remove unwanted line padding in cells while showing all the text

This came up before and I believe there were several approaches. This is for a simple 3-column time sheet for itemizing date, services, and billable time. 3 columns: date (about 10 wide), details (about 80 wide) and # of hours (about 10 wide). The "details" columns are the problem. In some cells, there is an extra line of spacing before and/or after the text. It looks like cell padding. And in some cells one or more of the bottom lines do not appear. Adjusting word wrap, row auto fit, column auto fit, alignment, and "number" (general, text) characteristics sends you in circles--the text in some cells will appear correct, but then in other cells there will be extra line spacing and in others the text does not all appear. Sometimes it seems the problem is also related to the printer, but changing printers does not make the problem disappear. Some problem cells show the extra line spacing while in Normal mode, while other cells appear OK but then show the extra spacing only in print preview.

Some discussions posit that this happens when you paste text from other programs. OK. But I also have this where I am making original entries in each cell. Some discussions target number of lines in the cell, but I have some cells with 2 lines of text and no line spacing before, while other 2-line cells are nice and tight.

Adjusting margins seems to create tighter middle column cells sometimes.

All help greatly appreciated.

p.s. I am using, and prefer, excel 2000 (Yes, 2000)