On computers with high DPI screens the scale must be set to a high percentage in order to make text readable on the screen. Using Microsoft Surface Book 2 with its beautiful 3000x2000 13-inch screen has 267 DPI and suggests 200% display scaling. However, when the Windows Display Scale is set higher than 100% then the Input Message box is not scaled properly and the larger text does not fit in the box. Very annoying.

Would think this is something for the Excel team to fix, right?

Have I missed any settings that can fix the problem?

Answer 1

Hi All,

This issue has been fixed in the latest version of Monthly Targeted channel, which is on version 1812 (11126.20074).

This update will also trickle down to other channels in the coming months.

Regards,

Sheen

Answer 2

Hi intellimediase,

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. We are glad to help you on the issue.

Based on your description, when setting the Windows Display Scale higher than 100%, the texts in Input Message box become larger and do not fix in the box.

Since you are not using the latest version of Office, we suggest you update Office to the latest version 1807(10325.20118), see if there is any improvement.

Install Office updates

Update history for Office 365 ProPlus (listed by date)

If the issue persists, we'd like to confirm the following information for troubleshooting:

1.According to your description, it seems the issue happen to both the Excel on laptop and Surface.

Please capture screenshots for the Product Information via Excel File>Account for both laptop and Surface.

2.Also, please share with us the detailed Version and OS build of your Windows 10.

3.Does the issue happen in a specific workbook or all workbooks?

Regards,

Tina

Answer 3

Hi Tina,

Thank you for your prompt reply.

Updated Excel 64-bit to version 1807(10325.20118), restarted computer and tested again. Problem is the same.

Windows is updated to latest version: Windows 10 Pro, 64 bit, version 1803 OS build 17134.228

Issue happens in ALL workbooks.

Tested it on two computers (laptops):

1. New Surface Book 2 (SW specs above)
2. Old Vaio SVZ13 with Excel 32-bit version 1806 Build 10228.20080 on Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 1803 build 17134.165

Same issue on both,

I have also seen this on numerous other computers (clients I work for).

Can you recreate the issue yourself?

1. Open an empty Excel sheet
2. For a cell do Data Validation > Input Message and enter a long text
3. Change Windows Display Scaling to 150% or 200%

Can you then see all text?

Answer 4

Hi Intellimediase,

Yes, we can recreate the issue on two channels, specifically, the latest version of Monthly (Targeted) and Monthly channel. If this is affecting your work, we suggest switching to either the Semi-annual (Targeted) or Semi-annual channel.

How to switch channels for Office 2016 ProPlus:

How to ‘Switch Channels’ for Office 2016 ProPlus

We are doing more investigation on this issue and we'll let you know once we have more information.

Regards,

Sheen

Answer 5

Thank you Sheen,

I doubt that switching channel will solve the issue since it has been around for a long time.

There is a work-around by setting scale to 100% in Windows but that is very inconvenient on modern computers with high DPI. Moreover, I cannot ask all clients I work for to make changes like that. Please let me know when (or how?) a bug report is created for Excel and how soon a fix can be expected.