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

[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.