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

Need some help here. Which setting handles how text shows up in a column? For example, if we have a column filled with "male" and "female," which option lets us switch that so they show up as checkmarks instead? Like, "checked" or "unchecked"?

Is there a way to tweak the settings so that when I use decimals, it doesn't show all those extra unnecessary digits after the point?

For instance,

if I set it to three decimal places and the number is 7.3, can I have it just display as 7.3 instead of 7.300? Or if there are no decimals, can it just show 7 instead of 7.000?

I hope that makes sense...

Edit: I'm not looking for formulas here—just wondering if there's a specific setting to toggle.

rustywalker1 said:Is there any way to tweak things so that when I set decimals, it doesn't show all those extra unnecessary digits?
For instance, if I set it to three decimal places but the number is just 7.3, I want it to stay as 7.3 instead of showing 7.300. Or, if the number is 7.000, I'd rather it just show 7.
...

Actually, in both Excel and LibreOffice Calc, that’s just how it works by default if you use Format Cells - Number - General. It won't show trailing zeros or extra decimals if they aren't needed. ☕

I’m actually asking about the scenario where it’s formatted to display a specific number of decimal places after the decimal point.

rustywalker1 said:but I'm actually asking about when you've already formatted it to show a specific number of decimals after the dot.

Excel Advanced Options
Excel Options => Advanced => Automatically insert a decimal point

Excel 2003
Tools => Options => Editor tab => Fixed Decimal places

Hi there,

I seem to be running into a bit of a snag—rather frustrating, really—when I try to save my documents in Word 2007. It always seems to act up right after I’ve gone through the trouble of inserting equations or various other mathematical expressions into the file. Does anyone happen to know what might be causing this little hiccup?

Kyle Davis6 said:Good afternoon—I'm working with 😁two different files every day.
I have two Excel files: one is a price list (items and prices) and the other is where I write my quotes...
The goal? How can I link them without opening the price list or manually typing everything out? I want to type an item, have it suggest itself, and then once selected, pop up the price... easy enough, right?
Thanks a ton for the help...☕

I assume you're dealing with two separate sheets: one for items and prices, the other for the quote.
Try using a VLOOKUP function. But, judging by how you phrased the question, it sounds like you aren't familiar with it yet. You might want to brush up on that a bit...

Bryan Brooks13 said:Hey there,

I'm running into some trouble trying to save my document in Word 2007—it seems to act up right after I drop in some equations and other math expressions. Anyone have a clue what might be causing this?

It’s pretty hard for anyone to give you an answer when you haven't actually described what's happening. Give us a little more detail, please.

Kyle Davis6 said:I've got two Excel files, ..................Wondering how I can link them together without having to open the price list and manually overwrite everything.

Like @Karl said, just use the VLOOKUP Excel function and check out this link while you sip your coffee

- How to link data between two Excel files

I'm running into a bit of a headache trying to generate a chart in Excel 2010.

Here are my data points (x,y,z):
For x and y:
I have 18 specific pairs set up here.
(0,0), (1,0), (2,0), (3,0), (4,0), (5,0),
(0,1), (1,1), (2,1), (3,1), (4,1), (5,1),
(0,2), (1,2), (2,2), (3,2), (4,2), (5,2).
This is supposed to be a coordinate grid—the layout should look like what I've marked in red below:


Now for z:
I've calculated two separate values for each of those 18 pairs. I need to generate surfaces or grids through these points (specifically one for the z1 value and another for z2) so I can actually see the deviation between the first and second value.

I've been banging my head against the wall for an hour and a half messing with surface charts and I just can't get it to work... Is this even possible? Does anyone have a tutorial or some actual instructions on how to pull this off?

I'm not entirely sure what you're aiming to pull off here... I mean, I can't quite tell if this is actually
what you're looking for...

I need to generate two meshes or surfaces to check how they intersect at specific key points.
Thanks for the link, I'll give that a shot. If it doesn't work—well, maybe AutoCAD will actually be useful for once...

