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

I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction here... I somehow managed to disable the page counter at the bottom of my screen in Word 2003. You know, that little indicator that shows something like 3/10? Now I have no idea how to toggle it back on. Just to be clear, I’m not talking about adding actual page numbers to the document itself, just that status bar display that tells me which page I’m currently working on and how many there are total. Any help would be appreciated!

Justin Gray81 said:

Ended up fixing it by just getting rid of that TO field 🙂—though I had to mess around with the reading pane and a few other settings first...
Thanks for the assist, everyone! 😁

electrichawk4 said:Somehow I managed to turn off the page numbering at the bottom of the screen in Word 2003—you know, where it shows something like 3/10.

I don't have 2003 sitting right in front of me, so I'm basically working from memory here.

The page number is what we call a field, so you didn't really "turn it off"—you likely just deleted it. To fix this, you'll need to enter the footer area (the footer); if I recall correctly, you can just double-click the bottom margin of the page, or navigate through View -> Header/Footer.

Once you're in there, a little floating toolbar should pop up, containing buttons for inserting things like page numbers, dates, and whatnot. One of those buttons is exactly what you're looking for.

With a bit of tinkering, you'll find it—and if you end up with any wrong field elements, just delete them like you would any other bit of text.

electrichawk4 said:Can anyone help me out with this...? Somehow I managed to disable the page count indicator at the bottom of my screen in Word 2003 (you know, where it shows something like 3/10), and now I have no clue how to get it back. To be clear, I don't mean the actual page numbers on the document itself, just that little status indicator at the bottom showing my current position. Thanks in advance!

Look, I don't even run Word 2003 anymore, so I'm going off pure memory here,
Tools -> options -> view tab -> status bar

My guess is you accidentally toggled off the status bar entirely. Give that a shot and let me know if it works. 😉

frozenheron7 said:I don't have Word 2003 on my machine anymore either, but if I recall correctly, you can find it here:
Tools -> options -> view tab -> status bar

It sounds like you might have just turned off the status bar. Give that a shot and let me know if it works 😉

Yep, that did the trick!
In the American version, it's Tools -> Options -> View -> (Show) Status Bar

The guy goes ahead and writes "at the bottom of the screen," and then—just in case I missed the point—he adds, "so, not page numbering"—and yet, I still find myself explaining exactly how to handle page numbering 🙈.

My apologies; it isn't that I'm dense, I was just completely losing my focus 🙂.

Thanks, got it sorted! Turns out it was just the status bar...

I’m trying to figure out how to change my ribbon language—basically, I want all my Microsoft Office programs to be in English. Dealing with the American version I have right now is just too difficult and confusing... I'm tired of wasting so much time hunting for things that I could find in 0.02 seconds if everything were in English.

In Word (File/Options/Language), I can only switch from American to English under the 'Office authoring languages' section, but when I try, nothing happens—everything stays stuck in American. As for the 'Office display language' section, I only see two options: 1. Match Microsoft Windows (my Windows is already set to English) and 2. American, which is what's currently selected, but there isn't even a third option.

I consider myself pretty tech-savvy, but I'm totally stuck on this one. I'd really appreciate it if someone who knows their stuff could walk me through this because I'm starting to lose my cool here.😢

Timothy Patel66 said:I'm trying to figure out how to change the ribbon language—basically, I want all my Microsoft Office programs to be in English. This American version I'm stuck with is incredibly difficult and unintelligible... I am sick and tired of wasting precious time hunting for a setting that would take me 0.02 seconds to find if it were just in English...

In Word (File/Options/Language), the only thing I can do is go to the 'Editing Languages' section and switch from American to English, but then absolutely nothing happens; everything stays stuck in American. In the 'Display and Help Languages' section, I only have two choices: 1. Match Microsoft Windows (my Windows is also set to English) and 2. American. Obviously, I have option 1 selected, but there is no third option available.

I consider myself to be quite tech-savvy, yet I cannot seem to resolve this issue, so I’m asking someone more expert to step in and help before I completely lose my mind here....😢

Look, I know that if you want to switch from English to American, you need to have the American language pack installed. Now, if you have an American version of Office, it’s possible English is already there by default (which would make sense to me), though I can't say for certain. Given what you've described, you might not even have it installed, so go ahead and search online for the English language pack.

Anyway, Start -> Microsoft Office -> Language Settings.
You can change it there, and it will show you exactly which languages you currently have installed.

