"Al" wrote in message
...
When I look at the cell formatting in the new workbook, on the Patterns
tab,
it indicates that the pattern is one of the diagonal crosshatches, but the
appearance of the cells is a solid dark gray. If I set the same pattern
myself, it's roughly 50/50 line/space. In trying to extract a sample
file, I
see something I didn't notice before. The very first time I paste in the
new
workbook, it works fine, but every paste of anything after that has this
strange pattern effect.

Al, there's nothing odd about the sample file you sent me. So, my working
theory is that someone using that computer has created a custom template
that Excel's using each time you as for a new workbook. Below is info from
Excel's help file, which tells you how to do that. Before actually doing it,
though, I'd navigate to the folders it suggests, and see if there's a file
called "sheet.xlt". Move it elsewhere on the disk, restart Excel, open a new
sheet, and see if the problem is solved.

Just one thing - the help file info below is from Excel 2000, which
pre-dates Windows XP. User profiles are no longer beneath the c:\windows
folder. They're beneath "Documents and Settings". So, mine looks like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\Doug\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART

Yours will be similar.

Help file info:

Create a sheet template for new worksheets
1.. Create a workbook that contains one worksheet. On the worksheet,
include the formatting, styles, text, and other information you want to
appear on all new sheets of the same type.


2.. On the File menu, click Save As.
Show Me

3.. In the Save as type box, click Template (*.xlt).


4.. In the Save in box, select the folder where you want to store the
template.
To create the default worksheet template, select either the XLStart folder
or the alternate startup folder. The XLStart folder is usually
C:\os\Profiles\user_name\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLStart
where os is the operating system folder - for example, Windows.

To create a custom sheet template, select the Templates folder, which is
usually
C:\os\Profiles\user_name\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
where os is the operating system folder - for example, Windows.

5.. In the File name box, type sheet to create a template for default
worksheets.
To create a custom sheet template, type any valid file name.

6.. Click Save, and then click Close on the File menu.