I have Windows 7 64 bit installed with an English OS and Microsoft Office 2003 in American. Every time I attempt to rename an Excel file, I am met with an error message stating the file doesn't exist and cannot be opened.

I have been working intensely on one specific spreadsheet for the past two days, and if that data is lost, I truly don't know what I will do.

Is there any way to recover them? I tried reverting the file back to its original name, but it hasn't helped at all.

It is quite baffling, as I encounter absolutely no issues when renaming files in any other format.

Nicholas Wells74 said:I have Windows 7 64 bit installed in English along with an American version of Microsoft Office 2003. Occasionally, when I try to rename an Excel file, I get an error saying the file doesn't exist and can't be opened.

I have been working intensely on one specific spreadsheet for two days straight, and if I lose all that work now, I honestly feel like I might lose my mind.

How can I recover them? I tried reverting the file to its original name, but that didn't help at all.

The strange thing is, I don't run into any issues whatsoever when renaming files in other formats.

I managed to resolve the issue and recover my data by simply giving the file its original name again and moving it back to its initial folder. An IT specialist suggested this might be related to saving Excel spreadsheets in HTML format, though I am certain I saved it as an xls file rather than in that format.

Is there a way to strip away all those HTML-related features and editing attempts while still retaining the ability to include hyperlinks to websites within my cells?

I really don't want Excel to act like it knows better than I do, dictating exactly what a filename must be or which specific directory it must reside in; I prefer to organize my own files according to my own system.

Furthermore, I am now genuinely anxious every single time I go to open any Excel spreadsheet, fearing more complications might arise.

Does anyone know how to set up a formula in Excel? Like, if column A has 10 and column B has 14, I want column C to just automatically show whichever number is higher...

If you have number X in cell A1 and number Y in cell B1, your formula in cell C1 would look something like this:

=IF(A1>B1,A1,B1)

this setup will always return whichever number is larger in cell C1

edit: this specific formula just checks which one is bigger—if the numbers happen to be identical, you might want to use the >= operator instead:

=IF(A1>=B1,A1,B1)

that way, if they're both the same, I guess it doesn't really matter which one gets pulled, but in this case, it'll just pull from cell A1

edit2:

I was talking to a colleague earlier and they reminded me about the MAX function, so you could just put this in cell C1:

=MAX(A1,B1,.....)

those dots represent the rest of your elements, and the formula will just grab the highest value in the range

I really need some help here.

I’m cleaning up a thesis, and I just noticed something broken. The very first footnote in the paper starts with number 3 😕 , and everything after that follows sequentially. The problem is there aren't even any footnotes numbered 1 or 2. When I try to insert a new citation, it automatically jumps straight to 3 instead of starting at 1 where it should be. What's going on? 🤷
If anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know.

I think you might have some overlapping sections within your document—it looks like there’s an extra one hanging around somewhere.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/wo...001231635.aspx

George Sanders37 said:Looks like your document sections got messy. You probably have an extra section hanging around somewhere.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/wo...001231635.aspx

Thanks so much. I would've been banging my head against the wall trying to fix this myself for days... you made it happen instantly 🙂!
Thanks again.

George Sanders37 said:So, if you have number X in cell A1 and number Y in cell B1, your formula in C1 would look like this:

=IF(A1>B1,A1,B1)

That should always spit out the larger number in cell C1.

edit: I guess this formula just checks which one is bigger. If both numbers are actually the same, you might want to use >= instead, so it'd be:

=IF(A1>=B1,A1,B1)

That way, if they're identical, it'll probably just grab whatever is in cell A1.

edit2:

I was talking to a buddy earlier and he reminded me about the MAX function. So, you could just put this in C1:

=MAX(A1,B1,.....)

The dots are just more cells, and the formula will always find the highest value in the set.

Thanks so much! That's exactly what I needed...