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

Go ahead and hit Insert, then select Picture or Clip Art. You can use the Search bar to find exactly what you're looking for—just type it in, click on the image you want, or if you're feeling particular, click that little arrow next to the picture before hitting Insert.

Technical glitch
I’ve been sitting here staring at my screen, wrestling with Word 2003, and I find myself quite exasperated by a most peculiar behavior. It seems that whenever I attempt to edit a specific segment of text and try to center just that little portion, the software decides to be entirely uncooperative; instead of centering my selection, it insists on forcing the entire block of text into the middle of the page. It is truly maddening how these programs can be so stubborn when you're just trying to perform a simple task.
Does anyone happen to know if there is a way to resolve this nuisance?

I’m not entirely sure I follow what you’re getting at here... but look, just try making that specific section its own paragraph. If you've got a chunk of text sitting right at the top of your document, just scroll all the way down to where you actually want that text centered and hit Enter. Once you've done that, highlight the part you want to move, find the alignment tool in the toolbar, and click center. That should do the trick. There might be other ways to hack it together—I'm sure some tech wizard will chime in—but if you can just explain exactly what you're trying to achieve, someone else might be able to give you a hand.

I am attempting to execute that exact process right now, but the software insists on centering my entire block of text instead of just the selection; then, naturally, I have to hit undo, only to find that the specific segment I actually wanted centered has reverted back to its original state while everything else stays put.
It behaves with the same infuriating stubbornness when I simply try to bold a single word or a small phrase, and frankly, it’s driving me to the brink of madness because I’ll perform a few simple commands only to realize the entire formatting of my document has been utterly decimated. I am in desperate need of some assistance here.
I suspect—though I cannot say with any degree of certainty—that this madness might be linked to the settings found under Tools/AutoCorrect Options/AutoFormat As You Type, or perhaps it's buried within Tools/AutoCorrect Options/AutoFormat
but I simply cannot pinpoint the exact culprit causing this chaos.
Help me, please.

A bit of a dilemma with dates

I was sitting here wondering how one might go about setting up an Excel spreadsheet with two specific columns for dates—one being the current date that automatically updates itself every single day, and the other being a fixed deadline. Beyond that, I’m trying to figure out the most efficient way to calculate the difference between them, specifically to see exactly how many days are left until that deadline hits.

Carl Turner2 said:Date issues.

Check out these links for some examples on handling dates.

- date subtraction
- Formatting dates in Excel

redmoose20 said:that's exactly what I'm trying to do, but the whole damn text centers itself. then I have to hit undo, and suddenly the part I actually wanted centered just jumps back to how it was before.

hey, just upload a couple pages of that doc somewhere for download so we can see what's actually going on (if you haven't figured it out yet)

here is the link
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-234e41c9.html

Kyle Johnson2 said:If you have a moment, you might want to take a look at the examples provided in these links; they deal specifically with handling various date-related functions and workflows.

- Date subtraction.
- Formatting dates in Excel

I seem to be running into a bit of a snag here; I keep getting hit with a #VALUE! error and I can't quite pin down why it's happening.

I’ve gone ahead and set my cell formatting to display dates as March 12, 2012.

I have a question about queries—not sure if this has been asked before since there are so many threads here, but I couldn't find it.

Basically, I need to set up a query that pulls names, then uses a dropdown menu so I can select which specific name's results I want to see.

Here’s the scenario:

I have a table listing buildings where my cleaning company handles the stairwells. I need to pull data like the neighborhood, address, and the scheduled cleaning date for a specific building.

The problem is, I know the name of the building roughly, but not the exact title. I want to know how to create a query with a dropdown list of all buildings so I can just pick the right one.

What exactly should I put in the "criteria" field?

redmoose20 said:here's the link

looks like the styles are totally messed up. Clear all formatting then rebuild the doc. Just give the paragraphs some decent spacing so it actually makes sense.

Carl Turner2 said:The whole date issue

I'm trying to figure out how to set up an Excel sheet with two date columns. One needs to be the current date that updates itself automatically every single day, and the other is just a fixed deadline date. On top of that, I need to know how to subtract them so I can see exactly how many days are left until the deadline hits.

To get that live, updating date, just use this formula: =TODAY(). As for keeping tabs on those deadlines, you can try this one out: =IF(TODAY()>D8;"Deadline passed";"")
Basically, if you plug your expiration date into cell D8, then throw that formula into E8. What it’s doing is simple logic: If today's date has already jumped past the expiration date you set, it'll spit out "Deadline passed." If we haven't hit that date yet, it just stays blank. Pretty straightforward once you see it.

Between what @IvanC suggested and this little trick here, you should probably have this whole puzzle sorted out by now.

neoncanyon said:I’ve got a quick question regarding queries—not sure if this has come up before, there are just so many threads here that I might have missed it.

So, I need to set up a query that pulls specific names—basically, I want a dropdown menu where I can pick which name I'm looking for to see the results.

Here's the scenario:

I have a table listing all the office buildings my cleaning company services. Now, I need to pull data like the neighborhood, the street address, and the scheduled cleaning date for a specific building.

The thing is, I usually only remember part of the building's name, not the full thing—so I'm wondering how to build a query that gives me a list to choose from, or lets me search by what I do know.

What exactly should I put in the "criteria" field?

Let’s say your table is named "Buildings" and it has a column called "Building Name." You'd just plug that part you remember into the query like this:

Code:

Carl Turner2 said:Date math issues

I'm trying to set up an Excel sheet with two columns of dates—one column needs to show today's date (and update automatically every day), and the other should be a specific deadline. Also, how do I calculate the difference between them so I can see exactly how many days are left until the deadline hits?

Just pop =TODAY() into cell A1.
Put your target deadline date in cell A2.
Then, in cell A3, use =DAYS360(A1,A2) to get that countdown.

Hey there—could someone please walk me through the whole process of opening up a .csv file and actually being able to filter through it using Excel? I’ve got the latest version of Microsoft Office installed, but I’m feeling a little lost on the specific steps to get it looking right...

http://voices.yahoo.com/microsoft-ex...t-2387524.html

Finally, all those comments under the article actually helped 🙂

Thanks so much!

The only thing still tripping me up—and it’s driving me a little crazy—is that in some of my columns, I'm seeing these weird dates popping up instead of actual numbers... everywhere else looks totally fine though 😕

That’s quite the puzzle you’ve laid out!
I’m not entirely sure if I can articulate this clearly enough, but I truly hope my meaning comes through to you.
What I’m essentially looking for is a way to pull specific data fields from one spreadsheet over to another without having to resort to the tedious ritual of constant copying and pasting.
Alternatively, I was wondering if there’s a way to design a template or a standardized form layout—something where the structure and all those little input fields remain identical every time I move to a new page, even though the actual content inside those boxes changes with every entry.
I’ve attached a rough visual representation of what I have in mind here.

Taylor Jackson8 said:Suppose you have a table called "Buildings" with a column for "Building Name." You just type what you know into the query.

Code:

SELECT *
FROM Buildings
WHERE [Building Name] LIKE '*Part of the name you know*'

Great, thanks.

What if I don't know which buildings are actually in the list? Is there a way to set it up so instead of typing, I get a dropdown menu to pick from? How do I do that?

Carl Turner2 said:How can I set up a template frame so the borders and fields stay identical on every page, even if the text inside changes?

The main thing is: are you doing this for just one single contract, or are you reusing the same form for a bunch of different bids?
Maybe try using VLOOKUP. Just pull the data based on those ID numbers in column A from your bid sheet (like 1.1, 1.1.1, etc.)