Computer questions you'd be embarrassed to ask any where else!

is_that_so · 09-12-2020 06:33PM

Red Hare wrote: »

What's Exel?

Excel is a spreadsheet tool, typically used to record and add up numbers but you can do lots more. One example is where people do a weekly or monthly budget for the year. It's part of Microsoft Office.

GarIT · 09-12-2020 06:35PM

Red Hare wrote: »

What's Exel?

A spreadsheet program. It handles calculations for you automatically if you know how to tell it to do those.

09-12-2020 06:35PM

is_that_so wrote: »

Excel is a spreadsheet tool, typically used to record and add up numbers but you can do lots more. One example is where people do a weekly or monthly budget for the year. It's part of Microsoft Office.

Or government agencies run a pandemic Track and Trace on a single spreadsheet...
:pac::pac::pac:

is_that_so · 09-12-2020 06:36PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Or government agencies run a pandemic Track and Trace on a single spreadsheet...
:pac::pac::pac:

Now, now!:D

Red Hare · 09-12-2020 06:37PM

But the things being calculated here are genetics and they have a 4 fold formula that is different to how a speed sheet works

09-12-2020 06:38PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Or government agencies run a pandemic Track and Trace on a single spreadsheet...
:pac::pac::pac:

That did happen but it was across the water in UK. It didn't happen here.

UK Excel blunder under-reports 16,000 Covid cases

GarIT · 09-12-2020 06:42PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Or government agencies run a pandemic Track and Trace on a single spreadsheet...
:pac::pac::pac:

That was the NHS not our government.

Excel also isn't a terrible place to store that data. Insecure but it could be encrypted. The issue the UK had was that they used an old version that only allowed for a limited number of lines.

GarIT · 09-12-2020 06:43PM

Red Hare wrote: »

But the things being calculated here are genetics and they have a 4 fold formula that is different to how a speed sheet works

Excel can do any formula if you're good enough at it and the data is still stored in a spreadsheet.

is_that_so · 09-12-2020 06:43PM

Red Hare wrote: »

But the things being calculated here are genetics and they have a 4 fold formula that is different to how a speed sheet works

That's the power Excel offers you. You can use it for basic calculations or dive into its large functions and formulas library!

09-12-2020 06:51PM

Red Hare wrote: »

But the things being calculated here are genetics and they have a 4 fold formula that is different to how a speed sheet works

Excel also uses worksheets, which is like a folder containing spreadsheets which you can reference.

So you can do(written in pseudo-code):

If formula1, use A1 from Worksheet1:
if formula2, use A1 from Worksheet2

and so on.

09-12-2020 06:59PM

GarIT wrote: »

Excel can do any formula if you're good enough at it and the data is still stored in a spreadsheet.

My father wrote a virtual alcohol still originally using the spreadhseet program on a Commodore 64 around the year I was born. He converted it to an Excel workbook late 90s. Around 2009 I attempted to convert it to MySQL backed with a python based lookup. I gave up.

I gained a lot of respect for him while (trying) to do that project, considering when he did it, he had no intermet, Google hadn't been invented and he was working just off the manual that came with it.

enfield · 09-12-2020 07:01PM

Thank you for your kind offer May, but it is all in hand, it will take time but will be grand in the end.

About Excel for those unfamiliar with it-I save my data in excel. It is a program like a book with lines in it. Each line would have a name, number, unit, date of death, birth, place, where enlisted, residence, next of kin details, what they died from, any newspaper articles written on them, and place of burial and grave number. You can 'sort' out all the input anyway you please to give you the answers you require.
Such as, when I am fixing the error I have encountered, at the click of a mouse all the information were sorted in this sequence, Surname, First name, date of death, service number and place of burial. All done in a fraction of a second. If I wanted all the people who died on a certain date again it would only take a second and give you the results you require. I do not know how I survived before I used Excel but would not, and could not record the data in any other way that give me the results I want, when I want it.
Thank you everyone for all your helpful suggestions, you are very patient with this doddery old codger.]
Kindest regards.
Tom.

