HELP!!!!!! IT Advice needed

[LAT]

I think with the formatting you have to format the cell and retype the entry for it to work.

Excel I'm not too bad on. I'm pretty useless on Word though.

[giraffe]

We retyped and reformatted and reformatted and retyped. It was just being plain stubborn.

[MBH]

Racy Rachel, running round re-entering text.
All day long she reformats and retypes
All day long she retypes and reformats.


No - sorry - doesn't scan as well as Sister Suzy Sitting in a Shoe Shine Shop



If software has the lable 'Microsoft' attached, then there is always a RANDOM element to the operation - I've given up trying to find out why things don't work and just find a different way to do it

[giraffe]

The problem is just as you get used to how the software works they introduce an "easier to use version" which doesn't work the same and is therefore much harder to use.

It's like going to buy jeans. I always go to the same place, because it's the only place that makes them to fit my rear. Then one day I go in and ask for the same ones and the lady says you'll like these they're a much better fit. Now they're exactly the same as everywhere else, whereas before they did fit.

[eirian]

The problem is just as you get used to how the software works they introduce an "easier to use version" which doesn't work the same and is therefore much harder to use.

QFT. I *hate* 'easier to use' versions.

[MBH]

LOL - software that tries to 'help' you.. Grrrrr

Numbering lines in Word is so annoying that I advise all my students type the things they want numbered in a list, then go back and format the numbers onto them. Much more convenient than fighting with the 'assistance'.

* Warning for bad language....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q_sfVyXhrE

[katsmom]

There is a line numberer? When did that happen?

My pet pieve is those "auto updates"

[MBH]

I would LOVE to come over and teach you

[giraffe]

The one I can never get right is getting the address where you want it if you're typing a letter. It seems to put it in a box, in a different size font of just plain remove it when you don't want it to. I almost always write letters by hand, even business ones beacause it takes so much longer faffing around on word.

[MBH]

I start with a blank bit of paper and no 'assistance' and put everything exactly where I want it. Then I save it in such a way that I can read that letter back in, hack out the middle, and write a new one without templates or any other rubbish.

Old fashione - but it works. Or... Plain and Simple - just like me

[Scurra]

I start with a blank bit of paper and no 'assistance' and put everything exactly where I want it. Then I save it in such a way that I can read that letter back in, hack out the middle, and write a new one without templates or any other rubbish.

I hate to break it to you, but that is a template... (what I mean is that that's all a template actually is. Just without the text content.)
I never use "premade" templates (and, of course, pretty much the first thing I do is to kill the "paperclip" ) because they never work the way you want. It's almost always quicker to create a document that works the way you want it to work, but with random text (or even no text if you feel confident!) and save it. Sometimes you forget to "Save As..." and the new document replaces the previous one rather than being saved separately, although if you use the toolbar icons you can get around that by simply replacing the "Save" icon with the "Save As..." one instead.

[SparkOut]

LOL - software that tries to 'help' you.. Grrrrr

Like the Virgin Media WiFi "manager" (more like "mangler")


And that paperclip! "It looks like you're probably not writing a letter. I like letters. I think you should. Start with a word like "MILK". And "sponge", I like sponges!"

(When you can) try using the "Word" application in this "Really Good" version of Windows. http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/winrg

[kingsley]

If I have to write a letter I do it by hand! (not that I have to write many)

[eirian]

I've just learnt not to put a comma after the name, then it doesn't think I'm typing a letter. I use pre-prepared templates for the actual letters, so the paperclip ignores those, but my colleagues keep giving me their emails to type (so they can cut/paste them), and address them properly, so I just leave the comma off, and it's fine.

The auto numbering is a pet hate. Although the inability of Track Changes to keep the colours consistent is a real bugbear when your boss doesn't understand that you *can't* type his latest amendments to the doc in blue....

[MBH]

I hate to break it to you, but that is a template...

It's a page to type on with a default margin and font.... subdividing follicles

Regarding the rest of your post - I've trained myself (and advise others) that the first job you do when ripping off something else is save it as it's new name - then you can CTRL+S as often as you need to when the phone rings, you need coffee, pests - I mean colleagues ask you things

[Scurra]

I don't disagree. It's merely that even after all that training, there are still times you forget. And don't tell me you never do

[MBH]

Last I checked I was still human after hitting the ALT and then the F, it is possible I've caught the S on the way to the A.

[dcfanjo]

Not exactly a problem - just a question.

Has anyone heard of a programme called 'Excel Compare'? my colleague in North America uses it and my IT department don't seem all that clued up!

[MBH]

Never heard of it, but it looks an interesting little 'tool'.

http://www.excelcompare.com/

I've done a lot of report and data comparison/analysis with a data mining tool called Monarch in the past. It was able to do this sort of stuff, but Excel Compare looks to be written specifically as an extra to Excel.

Hope this helps.

[dcfanjo]

It is very good as we need to compare 2 differently dated spreadsheets for additions and changes, however because the Excel sheets are generated by another tool and then extracted into Excel format its not possible to use track changes etc.