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

Dana Diaz8 said:Alright, if we aren't doing it that way, let's just go by the book. Do everything exactly like I told you, but don't touch the numbers. Instead, try this: if the numbers are sitting in the footer at the bottom of the page, then... The second one. Double-click the footer on the page and you'll find exactly what you need in the options. Link to the Previous SectionJust click that. Then go ahead and do the exact same thing on the third page. Once you're done, give it a shot and try deleting the page numbers. 😍 Same deal with the second part of the text. Just click the header at the top of the page, hit "Link to Previous" again, and then just wipe out everything you don't need!

Man, this is just getting ridiculous! 🤣

I tried that too, but here’s the deal—that third option right under "Previous Section" and "Next Section"? It’s basically ghosting me. The "Link to Previous" button is totally grayed out.

I tried clicking it twice, and I even hit "Go to Header" or "Go to Footer"—honestly, it’s all the same to me—but nothing happens. Still stuck.

I tried messing around with those checkboxes on the side—you know, the ones for "Different first page," "Different odd & even pages," and "Show document text"—but no luck.
I say, maybe there's a connection here... If I play my cards right, that "Link to Previous Section" option might actually show up, and then I won't be stuck dealing with this mess again.

I'm checking out all these different "Page number" options right now.
So, there’s this "page number format" option where you can check the box for "Include chapter number." I didn't have it checked before, so I just toggled it on, but nope—still nothing. It’s like trying to fix a leaky faucet by just staring at it. And then, of course, there’s that thing you mentioned in your first post about manually setting the starting number so it doesn't just default to 1.

If you guys are just as stumped as I am, then it is what it is. No biggie, I'll figure it out somehow. I won't let it get to me. 😉

Thanks for all the help so far! 🙂

Jessica Brown25 said:Well, thanks so much for putting in the effort there; it was actually a really clear explanation.

Take a look back at my post from April 11, 2012, over on page 83 of this forum.
My breakdown was specifically aimed at the 2003 version, but it should still give you some useful context. Just search through this zbirni thread—there have been tons of comments added to it over the years.

Best regards.

In Excel, how can I set it up so that if a cell contains "word1" (meaning the cell might have other words too, but we just need to find "word1" tucked in there), the result in another cell shows "word2"?

Taylor Campbell4 said:In Google Sheets, how do I set it up so that if a cell contains "word1" (meaning the cell might have other text too, but we just need "word1" to be part of it), then the next cell displays "word2"?

If A1 holds "word1" and you want that result in B1, then B1 should be:
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("word1",A1)),"word2","")

Or, look, if you’ve got "word1" sitting in cell A1, but you’re dead set on having cell B1 spit out "word2" instead,
then just pop this into B1: =SUBSTITUTE(A1;1;2).

That’s exactly what I was trying to get across.
A1 isn't synonymous with "word1"—it actually *contains* "word1" (much like how my previous sentence contains the word "synonymous").

Alright, here’s yet another attempt at guessing what you people actually want from me:

Let's say cell A1 is filled with some nonsense like: "word1, type, iron...", and if we want D1 to spit out
"word2", then we just drop this formula into D1: =LEFT(A1;5)&"2".
If the question weren't such a vague mess, maybe I could give you an actual precise answer instead of playing these guessing games.

Either that, or if people just had a better grasp of the English language.

Thanks

Walter Jackson48 said:Think about it like this: you’ve got three pages—a cover, a table of contents, and then your intro. If I’m following you right, you want that third page (the intro) to actually show up as page "2." To pull that off, try this:😁go to the very bottom of that first page (the cover), hit Insert, then Break, then Next page, and click OK. After that, jump to your second page (the contents), go to Insert, then Page Numbers, uncheck the box for Show Number on First page, hit Format, set it to start at 1, and click OK, OK. That should get that number "2" showing up right where you need it on the third sheet (the Intro).

Thanks a million! This is exactly what I needed! 🙂

Cheers!

I was wondering if it's actually possible to have two different pages in Word with different lengths and widths? If anyone knows how to pull that off, could you please let me know? I really need this for a project... thanks!

Sure thing. You just need to set up two different sections, then you can assign specific margins to each one individually.
(Just head to the end of your first page, go to Insert, select Break, choose Next page, and hit OK.) That way, your first page stays as its own section, and everything from the second page onward becomes a completely separate section.

Hey there. I could use a hand with something.
I'm building an Excel sheet for a soccer tournament. I've got columns for WINS, DRAWS, and LOSSES. My issue is trying to get the WIN cell to actually count the wins—like showing a 1 if they win once, a 2 if they win twice, and so on...