I have recently retrieved some instructional books from my local library regarding PowerPoint 2007 and Access 2007 from the ECDL series. Alas, they did not include the practice CDs necessary to actually master the material.

Furthermore, I struggle significantly with visual impairments, and since I reside in a small rural town, I am quite uncertain if anyone nearby might possess such discs.

Therefore, I humbly ask if it would be at all possible for someone to send those exercises to my email address? Surely the file size is not too overwhelming? I am unfamiliar with how to navigate torrent trackers, and when I attempted to search Google for "ECDL CD" along with the word "exercises," I was met with only two results, both of which lead back to this very forum.

My email address is piskavac@gmail.com

So, Excel 2010 keeps turning my numbers into dates, which is driving me a little crazy. I already know the old tricks—like slapping an apostrophe before the number or using format cells to set it as text—but then all my formulas just break and stop working properly. Does anyone know if there’s actually a permanent fix for this?

redridge35 said:My Excel 2010 keeps turning numbers into dates. I know there's a quick fix if I put an apostrophe before the number or change the format cells to text, but then all my formulas break. Is there actually a permanent solution for this?

Just try using Format Cells -> Number

EDIT: Are you perhaps using a period instead of a decimal point?

redridge35 said:My Excel 2010 keeps turning numbers into dates. I know I can fix it by putting an apostrophe before the number or using format cells -> custom -> text, but then my formulas don't work right. Is there a permanent way to stop this?

What kind of number is it that triggers a date conversion? Usually, Excel only does that if you type something like '10-3' or '5-2'.
If you need that cell to actually work within your formulas, you really should just format the cell as a Number rather than setting it to Text.

frozenheron7 said:Try setting the cell to format Cells -> Number

EDIT: I was thinking, is it possible you're using a period instead of a comma for the decimal? That usually trips things up for me.

Using a comma works perfectly, thanks.

Jack Hayes said:I mean, what kind of number would cause Excel to turn it into a date? Usually, Excel only does that if there's an apostrophe at the start like '10-3' or '5-2'.
If you need that cell to actually work in your formulas, just make sure you format it as a number rather than leaving it as text.

Like, it takes something like 17.3 and flips it to Mar 17 or turns 12.20 into Dec 20; honestly, I'll just stick to using a comma instead of a period from now on.

redridge35 said:Just use the comma, thanks.

Don't mention it. But look, let me give you a bit of advice before you run into more headaches—when you're typing out large numbers in Excel, please, for the love of God, don't manually type in spaces like 1 000 000. Just type it straight: 1000000. If you start adding manual spaces, you're just begging for errors down the road. You can always change how the number looks later on using format cells -> custom. It’s much cleaner that way.

How on earth am I supposed to insert a screenshot here so I can actually show you what I'm talking about?

Bradley Murphy56 said:How do I get a screenshot in here so I can show you guys what I'm looking at?

Just open Word, click where you want it, hit Print Screen, then paste it into Word. Set Word to download mode

or
open Paint, go to the spot you want, hit Print Screen, paste in Paint, then upload the image to the forum

Here’s my dilemma:
Column B holds the prices, while Column A lists the surface area. I have values filled in Column B from row one all the way down to row one hundred, with a grand total sitting at the very bottom. However, Column A isn't fully populated—some rows show a zero value for the area. Now, what I’m trying to figure out is how to make a specific cell (let's say in Column C) calculate *only* the prices that actually have an associated area next to them—and I don't mean the grand total at the bottom, which, as I mentioned, is just sitting there at the end.

Is this even possible?

Bradley Murphy56 said:Here’s my situation:
Column B contains prices, while Column A holds the area. I have values filled in Column B from row one all the way down to row one hundred, with a grand total at the very bottom. However, Column A isn't fully populated because some rows have a value of zero. What I'm trying to figure out is how to set up a cell (let's say in Column C) to calculate only the prices that actually have an associated area next to them—and I don't want it to include that grand total at the bottom, since that's already been summed up.

Is there a way to do this?

Look, if you want that new price to be calculated as price times area, just use this formula:
=IF(A2<>0;A2*B2;"")

-> That formula is for the second row, assuming your headers are in the first row. Just grab that formula and drag it down across all 100 rows by clicking that little black square in the bottom right corner of the selected cell and pulling it down.

I need some help setting up a pie chart or maybe a donut chart...
Basically, I want my main chart on the left to show the 100% results from a survey—then, I want a second chart on the right to take that initial 100% and break down a secondary choice alongside the first one. I just can't seem to get them aligned properly.
How do I do this?🙄