So I have spent too much on this issue alone and 4 hours with Microsoft. Some of their techs can reproduce the error, some cannot. This effects all of our users on 2013.
Problem: While working on a spreadsheet, if you accidentally extend to cells that are different sizes you will get this warning message. "To do this, all the merged cells need to be the same size." after clicking OK the file becomes corrupt. Now when you modify any of the cell's values, the individual cells do not update to reflect the new value. From this point, if you zoom in on the file, you will see a secondary grid behind the original one. It's very strange but I can reproduce it all day long on any system.
For those that want to try to reproduce the problem, please do the following.
1) open a new worksheet
2) merge cells A1 and B1; enter a 1 value in this cell
3) Expand this selection down to B7; now you will have a sequence of numbers vertically of 1-7
4) Now go back to cell A1 and expand that selection down to 14
5) You will receive a warning saying "To do this, all the merged cells need to be the same size." Click ok. At this point the numbered cells may be come illegible; I have had mixed results
6) Now change the value of 2 to 555 or any number, do the same with 3 and so on; the values will no longer update
7) To see the double grid, zoom in on the excel file and you will see a new grid with the values you modified; If you leave the file alone for about 15 minutes, it will eventually update those numbers into your original cells.
So there is my long drawn out problem and I'm hoping someone here will have an answer.
Thank you all in advance
BTW: This issue does not exist in 2010.
- Edited by TPCLV Wednesday, January 28, 2015 12:54 AM more info