To give you some context—I set up an IF function so that if Team A beats Team B, the WIN cell shows 1 for Team A (basically, if Team A's score > Team B's score). If they lose or tie, it just spits out a 0.

But how do I make that number climb—to 2, 3, or 4—as they keep winning more games? Like, if Team A beats Team B and then goes on to beat Team C... how do I wrap all those arguments into one IF function? Any ideas? Thanks in advance

frozenraven10 said:Hey everyone. I could really use some help here.
I'm building an Excel sheet for a soccer tournament. In the table, I have cells for WINS, DRAWS, and LOSSES. The issue is when I try to create a function to make the WINS cell show a "1" for one win, a "2" if they win twice, and so on...

To clarify—I set up an IF function, and when Team 1 beats Team 2, it puts this in the WINS cell: 1 for Team 1 (if Team 1's score > Team 2's score, basically); otherwise, it just puts a 0 (for a loss or a tie).

How do I get the function to actually count the wins—like showing 2, 3, or 4 if the team keeps winning? (meaning Team 1 beats Team 2, then Team 1 beats Team 3, etc.) How can I bundle all those arguments into an IF function? Can anyone help me out? Thanks in advance...

If that sounds a bit confusing, here's the actual formula:

=IF(A1>B1,1,0)

How do I add more arguments to the function? Like, how would it look if I wanted to include =IF(A2>B2,1,0), =IF(A3>B3,1,0)... and so on?

frozenraven10 said:How do I go about adding more arguments into a function? Something like this: =IF(A2>B2,1,0)

Look, if you want to expand that logic, you don't just stop at the zero. You swap out that "0" for a whole new IF statement. It’s basically nesting them, which can get messy if you aren't careful, but here's how it looks:
=IF(A2>B2,1,IF(A2>C2,0,IF(A2>D2,2,IF(...... and so on until you're done

Hey there!

So, I've got this situation where I'm working in Excel and I have these two columns that are supposed to be identical row by row, right? But they aren't!
Is there some way to spot the differences and maybe highlight them so I don't miss anything?

Maybe this will do the trick:

If you go ahead and type some names into columns A and B—doesn't matter if they match or if they're totally different—just pop this formula into C1:
=IF(A1=B1;1;2). After that, click on C1, head over to Insert, then Conditional Formatting, and
in the "Cells is" field, just type in =A1<>B1. Pick whatever color you want for the highlight, then hit OK. Once that's set, fill out columns A and B down to, say, row 15, and then just "drag" (copy) that C1 cell down to C15.
What you'll end up with is a setup where column C shows a 1 whenever the names in A and B are identical, and a red 2 whenever they don't match.

Hey everyone, quick question here.
Look, I’m definitely no wizard when it comes to Microsoft Office, so forgive me if this sounds a bit silly, but I've hit a weird wall. I’m currently working on laying out a book in InDesign, and for some reason, the em dashes—you know, those little dialogue dashes used for speech—just won't import properly. So, I went back to the original Word document to see what the deal was, but even there, I can't actually select that specific dash when I hit "select all." It’s like it’s invisible to the cursor. For instance:
- "You're absolutely right," said John.
It’s just that first little dash at the start of the sentence that refuses to be highlighted; everything else in the paragraph selects perfectly fine.
What am I looking at here? Is this some weird glitch with styles, or maybe something to do with margins or formatting settings? Any idea how I can fix this headache?
Thanks!

Go ahead and head over to the Design tab, then look for Bullets and Numbering, click on Bullets, and just pick the dash style there. Easy enough. That’s really all there is to it. (Mind you, I'm talking about the 2003 version here)

Walter Jackson48 said:Maybe this will do the trick:

If you put names in columns A and B—whether they match or not—just pop this formula into C1:
=IF(A1=B1,1,2). Then just click C1, head over to Insert, then Conditional Formatting, and
in the "Cells is" box, type in =A1<>B1, pick your color, and hit OK. After that, fill out columns A and B down to, say, row 15, and then just "drag" (copy) C1 down to C15.
Now, wherever those names in A and B actually match, you'll see a 1 in column C, and if they're different, you'll get a red 2!

Thanks, but I think there's already a glitch in that IF(A1=B1,1,2) formula.
I tried doing it with IF(A1=B1, [1], [2]) but it keeps throwing an error at me! 😕

You actually gave me a great idea, though—what if I just subtract one cell from the other? Then I could just go to Sort and filter out everything that isn't zero!