Microsoft Office Q&A: General Discussion (Word, Excel, PowerPoint...)

swifttinker40 said:How do I get rid of all those unused styles?

Honestly, Microsoft Word is pretty thick-headed when it comes to managing unused styles. I mean, looking at the screenshot you shared, those styles are just sitting there in the menu regardless of whether you’ve actually applied them to anything or not—it’s just how the software handles things, I guess.

The easiest workaround—and probably the most foolproof way—is to just copy everything from your current document and paste it into a brand-new, blank document. In that fresh file, you'll end up with only the styles that are actually being used.

Austin Young6 said:For instance, imagine seven main concepts, where each one branches out into three sub-points—each of which carries its own lengthy textual explanation.

Regardless of how you attempt to structure it (even if you did receive some decent technical advice), using a "lengthy textual explanation" is essentially sacrilege in a presentation. It’s unnecessary, it looks terrible, it’s hard to read, and—honestly—it distracts from the actual message for about a million different reasons.

The only scenario where you might perhaps be able to "get away" with something like that is a "kiosk-style presentation" (one running without a presenter).

So, please, don't go searching for a tool just to help you build a subpar solution—just build a good one instead. 🙂

Hey guys, I'm working on this super important project in Microsoft Word 2010 and I've run into a weird issue with these lines popping up everywhere while I'm typing. Honestly, I have no clue why they're showing up—maybe it's because of some images I dropped in, or maybe I just toggled some setting by mistake without realizing it.
I tried getting rid of them by moving the text around, and I actually managed to delete a few and save the file, but when I reopened it, the lines were right back where they started. Just my luck, right?
This paper is a huge deal for me, and I really can't have these random lines cluttering everything up.
Any help would be massive, please.

Since I can't upload images directly here, I put them on these links so you can see what I'm talking about:
http://img845.imageshack.us/i/picture1is.jpg/#
http://img15.imageshack.us/i/picture2sc.jpg/
http://img204.imageshack.us/i/picture3zd.jpg/

northerntinker8 said:Hey,
I'm working on this super important project in Microsoft Word 2010 and I've got these weird lines popping up everywhere while I'm typing. Not sure why they're there—maybe it's from some images I added or just some setting I messed up.
I tried deleting them by moving the text around, and I managed to get rid of a few before saving, but when I reopened the file, they were right back.
This project is a big deal and those lines really shouldn't be in there.
Please help me out.

Since I can't post them here, here are links to some screenshots showing what's happening:
http://img845.imageshack.us/i/picture1is.jpg/#
http://img15.imageshack.us/i/picture2sc.jpg/
http://img204.imageshack.us/i/picture3zd.jpg/

you see this? might help 🤷
http://compusavvy.wordpress.com/2010...lines-in-word/

swifttinker40 said:It’s driving me nuts. Every time I click on Style, I get hit with a million different styles I used—or deleted—over the last two years, and they’re all still cluttering up the list.

Wait, you're using Word 2000?
Just dig into the Style settings and set it to only show
Select Style to show => IN USE.

northerntinker8 said:Hey,
I'm grinding through some super important stuff in Microsoft Word 2010 and I've got these weird lines popping up all over my text while I'm typing.

If those lines showed up because you held down the underline key or mashed dash + enter, just go into your AutoCorrect Options and toggle off "Border Line".
Let us know if that actually fixes it for you so the rest of us know 😉

driftingmarlin70 said:Check this out, hope it helps 🤷
http://compusavvy.wordpress.com/2010...lines-in-word/

Thanks 👍. I managed to ditch those lines using the No Border option over in the Paragraph section.

Quick question about page numbering, too. Does anyone know how to make the numbering start on page two? Basically, I want the first page to be "page zero," so the second page actually shows up as "page one."
I mean, I know you can just set the first page to show "0" and the next to "1," but what I really need is for the number to stay completely hidden on that first page. If that makes sense, I guess.

northerntinker8 said:Thanks, 👍. I managed to get rid of those lines by using the No Border option in the Paragraph section.

I also have a question about page numbering. Does anyone know how to make it show "Page 1 of 2" starting from the second page? Basically, I want the first page to be treated as page zero, so the second page becomes page one.
I know you can set the first page to display "0" and the second to "1," but what I actually need is for the page number to not show up at all on that first page. I hope you catch my drift.

