diff --git a/xmloff/source/text/XMLFootnoteConfigurationImportContext.cxx b/xmloff/source/text/XMLFootnoteConfigurationImportContext.cxx
index a9657038c7f0..8de2cb40a6a7 100644
--- a/xmloff/source/text/XMLFootnoteConfigurationImportContext.cxx
+++ b/xmloff/source/text/XMLFootnoteConfigurationImportContext.cxx
@@ -176,9 +176,9 @@ void XMLFootnoteConfigurationImportContext::SetAttribute( sal_Int32 nElement,
         case XML_ELEMENT(TEXT, XML_OFFSET): // for backwards compatibility with SRC630 & earlier
         {
             sal_Int32 nTmp;
-            if (::sax::Converter::convertNumber(nTmp, rValue, 0, SAL_MAX_UINT16))
+            if (::sax::Converter::convertNumber(nTmp, rValue, 0, SAL_MAX_INT16))
             {
-                nOffset = static_cast<sal_uInt16>(nTmp);
+                nOffset = static_cast<sal_Int16>(nTmp);
             }
             break;
         }