Microsoft Office Q&A: Ask anything (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)

I stick with the 2003 version for pretty much the same reasons. If I ever run into a file from the 2007 era that won't open, I just pull up the Compatibility pack. You can grab it right off the Microsoft site.

Microsoft Office Compatibility pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint file formats

So, here’s the deal: I’ve got this gross balance sheet in Word that isn't organized into any actual tables. It looks like it was probably ripped from some software into text format and then pasted into Word. When I try to move everything over to Excel, all the data just dumps into a single column. Every cell contains several different pieces of information, all spaced out a bit from one another.
Since there's way too much data to manually retype, I was wondering if there's a specific formula or an option that can split each individual data point into its own separate cell?
Thanks

So, what’s actually separating those data points in Word? Is it just a tab?

You could probably tighten up those spaces, but they likely just carried over like that from whatever program it was imported from. It wasn't manually spaced out. For example, if you copy and paste a single cell, it looks something like this:

DEBT: 214,980.26 30,545.49 245,525.75 245,525.75

wearycyclist98 said:Look, you can try reducing the spacing, but honestly, it probably just carried over that formatting from whatever program it originated from. It’s not like you can physically separate them. Just look at how a single cell looks when you copy and paste it...

LONG: 214,980.26 30,545.49 245,525.75 245,525.75

Try doing the exact opposite. Take the data out of that Word file and dump it into Notepad. Once you're in Notepad, use Find and Replace under the Edit menu to reorganize everything using a specific character—for example, swap those massive gaps (which are likely tabs) and the periods with a semicolon (;). Save that as a .txt file. Then, head over to Excel, go to the Data menu, and select the "From Text" icon. When the window pops up, set the semicolon as your delimiter, and Excel will snap every number into its own column. You just have to be patient and make sure you format that file correctly so you don't accidentally lose any data along the way.

Dana Diaz8 said:So basically, just dump everything from that Word file into Notepad.

Don't even bother.
You can handle all this right in Excel.
1. Convert that text into columns.
2. Use Find and Replace to turn every period into a # symbol.
3. Use Find and Replace to swap those commas for periods.
4. Use Find and Replace to turn those # symbols back into commas.

Boom. Now all your numbers are in the right number format and sitting pretty in their own columns.
(Assuming you're cool with how the decimal/separator order works in your settings.)
If things get messy, you could always convert the periods to semicolons then just do a copy/paste special-values, or just format the numbers.

wearycyclist98 said:You can adjust the spacing, I suppose—though it likely just carried over from whatever program it originated from... it isn't something you can physically separate. A copy-paste from a single cell looks roughly like this...

DEBT: 214,980.26 30,545.49 245,525.75 245,525.75

This might be a bit of a silly question, but

How did you copy that data from Word?
Did you happen to use the "paste as Unicode text" option?

edit:
My apologies—I missed the comma/period issue earlier...

Hello

Can someone drop a link where I can download the American language pack for Microsoft Office 2007?
Thanks in advance for the help.

Timothy Howard2 said:Hey guys,

Can someone drop a link where I can download the American language pack for Microsoft Office 2007?
Thanks in advance for the help.

Google it, or check here and here.

Note:

Why isn't my language proofing tool showing up after I installed it?! I've already tried restarting, but it's still not recognizing anything. What gives?

p.s.-Microsoft Office Word 2010

I need help. Every time I try to open a document, PowerPoint says it can't load it, and this error pops up:

The presentation can't be opened. Your antivirus software might be blocking you from opening the presentation. To fix this, make sure your antivirus is up to date and running properly. If the issue persists and you know the presentation is from a trusted source, try disabling your antivirus and then attempt to open it again. Just don't forget to turn your antivirus back on once you've opened the file.

I'm running Windows 7 right now and I have no clue if I should disable the program or allow it through the Firewall.
If anyone can help me out, I'd really appreciate it.

Are you absolutely certain the file itself isn't the problem? I mean, how big is it actually—are we talking kilobytes or megabytes? It’s possible something went sideways while you were saving it, and you might just be looking at a totally empty file. Or, if you've got it on a thumb drive or a disc, there's always that chance the hardware is acting up and the data is corrupted, making it unreadable.

The Firewall definitely shouldn't have anything to do with this.

You're right. Looks like there's actually something wrong with the file because I can open all the others just fine. Thanks for the heads-up.
Best,

Why is it that when I download my emails from the server—in my case, using my ISP's mail service—it doesn't fully pull them down so they're actually removed from the server entirely? Is there a specific way to configure that setting within Outlook?
I can walk you through how to handle that in Outlook on Windows. I'm currently running Office 2010 myself.
Thanks.

Edward Gray49 said:Why doesn't it fully pull the email from the server—in my case, using Comcast—so that nothing is left behind on their end? How do I set that up in Outlook?
Just use Outlook on Windows... I’m running Office 2010.
Thanks.

Go to File, then Account Settings, select the existing account, hit Change, and look under More Options—you'll find an Advanced tab there... it has the setting to control how long messages stay on the server after you download them.😉

hiddenotter98 said:If you head over to File, then jump into your Account Settings, you can select the option to change your existing account. From there, if you click on More Options, you’ll find an Advanced tab waiting for you. Inside that menu, you should see the specific settings that let you decide exactly how long the server holds onto your messages after you've already downloaded them. 😉

Thanks.

Hello,

I am looking for some assistance.

I need to place an image in the bottom right corner of my PowerPoint presentation so that it appears on every single slide, with the exception of the title slide.

I have tried several different approaches without success, so I would truly appreciate it if anyone here could guide me through the process.

Thank you,

Best regards,

I’m looking for some help here. I’m running Microsoft Office 2007 and Word has started acting up on me. Basically, whenever I open a document and try to type over it—you know, just updating data in an existing file—it hits me with this error when I go to save. It says Word can't save the document because the converter isn't working or something along those lines, and then it throws out some random string of numbers like WRLO587......
What even is that? Everything was working perfectly fine just the other day, and I haven't deleted anything or installed any new software lately...

Lawrence Walker5 said:Hi there,

I could use some assistance...

I'm trying to place an image in the bottom right corner of my PowerPoint—it needs to show up on every slide except for the title slide.

I've run out of ideas to try... if anyone knows how to handle this, I'd appreciate the help.

Thanks,

Best,

Just use the Slide Master for that...

Lawrence Walker5 said:Honestly, I’m out of ideas. If anyone knows how to fix this, please help me out.

Like the other guy said, you gotta use the Slide Master. If that video isn't clicking for you, here's a link with step-by-step instructions.

- Using Slide Master in PowerPoint