I know how to set that up in Microsoft Word 2010. You just go to the Insert menu and select Page Numbers; a window pops up where you can tweak everything to your liking. There’s a specific section where you should uncheck the "Show number on first page" box. If you click Format within that same window, a new one opens where you can define your starting number and other settings (I've played around with it, so I won't bore you with every single detail right now)...

northerntinker8 said:Thanks 👍. I actually managed to get rid of those lines by using the No Border option over in the Paragraph section.

Also, quick question about page numbering... does anyone know how to make the numbering start at 1 on the second page? Like, I want the first page to basically act as page zero, but then have the second page show up as page one.
I mean, I know you can just force the first page to display a "0" and the second to be a "1," but what I'm really looking for is to have no page number visible on that first page at all. Hope that makes sense!

Just double-click the header or footer area, and once those menu options pop up at the top, look for the "Different First Page" checkbox to click.

If you need anything more complex than that, though, you're probably going to have to mess around with some Section breaks.

Thanks, I finally got it working.

But man, I'm back to square one with those lines I mentioned earlier. I went through the whole document and deleted every single one, but as soon as I hit print, they just pop right back up on the hard copies. It’s like they're haunted or something.

Any idea how to kill them for good?

For round two:
1. You really need to specify which version of Microsoft Office you're using (like 2003, 2007, or 2010)
2. It would be great if you could be a bit more specific when you use terms like "edit." Can we try to pinpoint the actual issue? For example, are we talking about how to set the page numbers, how to adjust the header, or maybe how to fix paragraph indentation? Something like that....

I was hoping I might be able to get a little bit of guidance regarding a small issue I've run into...

For instance, I’m trying to set it up so that cell B1 pulls whatever value is sitting in cell A1, but if A1 happens to be empty, I would much prefer for B1 to stay completely blank.
The thing is, whenever I try using the standard formula like =A1, it just populates B1 with a zero instead of leaving it empty, and that's actually causing me quite a few headaches with my data.

Thanks so much.

cosmicbison19 said:I could really use a little hand with this specific situation...

So, say I want cell B1 to just pull whatever value is sitting in cell A1, but—and here’s the kicker—if A1 is totally empty, I don't want anything showing up in B1 at all.
The problem is, if I just type =A1 into cell B1, the software insists on putting a zero there whenever A1 is blank, and frankly, that zero is causing me nothing but grief.

thanks

Just pop this formula into cell B1: =IF(A1<>"";A1;"")

Walter Jackson48 said:Just pop this formula into cell B1: =IF(A1<>0;A1;"")

😕

The problem with doing it his way—and I suppose this is where things get a bit messy—is that if cell A1 actually contains a zero, the logic treats it as an empty cell, so it won't carry over to B1 at all.

=IF(A1<>"";A1;"")

Nicholas King said:😕

The way he’s doing it, that "non-empty" cell A1—if there's just a zero sitting in there—won't actually overwrite anything in B1. It's a logic trap.

=IF(A1<>"";A1;"")

I’m with you on that. I honestly thought he meant A1 would only pull in values that weren't zero. At the end of the day, I just hope the user picks whichever formula actually fits their specific needs. And frankly, I hope they take a second to let us know which one worked for them. It’d be nice to know if we actually helped anyone out here instead of just shouting into the void.

Office 2007. I can never seem to find anything in there.
I used to have my comments appearing in those little bubbles on the right side of the screen. Now, all of a sudden, they've moved over to the left in the reviewing pane. How do I get things back to the way they were? I've been searching everywhere—it's driving me a bit crazy—but I just can't find the setting.

Good grief, I just realized my perspective had completely shifted 🙄

Walter Jackson48 said:I'm on the same page here. I had gathered that A1 would only be populated with values that aren't zero. I suppose we just have to hope the user picks the specific formula that actually fits their needs, and then—if they're feeling generous—let us know which one they went with, so we can finally figure out if our work was actually helpful.

I suppose both approaches would technically work.
Since I'm not even inputting a zero in the first place.

Thanks, everyone.

Hi everyone—I’m looking to pick up a legitimate copy of Office for my office setup. I need to cover two or three workstations, so staying budget-conscious is a priority here. Because of that, I wanted to ask: am I legally allowed to use the Home & Student version for professional business tasks, or am I required to go with the Home & Business edition?
I don't actually have any use for Outlook since we rely on Thunderbird for our emails.

Thanks in advance! 🙂

Take a look at the EULU. It should clearly state whether you're allowed to use Home & Student for commercial work, but my gut tells me the answer is no.