inserting blank column

[Burt]

I saved a quatro pro workbook to excel format and then formatted the data in
excel with several formulas, etc. I am not able to insert a new blank
column between existing columns of data, even those that have no involvement
with any formulas or computations. I have followed instructions in the
documentation and the help screen to no avail. Certain of the columns will
not permit reformatting to a different date format or to accountant instead
of currency format. I am working with MS office 2000 on a P4 1.6 gig PC.

 

[David McRitchie]

Hi Burt,
Heard of this before, the conversion program in more concerned
with results appearning correct then a clean workbook. Your
last cell is probably way beyond your data Ctrl+End
will identify the last cell which is the intersection of the last used
row and the last used column.

You should be able to fix this with a macro..
Reset All Lastcells in the Active Workbook (#resetall)
Reset Last Used Cell
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/lastcell.htm#resetall

 

[Burt]

Sorry for the duplicate posting. New to newsgroups. I found the column
problem. quatro pro to excel file save combined some cells that blocked the
addition of blank cells where the combined cells bridged the sited where a
new column was desired.

 

[David McRitchie]

Hi Bert,
Just to make sure we understand perfectly, you are talking about
merged cells (merged borders) aren't you? Which certainly would
explain problems with insertions. I take it that the
conversion introduced these -- that they were not present in
the original Quatro Pro.

I think it was Jim Rech that has posted a number of times the means
to sort on worksheets with merged columns, where the subroutine
has to unmerge cells then remerge them.

 

[Burt]

Hi David,

The conversion had, in fact, merged some top row cells that contained
labels. These cells were not merged in the original quatro pro spreadsheet.
I did not know how to separate the cells in excel (couldn't find the answer
in help or documentation), so I added a new top row and re-entered the
labels. If I tried to individually copy and paste the text I got the same
formatting with merged cells! I then deleted the former top row and ended
up with what I had originally in Quatro Pro. Now there is no problem
inserting columns.

Formatting is another story. Some of the date columns were formattable to a
different date format, as were some of the numeric columns that I changed to
accountant format. Some date and numeric columns were a problem in that
using either the top format menu or the format command in the right click
quick menu, the format dialogue box did not appear. I was able to use the
"$" symbol on the tool bar to reformat the remaining, previously
unformattable numeric columns, and I can live with the dates in a different
form from what I prefer.

I am reasonably proficient with Quatro Pro and like the program. I'm sure
that I will like Excel as well. The only reason I am switching is the fact
that more people know Excel and someone may have to take over my data
processing some day. What brought this to my attention very quickly was a
dear friend who has terminal lymphoma, has been working in QP, and has to
train a bookkeeper to carry on her family's accounting after she dies. The
cold reality is that one must use the programs that are strongest in the
marketplace to be useable by the greatest number of others in case of such a
situation.

Thank you very much for your rapid and informative response.

Burt

 

[David McRitchie]

Hi Burt,
You can merge and unmerge cells via the
Format (menu), Cells(menu), Alignment (tab), (check) merge

If you do this often there are toolbar buttons you can install:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/merge.htm#icons
--

 

[Burt]

Thank you, David, for showing me the unmerge menu item. For the limited
work I do the menu item will suffice.

Burt