The Tribe of Adminsa home for wayward admins

Sometimes you open Excel to find that it’s bigger than your screen and you can’t move your document to correct the problem. Your scroll bars are missing, your menu is floating somewhere in the the stratosphere. Now what? Here are some solutions:

1)If you can see the expand/collapse buttons – on a Mac they are red, yellow and green dots in the upper left, and and in Windows, on the right: .

Click the middle button in Windows or the green one on Mac. This will – counterintuitively – shrink the window to fit inside a frame.

2) If that doesn’t work, try changing the screen resolution. You can do that by choose Start, Control Panel, then Display. (Mac: System Preferences under the apple, then Display). The higher the resolution, the smaller the Excel window. Close and reopen Excel.

3) If none of those work and you’re in Windows, try this tip from Seeing Excel’s Program Window (Microsoft Excel):

Reset the window size with command keys:

Press Alt+Spacebar. This displays the Control menu (even if you cannot see it).

Press the letter R; the Excel window is restored to its “in between” size.

Press Alt+Spacebar to again display the Control menu.

Press the letter X; the Excel window is maximized.

If you would rather use the mouse than the keyboard, you can follow these steps:

Right-click on Excel in the task bar

Choose Restore from the menu that pops up. The Excel window returns its “in between” size.

Again right-click on Excel in the task bar.

Choose Maximize from the menu that pops up

I’m afraid I have no idea how to do this on a Mac. If you know, write in here or enter a comment:

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I’ve posted an Excel Wiki – I call them “faux-wikis” because you need to click contact or add a comment to edit or add to it, rather than editing directly as you would in a true wiki. It’s ready for your input!

So far, it’s connected to a page about reversing last name first lists and putting them into one column, and some posts about viewing Excel on dual monitors, solving the problem of all of your data pasting into a single cell, and counting multiple variables.

And here’s a silly little tip:

Check marks are useful little critters, and you can use them for counting, too. Many fonts use Alt (Option on Mac) V for a check, but many fonts – especially in Windows – don’t. That means you have to choose Insert>Symbol, find the check mark and insert it. Repeat every time you want it, or copy and paste. More trouble than it’s worth!

Easy fix: Insert a column for your check marks. If you have the font Marlett, change highlight the column and change it to that font. The letter “a” is a check in Marlett.

Now, to count:

Select a cell to enter your count in. Change it to a normal font or you’ll be very confused! Enter:

=COUNTIF(C1:C3,”a”)

The C1 and C3 should be changed to the top cell of your check mark column and the bottom cell of that column. Like this:

Here’s how you get to that formula if you want to do it from scratch: Under the ∑ symbol on your tool bar, or Insert>Function, choose or search for COUNTIF. Once you’ve selected it, a box will open. Click in the first box then click into your column and drag from the top to the bottom, or select it in your favorite manner. Now click in the second box and type “a.” Hit enter.

After you finish, change the font of all but your formula cell to Marlett; it will look like this:

That’s it!

Related Posts:

• Excel Window is Too Big
• Sometimes You Can Over Think It
• Randomizing a List of Words or Names
• LauraJ’s Weblog : Excel tip: Split first name and last name into separate cells
• How to Count the Number of Days between Two Dates
• Lots of New Stuff
• Counting Multiple Variables in Excel
• Outlook Meeting Owner Changes for No Reason
• How to Tab within a Cell in Word Tables
• Hiding Data in a Word Table

The site has updated with lots of new information. An Adobe Acrobat Faux Wiki has been added with a couple of supporting pages to address some of those nagging PDF issues and open the floor to questions and tips.

There’s a new page on how to get rid of that annoying markup that remains when you print Word documents after tracking changes here.

Ever paste a table into Excel, only to have it all show up in one cell? Here’s a solution that’s just been moved into the Word Faux Wiki.

There’s a page on The Wonder of Snag-it, a big problem solver for admins.

Finally, there’s a new post right below this one on how to count multiple variables in Excel that will eventually become part of an Excel section.

You might notice a few more little ads at the bottom of the pages. I remain committed to keeping it to a minimum, but I could use a little help supporting site, so if you want any of the software or books you see here, click through!

If you want to be notified of the updates on this site, click on RSS or on “RSS” down at the very bottom of the page. Once you’re there, choose “subscribe in mail” near the bottom of the right hand sidebar.

Cheers!

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There’s the beginnings of an MS Word pseudo-wiki here now. There are a couple of pages – one on how to reorder a last name first list (or vice versa if you’re so inclined), and a trick for using Word to count items in a list. What’s lacking are YOUR tips, so hit the contact or comment button and send in your pointers and questions. Let’s make this grow into a real tool! 

The point of these software specific directories is to collect the experience of the people in our role  who really use the it, as opposed to that of tech writers who try to imagine how we’ll use it. Documentation is all well and good, but nothing helps as much as a peer.

Got a quick question? Post it on the forum.

Related Posts:

• Hiding Data in a Word Table
• How to Tab within a Cell in Word Tables
• Changing the Page Number Style in Word
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• Lots of New Stuff
• Counting Multiple Variables in Excel
• Aligning Bullet Indents in Word and PowerPoint
• Excel Window is Too Big
• Picture Doesn’t Show in Word
• Can I Create a PDF without Adobe Acrobat?