Format limits

OAK's worksheet comparison and workbook mapping commands have the option to display what they have found by applying color to the worksheet(s) being examined.Remove Color Formatting and Remove Compare Modifications also manipulate fonts and colors.

Excel cannot handle a workbook in which every cell is a different color, typeface and font size.  Excel keeps a list of all the different combinations of cell formats in use in a workbook, and beyond some limit will allow no further permutations of formatting to be added because the list has a fixed size and has become full.

OAK may take Excel beyond this limit when it attempts to mark worksheets that are already busy in formatting terms, since OAK achieves the marking by applying appropriate formatting to cells.  In such cases OAK will stop the operation prematurely, and issue a warning that it has done so.

Operations that seemingly reduce the format count, such as Remove Color Formatting and Remove Compare Modifications can encounter this error, because they work by applying a format that is considered non-colorful, sheet by sheet, and this can generate a temporary increase in the format count.

Operis is working on addressing this issue, which is more a limitation of Excel than of OAK, as explained at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/213904

In the meantime, workarounds can be found under the subheading "Wrinkles" for the commands affected.