Microsoft has been forced to admit that a security update for its popular Excel application caused non-English text to appear on some users’ screens. In a posting on the Office Sustained Engineering blog, Microsoft engineers branded the error a “cosmetic issue” caused by the firm’s patch update which shipped on Tuesday. “We have received reports from some of our Excel 2003 and Excel 2002 customers that after installing update KB978471 or KB978474, they are seeing non-English text in the Add or Remove Programs tool (WinXP) or the Programs and Features --> Installed Updates view (Vista, Win7),” the posting noted.