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

Does anyone know where to find some solid free tutorials for Word and Excel? I stumbled upon an awesome free course a while back that included practical examples and exercises, but I managed to lose the link...
I'm not just looking for theory; I really need something with hands-on practice to help me pick things up faster.

Justin Garcia7 said:Does anyone know where to find some solid, free tutorials for Word and Excel? I remember stumbling upon this incredible free course once—it had actual practice files and exercises included—but I've completely lost the link... I don't just want theory; I need something hands-on with examples so I can actually pick up the speed while learning.

If you want to master Excel, this YouTube channel is absolutely top-tier:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ExcelIsFun

Honestly, YouTube is pretty much your best friend if you're looking for anything specific like this.

You can also check out the training here:
http://www.lynda.com/Excel-training-...als/192-0.html
The catch is they charge for access, but let's be real—you can probably track them down the same way you hunt for movies online.😉

Justin Garcia7 said:Anyone know any solid free tutorials for Word or Excel? Found some killer free course a while back with actual practice files and exercises, but totally lost the link... don't just need theory, I need stuff with examples so I can learn faster..

You didn't say what level you're at?
Not sure what you stumbled upon before, but Google search is your best friend here.

Or maybe this site with step-by-step tutorials (for beginners) would help:
- www.gcfglobal.org

I've got a column with 500 rows, and column (h) is filled with values from 100 up to 500. I want to sum up specific rows only—say, rows 4, 68, and 459. How do I mark them? Where am I supposed to click? I tried holding Ctrl while clicking with the mouse and then hitting the auto-sum icon, but it’s just not working. Help me out, thanks.

It should work if you use CTRL + click.
Try doing it manually instead. Just type directly into the cell
Code:

Then, hold down the CTRL key while clicking on every single cell you want to include in the total. Once you've clicked them all, don't forget—for heaven's sake—to close the parenthesis.

Another way to handle this is by typing out the specific cell addresses within the formula yourself.
Based on what you described, your formula should look like this:
Code:

Basically, you type =SUM followed by the addresses of all the cells you need to add up inside the parentheses, separating each one with a semicolon.

frozenheron7 said:You gotta use CTRL + click.
Just do it manually. Type it straight into the cell
Code:

=SUM(

then hold down CTRL and click all the cells you want to total up. Once you've clicked them all, don't forget to close the bracket.

Another way is just typing the cell addresses directly into the formula.
Based on what you wrote, the formula should look like this:
Code:

=SUM(H4;H68;H459)

Basically, type =SUM then put the addresses of every cell you want to add inside the brackets, separated by semicolons.

I'm trying to sum up values in Excel cells. It works fine if I just sum ten of them, but when I try to CTRL + click about thirty of them, I get this error: "more arguments have been specified for this function than are allowed in the current file format"
Why does it do that?

darkbison14 said:It lets me sum up, say, ten things, but when I try using Ctrl + mouse to grab thirty, I get this error

The Excel SUM function can handle up to 30 arguments—check out the example at this link.

If you're trying to sum non-adjacent cells by holding down the CTRL key and it’s acting up, or if you've got way more than 30 cells to deal with, there are workarounds.

- When you select multiple scattered cells, look at the bottom of your Excel window. The status bar shows you the total sum right there (Sum: ?)

If that's not enough for you, there's a little trick.

Check this link Copying non-adjacent cells in Excel for instructions on how to use the Ctrl key to select them, then just hit a button to paste everything onto another sheet. Just set up your sum formula at the bottom of the column first.

Hi there,

I'm looking to put together a birthday calendar. Which software should I be using to get this done, and what's the best way to go about it?

Thanks!

Microsoft Office>Microsoft Publisher>Print Publications >Calendars>pick a Template you like

Sophia Jackson87 said:Hey, I want to make a birthday calendar. Which program should I use and how do I go about it?

You didn't really say what you're looking for 😉

If you're down to use Excel (per my last tip), check out the first part of this tutorial: 2014 calendar in Excel with important dates.

Basically, you set the key dates on one spreadsheet and they'll show up highlighted in different colors on the main sheet.
The file is ready for download here

I had a date written out as 10/04. I used CONCATENATE to tack on 2013
But for some reason, Excel isn't treating the value like an actual date; I have to manually hit enter for it to register.
I also wanted to see which day of the week that date fell on, so I used a custom cell format of dddd to show the day. However, once I pull those values into a PivotTable, it still treats them as dates instead of days. I tried using Paste Special as values, but I ran into the exact same issue. 😕
When I switch the format back to General, it just shows me how many days have passed since 1900. 🙄

Dealing with a super annoying MS Word headache.

So, I’ve got both Office 2003 and 2007 installed on my machine. To be honest, the only reason I even bother with 2003 is for Word—for a ton of reasons, Word 2007 just doesn't cut it for me. (And look, I really don't want to get into all those messy details right now!) Because of that, I disabled 2007 a long time ago and manually set my .doc file association to go straight to Word 2003.

Fast forward to a few days ago: my computer's power supply decided to kick the bucket, so I had to jump on another PC to finish some work on my Word files. Unfortunately, that machine only had Word 2007 installed. Well, I didn't have much of a choice, so I rolled with it! I made sure to save everything specifically in the .doc format—which is what they were originally—instead of using .docx.

Now here's where the drama starts. Once my computer finally got fixed, I moved my files from my USB drive back onto my hard drive and sat down to get back to work. I click on my document, and instead of opening normally, it tries to launch Word 2007. Then, it actually starts trying to run an installation! I killed the installation immediately, but now this keeps happening with every single one of my Word files. It’s like Word 2007 is aggressively forcing itself open!