SnowyMay · 09-12-2020 07:06PM

GarIT wrote: »

Excel can do any formula if you're good enough at it and the data is still stored in a spreadsheet.

Yes. And, honestly, it can do so much more (I’m a big Excel fan in case it isn’t obvious). With macros, you can predefine stuff that you want to do on a daily basis fairly easily - you can even just record an action and use it again (but be careful with that as Excel will record your exact steps and replicate them, so if you start off in cell A3, any other actions will start off in cell A3).

Ok, it’s not the most beautiful solution ever as getting stuff into a database is preferable, but, if you want quick and dirty, I can say that Excel has saved me more than once speeding up tasks, having essentially an audit trail in your formulas/code, and is pretty easy to get to grips with in the normal stuff.

Ahhh - I love Excel.

looksee · 09-12-2020 07:09PM

Ahem. There are no doddery old codgers in O&O, we are all lithe young things. Well, apart from me.

enfield · 09-12-2020 07:22PM

Ah looksee, you misunderstand, I meant I was a doddery old codger.
Snowyowl if you PM me your eaddy I will send you an Excel.
Kind regards.
Tom.

09-12-2020 07:56PM

Deleted User wrote: »

That did happen but it was across the water in UK. It didn't happen here.

UK Excel blunder under-reports 16,000 Covid cases

I never said it happened here (well in that scenario anyway...)

Jellybaby_1 · 09-12-2020 07:59PM

enfield wrote: »

...About Excel for those unfamiliar with it-I save my data in excel. It is a program like a book with lines in it. Each line would have a name, number, unit, date of death, birth, place, where enlisted, residence, next of kin details, what they died from, any newspaper articles written on them, and place of burial and grave number. You can 'sort' out all the input anyway you please to give you the answers you require.
Tom.

I'm interested in your system, similar to mine but sounds way better organised and with more information. I make that 13 columns or have you more?

Akrasia · 09-12-2020 08:07PM

Hi Enfield, in relation to your mysterious disappearing cells, if you highlight a large amount of cells and press backspace, only the first cell you highlighted will be deleted. It’s possible you might have accidentally pressed backspace when copying data from one sheet to another?

enfield · 09-12-2020 10:11PM

Jellybaby_1 wrote: »

I'm interested in your system, similar to mine but sounds way better organised and with more information. I make that 13 columns or have you more?

My lines begin at A and stop at BR. My columns are over 31,000.

enfield · 09-12-2020 10:12PM

Akrasia wrote: »

Hi Enfield, in relation to your mysterious disappearing cells, if you highlight a large amount of cells and press backspace, only the first cell you highlighted will be deleted. It’s possible you might have accidentally pressed backspace when copying data from one sheet to another?

Thank you Akrasia for you suggestion. I will try that first thing in the morning.
Kind regards.
Tom.

09-12-2020 10:17PM

Why do these two things happen?

1 - Sometimes I log onto a site and it looks like the design is back in the late 1990s - text is bigger, looks very basic and non-slick. Then I check it a couple of hours later and it's back to what it was.

2 - I go to a site - say An Post's and there's a "track and trace" box where you enter your reference number. Normally the "track and trace" prompt disappears once I start typing - but sometimes it doesn't and I end up with ten digits superimposed over the words "track and trace".

Akrasia · 09-12-2020 10:52PM

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

Why do these two things happen?

1 - Sometimes I log onto a site and it looks like the design is back in the late 1990s - text is bigger, looks very basic and non-slick. Then I check it a couple of hours later and it's back to what it was.

2 - I go to a site - say An Post's and there's a "track and trace" box where you enter your reference number. Normally the "track and trace" prompt disappears once I start typing - but sometimes it doesn't and I end up with ten digits superimposed over the words "track and trace".

