Line Graph lines are all black if opened with Mac Excel 2008 but are OK on Windows Excel

[sahild]

Using Aspose.Cells for Java we are creating a workbook where the first tab is a sheet, the second tab is a line graph (generated from data on the third tab's sheet), and the third tab is a sheet. and we specifically assign a color to each line. (red, green, blue, etc)

We save the resulting xls file and if we open with MS Excel on a MS Windows machine the line chart looks good, if we transfer the xls file to a Mac and open with MS Excel 2008 all of the lines in the line graph are black. This also happens if we generate the workbook from a Mac as well.
I have attached a zip file that includes 2 workbooks, one where the tabs are; sheet, line, sheet and the other is line, sheet, line.

We are using Aspose.Cells for Java 2.1.2.0 (I did try 2.2.0.0, 2.2.1.0 and 2.3.0.0 with the same results)

Some of the other things I have tried:
- If the line graph is the first tab the colors work.
- All other graph types (area, stacked bar, cluster bar, pie) work fine.
- All line graphs that are created on a tab that follows a sheet tab have black lines.
- On a workbook that has line graph with black lines I moved the tab to be the first tab and saved it. Then I reopened and it still has black lines.
- I manualy created a workbook in MS Excel 2003 on Windows where the tabs are sheet, graph, sheet, saved it. Opened it with MS Excel 2008 on Mac and the line chart shows colored lines.
- We updated Excel 2008 for Mac to latest update.

Let me know if there is anything else you need.

Steve

[msabir]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your post. We have logged this issue on our Issue Tracking System as 18156. This thread has been associated with the issue.

We will investigate the issue of compatibility of Aspose.Cells for Java created documents with Mac Office 2008 and update you soon.

Best Regards

[Amjad_Sahi]

Hi,

After further investigation, we found even creating a chart in MS EXCEL of windows mannually, the color may be shown as black in Excel of Mac. For example, following steps in MS Excel of windows will create an Excel file which cannot be shown correctly for chart's color in the Excel of Mac:

1) create a new workbook and add a chartsheet behind the first worksheet

2) creat a line chart in the chartsheet and use the first worksheet as datasource

3) set the color of line as blue (chose the blue color as attached palette.jpg shows)

4) save the excel file

5) view it in Excel of Mac, the chart line will be shown as black.

so, we think it is not completely compatible for Excel of Windows and Excel of Mac.

Now, we have provided a new method for SaveOptions:

public void setForMac(boolean isForMac)

It sets whether the workbook will be saved for Mac OS.

Parameters: isForMac whether the workbook will be saved for Mac OS.

Before saving the workbook, please invoke workbook.getSaveOptions().setForMac(true). Thus, the saved chart colors will be shown as they should be in the Excel of Mac.

Thank you.

[sahild]

Hi Amjad,

This didn't solve the problem. I am still getting all black lines.

I invoked workbook.getSaveOptions().setForMac(true) just before I invoke
workbook.save(out, fileFormatType);
where fileFormatType is EXCEL2003

The attached MacProcess.xls file is the workbook created this way.

I was able to manually duplicate the problem in Excel 2003 by choosing a color in the lower part of the palette. What is odd is this only occurs for line charts. All other of my chart types work great. (Area, Pie, Bar types)

Thanks for getting back so quickly.

Steve

[Amjad_Sahi]

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback,

We will further look into it soon.

Thank you.

[sahild]

Also, I just tried to create an EXCEL2007 workbook with the Aspose.Cells you posted and I get a nullPointer exception trying to save any workbook when I have a chart tab in the workbook. If all the tabs are sheets then it creates a workbook OK…

[Amjad_Sahi]

Hi,

For the issue of line chart color, we will check it further. For the issue of saving to Excel2007 workbook, would you please give us the test code to reproduce the issue? We have done some tests but could not reproduce such an issue.

Thank you.