Need HELP with Excel

[midhvac]

If you have a spreadsheet, and you've typed in a half page of text below it, how do you get rid of all of those #%$@ boxes the text is in? It's a real pain editing the text in those boxes!

[west_seth]

Open up Excel and do this:

Tools
Options
View and uncheck the gridlines

[midhvac]

Originally posted by west_seth
Open up Excel and do this:

Tools
Options
View and uncheck the gridlines

Thanks. I did that, but IT'S STILL A PIA TRYING TO EDIT THE TEXT!

Is there a way to make a block of text be in one giant cell?

[Nevada]

Select a group of cells (boxes) that you would like to merge into one big box. You proably know but you do this by holding the left botton down and draging it over the area.

Now select Format, cells, and click the "Alignment" tab. Check the "Merge cells" box.
You may also want to check the "Wrap text" box.

[midhvac]

Originally posted by nevada

Select a group of cells (boxes) that you would like to merge into one big box. You proably know but you do this by holding the left botton down and draging it over the area.

Now select Format, cells, and click the "Alignment" tab. Check the "Merge cells" box.
You may also want to check the "Wrap text" box.

I tried that, but this is how it came out.
















It took a block of text made and made one big cell the size of the block of text. Then it warned me that it was all going to be merged and that only the top would be there, and it didn't lie. Only the first line of text showed up.... at the bottom of the big cell.

[midhvac]

Originally posted by outside rep
yes up top on the right side there is a little box

[--] that looks kind of like that

Left click and high light the whole area and click that button and that will make the whole area one big cell

Could you just do me a favor and tell me what the

"little box [--] that looks kind of like that"

says when you hold the mouse over it.

Thanks

[Jultzya]

Mine goes from left to right....

align left, center, align right, merge and center.

[midhvac]

I was using the "merge and center" command before. It gives me the message:

"Merging into one cell will keep the upper-left most data only"

then it deletes all but the top.

I found out that it's a bug in my 97 version of Excel:

SYMPTOMS
In Microsoft Excel 97, no "Center Across Columns" button appears on the Formatting toolbar. In its place, a "Merge and Center" toolbar button appears.
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WORKAROUND
Although the "Center Across Columns" toolbar button is no longer available, you can still center text across columns without merging cells. To do this, use the following steps:

1. Select the range of cells over which you want to center text.
2. On the Format menu, click Cells.
3. Click the Alignment tab.
4. In the Horizontal list box, click "Center Across Selection."
5. Click OK.
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STATUS
This is by design of Microsoft Excel 97.
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MORE INFORMATION
The "Merge and Center" toolbar button in Microsoft Excel 97 provides a level of functionality that is very similar to the functionality provided by the "Center Across Columns" toolbar button in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel. Basically, the button allows you to center information contained in a single cell across a range of cells.

Note that there are some minor differences in behavior between the two buttons. The following examples illustrate these differences.
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Examples
Assume that you have a new worksheet in Microsoft Excel that contains the following information:
A1: test
A2: hello

In Microsoft Excel 97, if you select the range A1:E2 and click the "Merge and Center" toolbar button, the entire range A1:E2 is merged into a single cell. The word "test" appears centered within this cell. In addition, because merging cells removes the contents of all cells within the range except for the upper leftmost cell, you will receive the following message:

The selection contains multiple data values. Merging into one cell will keep the upper-left most data only.
Clicking OK results in the deletion of the word "hello," and the merging of the cells. Clicking Cancel cancels the merge and center process.

If the other cells in the range must retain their own contents, or if you need to center multiple rows of information, use the workaround shown above to format the cells with the "Center Across Selection" alignment.
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The problem is, the "workaround" of using "center across columns" doesn't merge that data.

So it looks like checkmate.

[The Penguin]

you have an out its called upgrade by your ever so friendly microsoft company microsoft office excel 2003

[Nevada]

The text that you have type in the cells will not all merge even with Excel 2003. Make the larger cell that you want and retype the text. Another option instead of selecting cells on mulitple rolls is to merge as many cells as you need on only one row and changing the row height for that row.

Send me an email. I have something that will fix your 97' problems. I can't mention it here because this thread would then surly beat out the 9mm one causing Dice to have a heart attack and HVAC-Talk as we know it will not longer exist.

[sodadude]

Unless I want to pay for it, and I aint doing it.

[anonymous]

a word to the wise. dont send your email address unless you have a good spam program