Clever s*ds - help required please!!

[Bunnylump]

Sorry, don't understand what you mean. I wanted the grey labels to say something different rather than in the actual grid. Does that make sense?

[clvrlad]

it does but im pretty sure you can't do this - Excel is a spreadsheet and has references in a cartesian fashion.

you can hide the Row & Column Headers from Tools... Options... View. So at least they aren't visible, and then yes - type your column headers into row 1 (or go mad and use row 2, if you fancy it!)

[giraffe]

The headers don't show up when you print do they? So your top row become your headers. You can colour the backgroung in grey if you want them to look like headers.

[SparkOut]

You said it clvrlad.
The row and column "headers" can be hidden, as you say, but you cannot directly customise them.
So, turn them off (in the tools > options > view menu, by unchecking the row & column headers box) and then put your own column headings in the first row. Put 1 in the first cell, hold the control key down and put the mouse pointer in the bottom right hand corner of the first cell. It should show a cursor with a little plus symbol. While holding the control key down still, drag to the right and it should add 1,2,3,4... etc to each cell. Format them as you will, say with grey background, or however you want.
Then put the cursor in the cell in the second row down, in the first column. Or... if you want to add a row label as well, do a similar thing to set up row labels in the first column and customise those. If you have row labels, then put the cell in the second row and second column.
Then go to the Window menu and pick the option "freeze panes".
That will then "sort of" mimic the effect of having a custom column (and row, if desired) heading, but it's as good as you're going to get. You can define a "print area" if you don't want your custom headings to show on a printout.

[clvrlad]

you sound almost surprised sparkout

i know its been awhile since i actually used the ms office stuff but i can vaguely remember the basics


i use free ware stuff now

open office mostly

[Bunnylump]

Ar. Thanks very much for all your suggestions, but it was the column labels I wanted to change, so that if you were scrolling up and down you could see where you were. I can't tell you why at the moment, but you'll find out soon enough.

Damned computers.

[eirian]

yep, that sounds like you are after 'freeze panes' from the Windows menu. That'll keep the first (or more, depending on your needs) row and/or column visible when you scroll elsewhere on the sheet.
I use freeze panes all the time in Excel, and get frustrated when I can't do it in a Word table!

[giraffe]

Bunnylump freeze keeps the top row there and scrolls the rest, it is definitely what you are after.

[Bunnylump]

Ah I see. I misunderstood. I'll give it a go. Thank you all very much for the help!

[MBH]

Sorry I wasn't there for you Sis but you got the right advice in the end. (Whatever she's planning is a fair few lines!!! )

That was a classic example of 'asking the wrong question' - and finding out what you wanted to do in REAL terms told us whay you really should do in computer terms.

I use freeze panes all the time in Excel, and get frustrated when I can't do it in a Word table!

LOL - how about 'Split Screen'??? Small window at top showing headings, and the bottom window scrolling up and down the rest.

[clvrlad]

I use freeze panes all the time in Excel, and get frustrated when I can't do it in a Word table!

LOL - how about 'Split Screen'??? Small window at top showing headings, and the bottom window scrolling up and down the rest.

strange that would have been my solution to bunny

[kingsley]

Ar. Thanks very much for all your suggestions, but it was the column labels I wanted to change, so that if you were scrolling up and down you could see where you were.

We had to do this in IT at school. There are little grey rectangles by the scrolly things that you can move. I'll tyr and put a link to an example on here later. Not sure if it'll be what you want.

[kingsley]

OK, this is the chart I made for my clarinet scales and it's not really a very good example because you can see the whole chart anyway, but it works on a much bigger spreadsheet. It allows you to scroll down while still seeing the column titles and similarly do the same across. If this isn't clear I can try and dig out my IT one, which is much bigger and shows it properly.

scale charts.xls

(26 KiB) Downloaded 39 times

[MBH]

Nice one Kingsley - that's the same 'split screen' that I use on the Word Processing, but you use it on the Excel.

It's worth having a try with the 'Freeze Panes' under the 'Window' command option - position yourself at cell B2 and give it a go - it might be a cleaner answer as the cells don't repeat themselves when you get to the top or side.

[Nice to see Excel being put to practical use as well - I keep telling people it's a useful tool if you make use of it]


EDIT: - Re-reading Kingsley's response about HOW she get's the split screen effect reminds me again that people today seem to be taught exclusively by mouse. Has your IT teacher taken you through (or even mentioned) the command line and the fact you can do almost all Icon based clicks through this non-mouse-based system? [OK - you can use the mouse on these commands as well, I just tend not to bother]

[kingsley]

EDIT: - Re-reading Kingsley's response about HOW she get's the split screen effect reminds me again that people today seem to be taught exclusively by mouse. Has your IT teacher taken you through (or even mentioned) the command line and the fact you can do almost all Icon based clicks through this non-mouse-based system? [OK - you can use the mouse on these commands as well, I just tend not to bother]

Do you mean pressing control and another button at the same time? I know a few of those, but only from testing out, the teacher hasn't taught us anything like that.

[SparkOut]

There's a lot of those, yes. Also notice on the menu bar where you get the word "File", "Edit", etc. Wherever you see a letter that's underlined in a menu like that, if you hold the "Alt" key down and press the underlined letter, that performs the corresponding menu option. Once a pulldown menu is open, then just pressing the underlined letter will select that menu item.
For instance, Alt + F will open the file menu, and you should see "Save As" has the letter A underlined. So pressing "A" with the file menu open will open the Save As box.

[Bunnylump]

Well I hope you're both impressed that I regularly use ctrl+c ctrl+v ctrl+x and ctrl+s. Do I get a gold star? It is SOOOO much easier than using the mouse.

I have to add that I only found out about them by accident, since the only way I've worked out how to use computers is by pressing buttons and seeing what happens!!

[giraffe]

But the ctrl button is on the left and that is my cup of tea hand, whereas the mouse is on the right.

[Bunnylump]

Ah, you see, having never had any computer lessons I didn't realise that a cup of tea was a key component of the computer.

[LAT]

I learnt about alt + tab today. I knew something like that existed and was getting fed up with clicking in the task bar at the bottom of my screen when swapping from bank info on nternet to spreadsheet where I needed to enter figures.

What does ctrl S do?