"too many different cell formats"

[djmatok]

I am getting this message in excel "too many different cell formats" , I don't want to clear the formats that I have. Is there a way of checking all the different formats that I have and be able to pick and choose which format to keep or clear?
thanks!

[XOR LX]

Hi.

If I understand it, to receive that error message means that you have reached more than 4000 different cell formats. Do you really need that many different formats?

Of course, you may also have arrived at this situation through no fault of your own: there are various operations which, if you are not careful, can lead to you having this many different cells formats. Pasting between workbooks which are open in separate instances of Excel, for example, is one bad practice which can quickly lead to this problem.

So which is it? Did you knowingly set up your workbook so that you have more than 4000 different cell formats? Or do you feel that this number seems to high?

Regards

[djmatok]

I actually copied tabs from other files into this new workbook.

[XOR LX]

And were those tabs from a workbook which had been opened in a separate instance of Excel?

I know that some people make this mistake of working between Excel workbooks which have been opened in separate instances of Excel, one motive for which is so that they can have each one in a different monitor in a dual-monitor set-up.

I understand that Excel 2013 may have made some changes such that working (e.g. copying/pasting) between different instances of Excel is not so dangerous, but certainly in Excel 2010 and earlier I think that it's generally a disastrous idea.

Regards

[djmatok]

I am using excel 2010 and as we speak I'm having issues even inserting new data. I already formatted all tabs with the almost the same format , but I am getting worse problems.

[shg]

Wiould you please update your profile to the version of Excel you're using? It says 2003.

You might reset everything to style Normal, deletes all custom number formats, and then judiciously apply formatting from there.

[djmatok]

Thank you!! I followed your instructions it works. thank you!

[shg]

You're welcome.

Profile, please.