Help! (and other random thoughts)

[frameofmind6]

Okay, see, this is why I avoid Excel like the plague. It lures you in by looking all "useful" and "straightforward" and "organized" -- and then you start typing stuff in, and all of a sudden you're drowning in a pile of bizarre, upredictable, secret little rules that you don't know how to change, or even look up in the help manual. Like just now, I was performing what I think ought to be a pretty simple, straightforward task: entering a series of consecutive dates into the first column of the spreadsheet. Now, I'm sure there's some fancy-schmancy way to make the thing do it for you, but because I prefer not to have to read billions and billions of instructions just to find the one sentance I need, I figured I'd do it the old-fashioned way for now, and figure out the tricks later. So it was going alright -- the first few went exactly as they were supposed to. The program did automatically change my 8/17/08s into 8/17/2008s, but I was okay with that. Then I got to Row 8. Goddamn Row 8. For some reason, when I typed the date into this row, it changed the format so that it read 23-Aug instead of 8/23/2008. No matter how many times I delete it and retype it (even using different numbers), it always changes it back to that format. I can type the correct date format into any other cell in the entire spreadsheet, but that one cell stubbornly refuses to conform. What have I done wrong? How has Excel gotten it into its head that I want that cell to be different from all the others? More importantly, how do I change it? I tried looking it up in the manual, but what do I look for -- date format changie thingie? I don't even understand enough about why it's doing that to know where to look for information on how to change it!!!

(*sigh*)

Excel needs to just burn in hell. That would be nice. I generally consider myself pretty computer literate, at least in the basics (I can't do web-based things like HTML writing, although I think even that I understand better than Excel). I can use Power Point, Word, Publisher, Photoshop, Quicken, Access -- you name it, I can probably at least fumble my way through it. But I do not understand Excel. It's like there's a graphing calculator in there somewhere, taunting me -- never got along very well with those things either, except when just using them as a normal calculator that happened to have a large screen and a handy delete button.

Okay, got that out of my system.

On the lighter side of the news, I just won second place at iyhed for a yaoi fic. Yes, I actually wrote a yaoi smut fic. And it won something. (*blinks in disbelief*) 

I think I just saw a pig flying down Broadway, too... (*grin*)

I feel like I should be getting things done right now -- but I can't think of anything that really needs doing. I was supposed to have a voice lesson this afternoon, but that got moved to tomorrow, so I kinda ended up with a big hole in my schedule (between prep time, travel time, and errands/dinner on the way back, voice lessons usually sorta devour the whole day these days). I'm sure there must be things I ought to do, because I've felt totally under pressure for the last two weeks or so...but I took care of a few of the pesky little tasks on my To Do list, and now it looks a lot shorter somehow. I'm a little bored...lol...

I'm also a little hungry. I think I'll order takeout and put on a movie, maybe putter around and clean up the place. My desk is still an unholy mess. There's something I can do! Alright, I am so on it...

Or I could write the next chapter of Playing With Fire (*grin*). But this one is so blah -- it's more on the action side (using this term broadly...), not much romantic smushiness or momentous introspection (mes spécialités, bien sur). I have to slog through it (not to mention at least two more like it later on), and hopefully it'll be enjoyable to read -- but man these ones are a bitch to write. Grr. What makes it even harder is that I'm really looking forward to the chapter after it (not in the least because it's half-written already...lol)...which makes this chapter seem even less appetizing to write. (*sigh*)

Okay -- food, cleaning, desk. Go.

Comments

[caitriona695.livejournal.com]

Excel help:

Left click on the column header you want to use dates in. This whole column will highlight.
Right click on the same header.
Choose Format Cells.
Choose Date.
Click format that looks like you want the date to look.
Make sure the Locale is English (United States)

If you have a series of date and only some of them are messing up, use the Mouse to select the area in question, right click, choose format cells, choose date, and click on what you want.

Excel I know pretty well for the basics.

[frameofmind6.livejournal.com]

It worked! Thank you!!

Yeah, I went to the "format cells" thing several times, but I guess I didn't dig far enough beyond that to stumble upon the "date" part. Well, now that I have one thing figured out, maybe it will make the rest a bit easier. (And if it doesn't, I know who to call... *grin*)

[caitriona695.livejournal.com]

: D I've done a surprising amount of Excel that had nothing to do with numbers. Let me know if you need help.

Ever your servant.

[drjmaxwell.livejournal.com]

I typed in 08/01/08 into Cell 1
I typed in 08/02/08 into Cell 2
I highlighted cells 1, and 2, then grabbed the corner of the box and dragged it down. Displayed every date fine.

However, let's focus on your individual cell. If you're using Excel 2003 this may not work, but if you're using Excel 2007 we'll have it. Highlight your mutant cell. Right click. Select Format Cells. Choose the type of date format you want. Hit OK.

Done!

[frameofmind6.livejournal.com]

Mine's probably the 2003 version -- I've had this computer since 2005 (and I desperately need an update. I've already moved everything I can to an external hard drive, and I'm still just barely keeping my head above water... *sigh*). Anyway, I tried the highlighting thing too (the format cells thing fixed the mutant cell problem, btw), just to see if it would work -- and it did, except that it just repeated the sequence of dates I had already written, instead of adding on from there. Not applicable to this particular task, but may come in handy down the road...

Thanks!