Help!

[mandragora]

Er, of a technical nature, that is.

Does anyone out there have any expertise in Excel? At work we've been working on a chronology of a long-running court case. The chronology is in Excel format but there is a problem in that the text in some of the cells won't wrap properly. Part of the text is obscured on the screen and also when the document is printed out. The only way to read all of the text is by highlighting the cell in question and calling up all of the text.

We've tried checking the option to wrap text, but that option was ticked in any event before the chronology was started and it makes no difference fiddling about with it. We tried altering the size of the column which contains the cells where the text is obscured and making it bigger, but some of the text was still obscured no matter how big it was, which was within the constraints of being able to read it on the screen. We tried merging cells (although I don't think that we did it very successfully, as we weren't able to get rid of the lines between them). But in any event the text in the merged cells was still obscured.

I'm wondering whether the cells have a limit as to how much text they will contain, given that Excel was designed for figures and not text. The cells where we're having difficulty contain over 200 words, with about 12 lines or more.

Does anyone have any suggestions how to fix the problem, assuming it's fixable at all, that is?

Failing that, can anyone suggest an easy way of inputting the data into a table in Word format, short of copying and pasting individual cells one by one?

Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

Comments

[filenotch.livejournal.com]

There are ways to get Excel to print the whole cell contents, but I usually import the data file into Word as a table, which is easier to manipulate in terms of cell width, etc.

Since you're likely in an M$ operating system (and, darling, I don't do Windows), you might want to get the talking paperclip to talk you through this.

It SHOULD be something like, View -> toolbars (select Database). In the Database toolbar there should be something that looks like two excel icons close together, but not overlapping. When you mouse over it, if you have things set to give you the text explaining the icon it should say "Insert Database". Click, and in the new dialog box click Get Data. A widow should open allowing you to browse through your files and to pick the relevant file.

Once you pick the relevant file, it will ask which worksheet you want to import. It'll probably be sheet 1, and you probably want all cells, so you shouldn't have to change anything. Once you select to insert, it goes back to the dialog box with new buttons available, like Table Autoformat. Ignore them, and select Insert Data. The Excel contents should appear as a simple table with lines delineating the cells, and all text in place.

If it's very big, it may go off the side of the page. If that happens, set the page setup to landscape, and insert it again.

/end geek mode

[filenotch.livejournal.com]

Oh, and if you already know the file is big, change the default margins to something very small (0.5 in) before you import the data.

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

Many thanks for the info, which is fascinating and I shall memorise for future reference. In fact as Carenejeans helpfully pointed out I just needed to highlight the text and paste into Word. Which I really should have realised.

I don't think it's necessary to have this particular chronology in Excel format (unlike one I've done that's 650 pages long when printed out, and keeping it in Excel means we can easily sort the data into various categories) so I think I'll just convert it into Word and have done.

I wish many times I didn't have to do MS either. But, it's the default system for lawyers so I'm stuck with it.

[filenotch.livejournal.com]

About pasting: It's neater if you use the database import trick, because Word will obey the margins as it creates the table. Pasting from copied Excel cells, iirc, can give you a table that runs sideways off the page.

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, we discovered that this morning. So, I made the paralegal go back and make the Excel cell narrower... It worked for me (seeing as I didn't have to do anything, but in my defence I was busy doing something else).

[carenejeans.livejournal.com]

I had this problem once, but forget if it was fixable in Excel.

But, if you simply highlight the cells/columns you want and copy/paste into word, you'll have a Word table. You'll have to do some adjusting of column and row sizes, but you don't have to do it cell-by-cell.

And if it's text, it should be in Word anyway, not Excel. Pet peeve of mine!

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

But, if you simply highlight the cells/columns you want and copy/paste into word, you'll have a Word table

Ahem, yes, of *course* it will. That's me trying to be overly clever and trying 'save as' etc. *slaps self for being stupid* I knew this. Why didn't I just do it?

And if it's text, it should be in Word anyway, not Excel.

I agree with you for the most part. But, it is useful being able to use the sorting feature in Excel, so as to break down particular entries by category. Which is why lawyers try to use Excel for something it really wasn't designed for. Sigh.

Many, many thanks for the info, which has solved the problem.

[smaragdgrun.livejournal.com]

You can do all of this in Word these days... perhaps that wasn't always so, but today? Stick with Word.

Hope you're well!!

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

You can do all of this in Word these days

You can? How do you sort by category, assuming you've got a column stating what category the entry comes into - in this case, either English, Spanish or Caribbean?

Oh, and whilst you're here (demanding? Moi?) can you tell me how to turn smart quotes off in Word? I'm using Win XP Home edition and *cannot* remember how to turn the damn things off.

I'm fine, thanks. A bit busy workwise as it looks like we may be going to trial in a couple of weeks, contrary to everyone's expectation. As a result we're not ready so there's lots of work that will need to be done. Mind you, when the day comes for the jury to be empanelled I'm betting the date will end up being put back. Most frustrating.

You?

[temaris.livejournal.com]

Smartquotes: Tools / Autocorrect Options

Untick it in 'Autoformat as you type' and in 'Autoformat'.

And sort by selecting the table and from the menu pick Table / Sort

It insists on using headers, and gets confused by merged cells sometimes, but should work.

*Word* I know. *g*

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

Muchos gracias. Belatedly.

[smaragdgrun.livejournal.com]

You can sort by each column, and even by one column then another,(so category, and then last name, for example). And you can specify a header row/rows. Go to Table => Sort.

And then definitely go to Tools => Autocorrect options. And turn everything off! Smartquotes are the first to go!

Doing okay -- busy, but hoping it will slow down in a couple of weeks. The spring weather has been fabulous! ;>

[carenejeans.livejournal.com]

Great!

You can sort a Word table... but not extract, is that what you mean?

But this way, you can sort, extract, etc. and then copy/paste your sorted stuff into Word as needed. Kind of irritating, of course, but ah well. I've gotten pretty good a sticking data from application into another, out of sheer self-defense. 8-)

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

Extract, yes, I mean extract. And you're right, I could always extract and then paste into Word. Mind you, someone's bound to whinge about the lack of colour coding in Word. Sigh.