Off-topic question about MS Excel ... sorry.

[Bruce McCausland]

Sorry to post an off-topic question but can someone direct me to a forum somewhere for the discussion of MS Excel 2000? I've got a devilish problem to which I am certain there is a simple answer that any denizen of an Excel forum could supply.
Thanks,
Bruce

[Jon Finley]

try us.... we like a challenge. :-)


Jon

[Ron Kinner]

There are two newsgroups which come to mind.

microsoft.public.excel.misc

and

microsoft.public.excel.programming.

You can get to them via www.google.com, select Groups - if you don't have access to a newservice.

However, like Jon says, give us a shot at it first. Feed us points and we will figure it out for you.

Ron

[Bruce McCausland]

Well, okay, then we'll have a go.

I am having a printing problem with my simple spreadsheet (two columns by 63 rows). The spreadsheet is automatically assuming a column break between column 'A' and column 'B'. When I print or print preview the spreadsheet all the column 'A' pages (there are 63 rows so everything won't normally fit on one page) print first, then all the column 'B' pages.

I cannot figure out what is causing the program to assume a column break after column 'A' but it is definitely a program generated break (a dashed line instead of a solid line). And I cannot figure out how to turn it off.

Is this enough information to solve the puzzle or could the problem be driven by the contents of the cells in column 'A'?

The spreadsheet is a journal, nothing more. Column 'A' is top-alligned dates which have been autoformated (I entered 8/2 and the spreadsheet displayed 2-Aug). Column 'B' is top-alligned wordwrapped text saying what happened on that particular date.

If you need additional info just ask. Thanks!!

[Roger Faucher]

Bruce:

I assume you're doing a 'set print area' before the print attempt. I tried duplicating what you said using Excel 2000 and it looks good. Have you installed all the Office Service Packs. I can't think of anything else. If this doesn't solve the problem, tell us the version of Excel and a step by step of how you're doing this.

Roger

[Jorge Pinto Leite]

Bruce
Does the print area fill in a page? I mean, the width of A+B is less than the print width of the page?
If it isn't, the behaviour you specify is the default for Excel.
Try the print preview reducing to a percentage (90% or less), or to fit in a single page.
Hope this helps.
Jorge

[Bruce McCausland]

Well, thank you all for your responses. I hope I have followed the proper procedure to assign the following points:
Jon - 1 point for encouraging me to participate in THIS forum
Ron - 3 points for encouragement AND for providing useful pointers to more germane fora.
Roger - 4 points for trying to duplicate the problem and for suggesting something that I really NEED to do and have not done ... get and apply Service Packs.
Jorge - 10 points for hitting the nail on the head (I'd give you the magical bunny award if I knew how!) Column 'A' and column 'B' were too wide for the printed page. (Hey, I said it likely was a simple answer!) Here's why ...

In the spreadsheet I had the columns sized the way I wanted them (and they printed fine at that point in time). Apparently there is a maximum number of characters you can store in a cell and my notes (in column 'B') got kinda long. With word wrap turned on Excel just kept adding lines until it reached the maximum. Then it wouldn't show any additional characters (though it must have saved them internally because when I would come back to a cell to edit it all my notes were there in the edit window even though you couldn't see them all in the displayed cell.) I got the idea that Excel could optimize the column width if I did a Format/Column/Autofit Selection. THAT's what threw of the 'A' plus 'B' width and forced a column break after 'A'.

Thanks again to everyone who helped, tried to help, or even thought about helping.

(Bye the bye ... If I did NOT get the points assigned ther way I described them here someone let me know and I'll try again.)

Bruce

[Roger Faucher]

Bruce:

As you can probably see, the points did not take. Maybe someone will jump in here and tell how that's done. Thanks for the thought and I'm glad you're up and running.

Roger

[Bruce McCausland]

Roger ... It appears that you can only give points to one person at a time, but you can keep going back to give points to the others.
Jorge ... I intended to assign you 10 points for the answer that solved my problem. Since I was just learning HOW to assign points I screwed it up (thinking that I only had ten points to assign and Roger already had 4 I gave you the remainder). Then I tried to give points to Ron and Jon ... who would have gotten none if I only had ten to give ... and was successful, but then I couldn't go back and give you the additional 4 you earned. If you will post again to this thread I'll assign the remaining 4 points to your post.

Again, thanks to all.

Bruce

[Jorge Pinto Leite]

Don't bother on that, Bruce.
I'm glad I hit the target :-)
Jorge