Those things shouldn’t be happening. I think you might have a problem with your browser. Perhaps an extension is blocking the website from using its own default settings

First thing you should do is download Chrome just go to google.ie and type in download chrome and this should take you you to the latest version

Install chrome and accept the default settings
If you were already using chrome
Hold CTRL+Shift+Delete at the same time, a box will open, tick every box except the saved passwords one and clear these files. Hopefully this will work

Another possible problem is if you’re zoomed into the site to make the text bigger. Sometimes this breaks forms. Hold CTRL and scroll with your mouse wheel to change the zoom level and see if this helps

(If you don’t have a mouse, move your finger on the touchpad while holding CTRL)

Jellybaby_1 · 10-12-2020 12:06AM

enfield wrote: »

My lines begin at A and stop at BR. My columns are over 31,000.

Impressive work!

enfield · 10-12-2020 07:13AM

Good morning Akrasia. I did as you suggest and it could be someones problem but sadly for me, not mine. It only deletes the info in box a and I would see this. The problem is missing lines complete with all the info in the boxes in those lines.
Thank you for your suggestion, it is much appreciated.
Kind regards.
Tom.

enfield · 10-12-2020 08:54AM

I just noticed something. Let us say I paste the Kilkenny file into one of the master file, lines with (Kilkenny) to not transfer over whereas those with two locations like (Dublin, Kilkenny) will. Does that make sense?

New Home · 10-12-2020 11:28AM

Can you tell us exactly, step by step, how you're copying and pasting the data? There could be some detail we're missing, and we all know that the devil is in the details.

Also is the Kilkenny data definitely not coming across or do you see a blank line? The font could've switched to white and be there but be invisible. One last thing: have you tried copying and pasting the individual lines?

looksee · 10-12-2020 11:51AM

Or is there possibly any problem with the word Kilkenny, like a space before it for example? (I know nothing about Exel, but I do know that these glitchy things are either simple or impossible

)

enfield · 10-12-2020 03:25PM

I open a excel worksheet. In this sheet I will put the info from some counties. I go to the first which is Kilkenny. I click on the top left box and this selects all, or I click on the last line in Kilkenny then bring it up to the first line, this selects the lines I was to use.. I click CTRL c, go to the new worksheet, click into the first box in the first line and press CTRL V and this pastes all the info into the worksheet. I then select the second county, let us say it is, Galway, and select and copy using the same procedure. I click on the first box of the last line in the worksheet and press CTRL V which pastes it into the worksheet. I continue using this procedure until there are about 7 counties in the worksheet.
I then click the top right box which selects everything. I then click Home, Sort and Filter, Custom sort, and select the sort method that suits by adding whatever levels I need and sort.
Then I save and close the worksheet. Next time I open it any line with (Kilkenny). in it is not there. But ones with (Kilkenny, Limerick). etc will be. No spaces in front of (Kilkenny).

Sorry for the long explanation but that it the method used.
Kind regards.
Tom.

10-12-2020 03:32PM

enfield wrote: »

I open a excel worksheet. In this sheet I will put the info from 4 counties. I go to the first which is Kilkenny. I click on the top left box and this selects all, or I click on the last line in Kilkenny then bring it up to the first line, this selects the lines I was to use.. I click CTRL c, go to the new worksheet, click into the first box in the first line and press CTRL V and this pastes all the info into the worksheet. I then select the second county, let us say it is, Galway, and select and copy using the same procedure. I click on the first box of the last line in the worksheet and press CTRL V which pastes it into the worksheet. I continue using this procedure until there are about 7 counties in the worksheet.
I then click the top right box which selects everything. I then click Home, Sort and Filter, Custom sort, and select the sort method that suits by adding whatever levels I need and sort.
Then I save and close the worksheet. Next time I open it any line with (Kilkenny). in it is not there. But ones with (Kilkenny, Limerick). etc will be. No spaces in front of (Kilkenny).

Sorry for the long explanation but that it the method used.
Kind regards.
Tom.

Suggestion: after reopening the file, clear your custom sort method and see does kilkenny reappear?

enfield · 10-12-2020 03:59PM

Thank you Den for the suggestion. I did that and it did not work, sorry.
Kind regards.
Tom.

Computer questions you'd be embarrassed to ask any where else!

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