Why do random rows show a compressed font?

Question

Upon opening a file, certain rows appear compressed even though the font and row heights are the same as the rest of the worksheet. Has anyone seen this before?

Answer 1

The issue of certain rows appearing with a compressed font in Excel, despite having the same font and row heights as the rest of the worksheet, could be related to missing fonts on the system. When opening a document in Microsoft Excel, if the required fonts are not available, it can lead to error messages indicating that Word or Excel cannot display the requested font. This can cause the appearance of compressed or altered text in the document.

Additionally, if the permissions for the C:\Windows\Fonts folder have been changed, it may also affect font availability, leading to similar issues.

To resolve this, you may want to check if the fonts are installed correctly and ensure that the permissions for the Fonts folder are set to default.

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References:

• Error messages opening Office documents when fonts are missing from the machine

Answer 2

Hi @Mike Malloy,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.Based on your description, the issue is highly due to Excel cell properties that may affect the text display (like Wrap text, cell styles, etc.). Display zoom level can also be the culprit of this behavior since Excel renders rows inconsistently in different zoom levels.

I suggest you can try following this guideline to narrow down the situation step by step:

1- Open Excel safe mode

• Press Win + R to open Run dialog box > type excel /safe > hit Enter. 
• In Safe mode, try opening the problematic file to see if the issue still persists there.

2- Check cell formatting

• Select the rows having issue and right click > Format cells > Alignment tab
• Check if Wrap text is off, Shrink to fit is off and vertical alignment is consistent with other rows (Center suggested)

• If possible, you can try selecting the row > Home tab > Editing > Clear > Clear Formats

3- Reset zoom and display

• Set the zoom setting to different scale (80%, 120%, etc.) and reset it back to 100% to see if the issue persists.

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. You can proceed with the outlined steps and let me know whether they resolve the issue. If not, I’ll be glad to continue working with you to find a solution.    

Thank you for your patience and understanding throughout this process. Should you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out in the comments of this post. I'd be happy to assist you.    

Looking forward to your response.

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