The only way I can get things to work is if I open the files directly from within Word 2003 itself. But if I try to open them by clicking the file through my browser or a folder, it insists on using 2007. Seriously, what a nightmare!

So, I thought, "Okay, let's fix this." I headed over to the Control Panel, went to Default Programs, and tried to Set File Associations. I selected the .doc format, but it only gave me one version of Word as an option. It wouldn't even tell me which version it was! Even after I picked it and hit OK, nothing changed. It still stubbornly wants to use Word 2007.

I went back and clicked Change Program. A list of all my programs popped up, but guess what? Word 2003 isn't even on there—even though it's clearly installed on my computer and working perfectly fine!

Does anyone out there actually understand what's going on here and know a fix? How can I shut down this stupid Word 2007 for good and stick with Word 2003?

The absolute worst part is that I can't even uninstall just Word 2007 by itself; the system makes me uninstall the entire Office suite, and I absolutely cannot do that because I still need the other programs.

Help me out here!

Andrew Cruz3 said:So, I had this date written out just as 10/04. I tried using a concatenate function to tack on "2013" at the end.
But even then, Excel refuses to recognize the value as an actual date; I have to manually hit enter on every single one just to get it to behave.
On top of that, I was trying to figure out which day of the week a specific date falls on, so I used a custom cell format—"dddd"—to show the day. But once I throw all those values into a Pivot Table, it still treats them like dates instead of names of days. I tried a special paste as values, but nothing works. It's infuriating. :confused:
And when I switch the format back to General? Great, now I’m staring at the raw number of days passed since 1900. Just wonderful. :rolleyes:

If you have a date in a cell, say B1, format that cell as a Date. Then, in the cell where you actually want the day to appear (like C1), just type in the formula: =TEXT(B1;"dddd") and set that target cell's format to Text (or General).

Arthur Anderson49 said:Some silly little glitch with Microsoft Word. I need help.

Look, here is how I handle this mess: I go straight to my desktop, find the Word 2003 icon, and launch it from there first. Then, I hit that Open button at the top and navigate to the document I actually want to work on using the standard routine. Basically, I don't even touch the file directly through My Documents... It sounds a bit roundabout, I know, but I’ve tried it, and honestly, it works every single time.

Arthur Anderson49 said:Some stupid little glitch with Microsoft Word.

Help me out here.

Have you tried right-clicking that .doc file and going to Open with -> Choose default -> Open with -> Choose default? Does Word 2003 even show up in that list?

There’s another workaround if you want to bypass the menus entirely—just treat it like you're on a Mac. You just grab the .doc file and drag and drop it directly onto the Word 2003 icon on your desktop. Literally just pull the file over the icon and it should force itself open in Word 2003. Of course, you actually need to have a shortcut for Word 2003 sitting on your desktop for that to work. If that helps at all... 🙂

Arthur Anderson49 said:So, I go back and hit Change Program. A massive list of all my apps pops up, but—get this—Word 2003 isn't even on there. Which is hilarious, considering it’s sitting right there on my hard drive working perfectly fine.

Look, besides that list of programs, there’s a browse button sitting at the bottom. Just use that to hunt down winword.exe inside your old Office installation folder.

Walter Jackson48 said:Here’s how I deal with it: I just go straight to the Word 2003 icon on my desktop, launch the app first, then hit Open and grab the document from there. Basically, I don't try to open files directly from My Documents... Give that a shot, it works for me every single time!

Yeah, I tried that! But the problem is I keep forgetting and just double-clicking the file itself, which triggers the whole Word 2007 installation process instead! 🙄

frozenheron7 said:Have you tried right-clicking the .doc file and selecting Open with -> Choose default -> Open with -> Choose default? Does Word 2003 show up in that list for you?

Nope. Man, if only! That would be perfect. The real headache is that for some totally bizarre reason, Word 2003 isn't even showing up in the list of programs offered for file association.

There's another little workaround, kind of like how people do things on a Mac. Just drag and drop the .doc file directly onto the Word icon on your desktop. You just grab the file, pull it over the Word 2003 icon, and boom—it opens in that version. You just need to make sure you have a Word 2003 shortcut on your desktop. Hopefully, that helps! 🙂

Okay, I'll give that a go. Making a desktop shortcut is super easy.

Benjamin King2 said:Besides the program list, you should see a browse button at the bottom. Use that to find winword.exe inside the old Office installation folder.

That’s what I thought too! I actually tried that. But it looks like the computer treats that winword.exe file as being identical to the one it’s already using (the Word 2007 one), so it doesn't change a thing. Everything stays exactly the same. It still associates all my .doc files with Word 2007.

I'm about to lose my mind here!

The worst part is I have absolutely no clue why this happened. I was just swapping out power supplies in the PC, but everything else in the setup stayed exactly the same. Seriously, though—before, my .doc files were opening in Word 2003, and now they're jumping straight to 2007. It's a total mystery!

Could someone point me in the right direction on how to actually use the custom tab feature? Where on earth is it hiding?
I'm trying to set up a table of contents—it says I need to go to FORMAT-TABS-value 14cm-set right alignment and leader line-then close the dialog box, thanks!

So, I've run into an issue with Word 2010: how do I actually lock images in place within a document? In the first screenshot, you can see two pages of my formatted document, and everything looks fine. But if you look at the next one, you'll see that whenever I delete content from the second page, the manually inserted image starts drifting upward, while the second page pulls in part of an image from the third page...

Is there any way to fix these images so they stay put, even when I'm proofreading or deleting text later on? Thanks.

1)Uploaded with ImageShack.com
2)Uploaded with ImageShack.com

Amanda Wilson93 said:Anyone know where I can find the user tab? Need some help figuring out how to use it.

Check out the fourth picture in the tutorial.

The dialog box tab in Word.