Big Help Needed Excel '95

[Frenchy]

A friend has a simple spreadsheet with 6 tabs along the bottom. Win 95 and
Office 95 installed.

One of the Tabbed sheets had a HUGE list of items and he "hit some key" and
wiped out the data in the sheet. Doesn't know what he did and worse still
saved the file and exited. Has no back-up! He can't duplicate what he did
or even know what he did.

I appreciate the data is probably lost, but my query is that the sheet, when
you click the Tab shows no cell lines at all, no data obviously, but no
cells at all? There are line numbers down the left side that you can click
on but no column letters along the top?

What on earth has happened?

Nothing is "Hidden" via the menu system. The other tabbed sheets are fine
and in fact this sheet has its total sent to a summary sheet (from a cell
H1125) and that summary is showing in the other sheet, yet there is no
visible cell H1125 or the mass of other data.

It is formatted as GENERAL, and that is how it would have been before, as
there were names of wine and stock and price in the sheet.

This is a struggling friend in a small business and rather than him have to
type 30 pages of data back in (he has a print out but not a saved file!)
would like some clues as to what has happened.

Worse still, as this sheet no longer seems to be a sheet with cells, then he
can't even type the data back in here? Deleting the sheet is going to screw
the rest of his simple workbook up, which I would prefer not to do.

I have tried copying the blank sheet to another workbook and it comes up the
same, no cells and blank.

Appreciate any assistance

Frenchy

Yeh, and I have lectured him on backing up the file and NOT saving the
workbook after an error of this magnitude and showed him the UNDO button
<smile>

 

[Anne Troy]

Have him send the file, Frenchy. I'm fairly certain we'll get his data
back---all in strictest confidence.
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com

 

[Dave Peterson]

Maybe he hid the rows/columns???

Ctrl-a (to select all the cells)
Format|Row|Unhide
and then
Format|column|Unhide

or maybe he froze panes and just can't scroll up to see the data.
Window|Unfreeze Panes

 

[Frenchy]

Nope, was first thing I thought. Unhide and Freeze appear with ticks in the
drop down menu if such is invoked and these is nothing there.

PLUS, there are no cells available for CTRL-A. The sheet is there (as a
clickable Tab at the bottom) but nothing visible when you get there. And
neither can you select (click) anywhere in the sheet.

Got me stumped!

Frenchy

: Maybe he hid the rows/columns???
:
: Ctrl-a (to select all the cells)
: Format|Row|Unhide
: and then
: Format|column|Unhide
:
: or maybe he froze panes and just can't scroll up to see the data.
: Window|Unfreeze Panes
:
:
: Frenchy wrote:
: >
: > A friend has a simple spreadsheet with 6 tabs along the bottom. Win 95
and
: > Office 95 installed.
: >
: > One of the Tabbed sheets had a HUGE list of items and he "hit some key"
and
: > wiped out the data in the sheet. Doesn't know what he did and worse
still
: > saved the file and exited. Has no back-up! He can't duplicate what he
did
: > or even know what he did.
: >
: > I appreciate the data is probably lost, but my query is that the sheet,
when
: > you click the Tab shows no cell lines at all, no data obviously, but no
: > cells at all? There are line numbers down the left side that you can
click
: > on but no column letters along the top?
: >
: > What on earth has happened?
: >
: > Nothing is "Hidden" via the menu system. The other tabbed sheets are
fine
: > and in fact this sheet has its total sent to a summary sheet (from a
cell
: > H1125) and that summary is showing in the other sheet, yet there is no
: > visible cell H1125 or the mass of other data.
: >
: > It is formatted as GENERAL, and that is how it would have been before,
as
: > there were names of wine and stock and price in the sheet.
: >
: > This is a struggling friend in a small business and rather than him have
to
: > type 30 pages of data back in (he has a print out but not a saved file!)
: > would like some clues as to what has happened.
: >
: > Worse still, as this sheet no longer seems to be a sheet with cells,
then he
: > can't even type the data back in here? Deleting the sheet is going to
screw
: > the rest of his simple workbook up, which I would prefer not to do.
: >
: > I have tried copying the blank sheet to another workbook and it comes up
the
: > same, no cells and blank.
: >
: > Appreciate any assistance
: >
: > Frenchy
: >
: > Yeh, and I have lectured him on backing up the file and NOT saving the
: > workbook after an error of this magnitude and showed him the UNDO button
: > <smile>
:
: --
:
: Dave Peterson

 

[comish4lif]

Can you post a screen shot somewhere - I'm having trouble picuring what
the worksheet looks like.

Also, if you think the dat ais there for some reason, try this, insert
a new worksheet, go to the mysterious woksheet, select all, copy, then
paste into the newly added worksheet.

 

[Frenchy]

Will post later today (I don't have the file)

Have tried to copy the sheet, nothing happens

Frenchy

: Can you post a screen shot somewhere - I'm having trouble picuring what
: the worksheet looks like.
:
: Also, if you think the dat ais there for some reason, try this, insert
: a new worksheet, go to the mysterious woksheet, select all, copy, then
: paste into the newly added worksheet.
:

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you put a formula like:

=counta('sheet2'!a:iv)

in another worksheet, what answer do you get?

If it's 0, then there's nothing on that sheet.

 

[Frenchy]

OK, my thanks to Dave and Anne for their prompt and helpful input.

Problem was solved when I brought the file to my computer and was able to
actually see the screen (this file was being managed on a 10 year old
Toshiba with Win 95 and I think a failing screen!)

Seems he had somehow gone beyond the range of the available Columns. He was
at column IV and that was just blank space and no column header letters but
you could see it when you clicked the row number. On my computer (MS Office
2003) I was able to return to Column A and voila, all the data (about 1300
lines, so that was a real long job to re-type)

Your help was much appreciated

Frenchy


: If you put a formula like:
:
: =counta('sheet2'!a:iv)
:
: in another worksheet, what answer do you get?
:
: If it's 0, then there's nothing on that sheet.
:
: Frenchy wrote:
: >
: > Will post later today (I don't have the file)
: >
: > Have tried to copy the sheet, nothing happens
: >
: > Frenchy
: >
: > : > : Can you post a screen shot somewhere - I'm having trouble picuring
what
: > : the worksheet looks like.
: > :
: > : Also, if you think the dat ais there for some reason, try this, insert
: > : a new worksheet, go to the mysterious woksheet, select all, copy, then
: > : paste into the newly added worksheet.
: > :
:
: --
:
: Dave Peterson

 

[Anne Troy]

Darn. I was sure hoping for that free bottle of wine.
Glad you got it sorted!
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com