diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/model/Workbook.java b/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/model/Workbook.java
index 8ec742baf..6711e9692 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/model/Workbook.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/model/Workbook.java
@@ -1996,7 +1996,6 @@ public class Workbook implements Model
         maxformatid = maxformatid >= (short) 0xa4 ? (short) ( maxformatid + 1 ) : (short) 0xa4; //Starting value from M$ empiracle study.
         rec.setIndexCode( maxformatid );
         rec.setFormatStringLength( (byte) format.length() );
-        rec.setUnicodeFlag(StringUtil.isUnicodeFormat(format));
         rec.setFormatString( format );
 
         int pos = 0;
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/FormatRecord.java b/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/FormatRecord.java
index 9437c1fa3..30448bb42 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/FormatRecord.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/poi/hssf/record/FormatRecord.java
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ public class FormatRecord
 {
     public final static short sid = 0x41e;
     private short             field_1_index_code;
-    private short             field_2_formatstring_len;
+
     private short             field_3_unicode_len;      // unicode string length
     private boolean          field_3_unicode_flag;     // it is not undocumented - it is unicode flag
     private String            field_4_formatstring;
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ public class FormatRecord
         field_1_index_code       = LittleEndian.getShort(data, 0 + offset);
         // field_2_formatstring_len = data[ 2 + offset ];
         field_3_unicode_len      = LittleEndian.getShort( data, 2 + offset );
-	field_2_formatstring_len = field_3_unicode_len;
+
         field_3_unicode_flag     = ( data[ 4 + offset ] & (byte)0x01 ) != 0;
                                               
                                               
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ public class FormatRecord
     
     public void setFormatStringLength(byte len)
     {
-        field_2_formatstring_len = len;
+
 	field_3_unicode_len = len;
     }
 
@@ -144,6 +144,7 @@ public class FormatRecord
     public void setFormatString(String fs)
     {
         field_4_formatstring = fs;
+        setUnicodeFlag(StringUtil.isUnicodeString(fs));
     }
 
     /**
@@ -165,10 +166,10 @@ public class FormatRecord
      * @see #getFormatString()
      */
 
-    public short getFormatStringLength()
+   /* public short getFormatStringLength()
     {
         return field_3_unicode_flag ? field_3_unicode_len : field_2_formatstring_len;
-    }
+    }*/
 
     /**
      * get whether the string is unicode
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/poi/util/StringUtil.java b/src/java/org/apache/poi/util/StringUtil.java
index 6de79210a..361463312 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/poi/util/StringUtil.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/poi/util/StringUtil.java
@@ -322,11 +322,11 @@ public class StringUtil {
 	
 	/**
 	   * @param format
-	   * @return true if format is Unicode.
+	   * @return true if string needs Unicode to be represented.
 	   */
-	  public static boolean isUnicodeFormat(final String format) {
+	  public static boolean isUnicodeString(final String value) {
 	    try {
-	      return !format.equals(new String(format.getBytes("ISO-8859-1"), "ISO-8859-1"));
+	      return !value.equals(new String(value.getBytes("ISO-8859-1"), "ISO-8859-1"));
 	    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
 	      return true;
 	    }