Excel 2007 setting print area makes shapes disappear

[Steve Chown]

I have a problem with workbooks from Excel 2003 that I am now using in 2007 where the print area is set to a column range and within the range there are shapes and textboxes etc. If I do a print preview (or print) then when the worksheet is displayed again the shapes and textboxes are hidden. However, if I highlight part of the worksheet that contains the shapes with the mouse I can see that the shapes are still there. If the print range is set to a range or cells rather than a column range then there is no problem. ( I need to use a column range as there is external data in the worksheet and the number of rows can vary. There are also parts of the worksheet that I do not want printed).

To illustrate this behavior : in a new Excel 2007 worksheet insert a shape and then select some columns including those that the shape appears in and then use the Set Print Area option. The shape disappears ( well it does on my pc). If you use the Clear Print Area option it becomes visible again.

Anyone any ideas what's going on or how to keep the shapes visible?