diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/UnicodeString.java b/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/UnicodeString.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a8c23dfd9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/UnicodeString.java
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+/* ====================================================================
+   Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+   contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+   this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+   The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+   (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+   the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+   limitations under the License.
+==================================================================== */
+
+package org.apache.poi.hssf.record;
+/**
+ * @deprecated Use {@link org.apache.poi.hssf.record.common.UnicodeString} instead
+ */
+public final class UnicodeString extends org.apache.poi.hssf.record.common.UnicodeString {
+   /**
+    * @deprecated Use {@link org.apache.poi.hssf.record.common.UnicodeString} instead
+    */
+   public UnicodeString(RecordInputStream in) {
+      super(in);
+   }
+   /**
+    * @deprecated Use {@link org.apache.poi.hssf.record.common.UnicodeString} instead
+    */
+   public UnicodeString(String str) {
+      super(str);
+   }
+}
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/common/UnicodeString.java b/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/common/UnicodeString.java
index b10d28204..235d54709 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/common/UnicodeString.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/common/UnicodeString.java
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ import org.apache.poi.util.StringUtil;
  * REFERENCE:  PG 264 Microsoft Excel 97 Developer's Kit (ISBN: 1-57231-498-2)<p/>
  * REFERENCE:  PG 951 Excel Binary File Format (.xls) Structure Specification v20091214 
  */
-public final class UnicodeString implements Comparable<UnicodeString> {
+public class UnicodeString implements Comparable<UnicodeString> { // TODO - make this final when the compatibility version is removed
     private short             field_1_charCount;
     private byte              field_2_optionflags;
     private String            field_3_string;