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

Timothy Howard2 said:Does anyone know where in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 I can find the setting to stop it from auto-capitalizing the first word after I hit Enter for a new line in an email?

Seriously? Who actually wants to start sentences with lowercase letters?
Anyway, here's how you fix it:

- Click on New message
- Hit the Office button => Editor options => Proofing
- Go to AutoCorrect Options
- Uncheck "Capitalize first letter of sentences"
- Hit OK

Kyle Johnson2 said:I don't get why anyone would actually want to start a sentence with a lowercase letter.
Fine, here’s how you fix it:

- Click New message
- Hit the Office button => Editor options => Proofing
- Go to AutoCorrect Options
- Uncheck "Capitalize first letter of sentences"
- Hit OK

Respect, Kyle Johnson2

Got it sorted. 👍
Thanks for the help.

Can someone please explain the actual difference between a "theme" and a "template" in PowerPoint?

Betty Hayes10 said:Can someone please clear something up for me? What’s actually the difference between a "theme" and a "template" in PowerPoint?

Think of it this way: a theme is really just about the aesthetics of an individual slide—things like changing the background color, font styles, or text sizes on the fly. A template, on the other hand, is the whole package. It defines the look and feel for the entire presentation from start to finish. So, when you're tweaking the visual style of a single slide, you're messing with a theme; but when you grab one of those pre-designed, ready-to-go layouts built into PowerPoint, you're using a template.

Thanks!

I'm running into an issue with this formula
The code:

Essentially, the date in the text string varies in format:
10/1/2012

but other times it looks like this:

9/25/2012

and I don't have any way to change the source data myself.

Sometimes the month is just one digit, and other times it's two.
The day can be three characters, or even four or five depending on whether the day and month are single or double digits—it's a bit of a mess.

Any idea how to fix this?

Taylor Campbell4 said:I'm having a nightmare with this formula
Code:

=DATE(MID(R441;6;4);MID(R441;1;1);MID(R441;3;2))

Basically, the dates in my text look like this sometimes:
10/1/2012

but other times they look like this:

9/25/2012

And I can't change how they're written.

So, sometimes the month is just one digit, sometimes it's two.
The day might be three characters, four, or five depending on whether the month and day are single or double digits. Makes sense?

How the hell am I supposed to fix this???

Look, if those dates of yours are actually:

October 1, 2012 and
September 25, 2012,

meaning they're written in month/day/year format, then this is the formula you need:

=DATE(RIGHT(R441;4);LEFT(R441;FIND("/";R441)-1);MID(R441;FIND("/";R441)+1;LEN(R441)-LEN(RIGHT(R441;4))-LEN(LEFT(R441;FIND("/";R441)-1))-2))

Here's the breakdown:

=DATE(year;month;day)
year = reading right to left: the first four characters of the string in cell R441
month = reading left to right: the first n characters of the string in cell R441 where
n = FIND("/";R441)-1
The FIND function locates the index of the first "/" found and then we subtract 1 from that number to ditch the slash from the calculation.
day = within the string in cell R441: everything between x and y where
x = everything after the first slash + 1
y = the total length of the string in cell R441 minus the length of the year, minus the length of the month, and minus 2 because there are two slashes in the string total.

Wow, thanks so much 🙂 (I honestly thought the whole thing would be way more complicated—I figured nobody would actually bother to share it)

We're here to help each other out, right? 🙂
Anyway, if you're looking to level up your Excel skills, I'm actually running some free courses over at Coursera right now—or maybe they cost $33, let me double-check. Check them out if you want.

Later!

I'd certainly love to get a solid handle on Excel—definitely something I'll need to give some serious thought to.

hollowskipper11 said:So, if those dates are actually:
October 1st, 2012 and
September 25th, 2012,
meaning they're set in month/day/year format, then this is the formula you need.

Hey man,

I don't think the dates are even in that format based on what > wrote above. Like, the dates themselves are fine, but in the text he's pulling from the web, the month is just one or two digits.

So basically, he's got (if I'm reading this right)
M/D/YYYY + rest of the timestamp
M/DD/YYYY + rest of the timestamp
MM/D/YYYY + rest of the timestamp
MM/DD/YYYY + rest of the timestamp

We can definitely convert that to DD/MM/YYYY format
But personally, this formula isn't quite hitting the mark for me (haven't had much time to dig into it though)

I'd just handle it with 3 helper columns and a date display formula (dates have always been a pain for me 🙂

Attached a screenshot here



EDIT:
Just noticed the time part after looking closer at the formula—you were basing it on a clean date without the extra text. Didn't realize immediately that > stripped out the timestamp, so now it's just looking at a plain date 🙂
my bad for not catching that sooner

Listen, you brilliant people (definitely smarter than I am!), is there any kind soul out there—I’ll literally give you a kidney in exchange—who would let me email them my thesis? I just need someone to fix the Table of Contents so the page numbers actually align on the right side. I know how the theory works, 😁 haha, you know, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, then Insert - Reference - Index and Tables, and all that junk. But in practice? It looks like absolute garbage. I’m about to lose my mind!!! 🙂

I’ve been fighting with this thing for two days straight. I can't even send my thesis to the printer because Microsoft Word is basically bullying me at this point. If that isn't a pathetic enough plea for mercy... PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON ME!!! HELP!!

ps. I know this isn't exactly what the IT help desk is for, but honestly, what am I supposed to do now? 😁

Kidney, you say. 🍿

rustywalker1 said:Kidney, you say. 🍿

Can I have both 😁 Or is it already gone??

Anyway, this was typed up in Microsoft Word 2003.

Check this out HERE (yt). This guy explains it using Microsoft Word 2010, but most of it is pretty much the same, so give it a shot.

If you’re still looking for help with that, just hit me up via email. I’ve already handled the full formatting for an entire doctoral dissertation, so believe me when I say a undergrad thesis isn't even going to be a challenge for me. 🙂

Send from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

Kimberly Anderson82 said:I get the theory behind it 😁 haha, you know, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, then Insert - References - Index and Tables, and all that. But when I actually try it? It looks like total garbage.

Don't stress too much—it'd be a shame to tank your degree over this. You'll eventually be one of those "college grads" anyway, and the job market will just have one more person to deal with. If you know how it works on paper, just keep messing with it until it sticks. Btw: check out this step-by-step guide

- How to create a Table of Contents in Word 2003

Advice and help needed!

The chart options in Excel just aren't cutting it for some of my layouts, especially since I'm dealing with finance stuff. Plus, I honestly have no clue how to combine different types of charts in Excel. So, if you've got any tips or links to sites where I can download decent graph templates, please send them my way. It would be great.

Thanks!

I could really use some help here 🙂
What’s the best way to handle this in Word 2007—specifically, how do I get text to sit right underneath an image? Also, does anyone know where the custom tab stops are hiding? Thanks so much! 🙂