Recent Discussions
Access Still Struggles on Data Import
More of a comment than anything else I have been a frequent flyer of Access since version 2.0. We used it almost daily for several years. I have since retired, and was away from it for a couple years now. However, due to a recent Office 365 account I started using again. One of the problems we had over the years with Access was on large data imports. This appears to be the same problem today as it was 30 years ago. Excel does not have this problem. Some of the same issues with Access "Does not recognize header name" Checking to insure header name was not a keyword and all rules were enforced, still did not allow the data to be imported. Since I needed to quickly turn around the information I had to link to an Excel file and run the queries. Pondering if MS has really done any improvments or serious upgrades with Access. I know programs cost resources to update. The other 3 Office apps have far more users than Access. I think Access is going to wither away within the next couple years. Was a great run when everything worked right. I have used a lot of different databases over the years. However, Access was the runt who was very user friendly and an awesome reports generator.
Excel dominance
For many years I have been using Apache Software's Open Office spreadsheets (".ods"). When I opened one today, Excel in Read-Only mode appeared. It said that to add to or edit the existing content, I would have to purchase Microsoft 365. That is "restricting competition" in law. I do not know how this has happened. How can I delete the Excel program permanently because it reappears when I reboot my computer?
REGEX+TEXTSPLIT
Dear Experts, I have a data like below in column"A":- And , I want to split it in the way like in "Yellow" So, after each consecutive Alphabet or number it should be splitted, I tried to do something in Column "B" but not succesful. Could you please share any solution if possible by using a comb of regex + textsplit? Thanks in Advance, Br, Anupam
How to add 3 months to existing date mergefield in Word
I'm looking for a way to add 3 months on from an existing mergefield date («Calculation Date») in Word. Say the starting date is 16 September 2025 we'd want the new value to be shown as 16 December 2025. I cannot do this calculation in Excel as the mergefield data comes from a database and I have not used Macros etc before. Thanks
Unformatting Header/Tables on WORD after Updated Build 2508
Unformatting Header/Tables on WORD after Updated to Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2508 Build 16.0.19127.20192) 64-bit (Current Channel) with OS Windows 11 Pro Version 10.0.26100 Build 26100 Hi Community, I am writing to you today regarding a critical and widespread issue that is currently paralyzing our operations. Over the past two weeks, all of our Microsoft Word documents, including those created as far back as 2014, are displaying significant unformatting problems across every machine in our company. This issue affects our entire document repository and prevents us from reliably converting documents to PDF for our clients, since then we have been manually formatting the headers, tables, with the help of a feature called Gridlines. We have performed extensive internal troubleshooting and have been unable to resolve the issue. Our tests show that this problem is not present in previous versions of the software. We have isolated the issue to our current operating environment, as it affects all user profiles and machines uniformly.Advanced Excel Formulas for Business Analysis
Microsoft Excel remains one of the most powerful tools for business analysis. Beyond simple data entry and arithmetic, Excel’s advanced formulas help analysts uncover trends, automate reporting, and drive better decision-making. Mastering these formulas can save hours of work and unlock insights hidden within raw data. In this blog, we’ll explore some of the most impactful advanced Excel formulas for business analysis, complete with practical use cases. https://dellenny.com/advanced-excel-formulas-for-business-analysis/Automating Data Entry in Excel Using Power Query
Manually entering or cleaning data in Excel can be one of the most repetitive and error-prone tasks in any workflow. Whether you’re consolidating sales reports, transforming survey results, or pulling in system-generated exports, you often spend more time preparing the data than actually analyzing it. That’s where Power Query comes in. Built right into Excel (and also available in Power BI), Power Query allows you to automate data entry, transformation, and consolidation. Instead of repeating the same copy-paste and formatting tasks every week, you can set up a process once and reuse it whenever new data arrives. https://dellenny.com/automating-data-entry-in-excel-using-power-query/
Is the Excel Review -> Optimise feature available through Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
Hello Excel community, We have a client with a large collection of Workbooks that they copy every year to produce the next 'generation' of workbooks. Many of these workbooks are overweight with respect to file size, and performance. Is it possible, using dotnet and the Excel Interop COM objects to invoke the Optimise wizard that is available in the Excel user interface? Review -> Performance -> Optimize all
Save Recent Font Color
Is there a way to save recent font colors so that they don't need to be selected with each new Word session? I use the deep blue color shown below constantly, and not just as cosmetic thing. That color has good contrast with other text and is easy for my eyes to pick up. I would just like it if I didn't have to go select it all the time. I'm hoping maybe there's a registry setting that will make that color automatically available in the below list, or maybe it can be made part of a template or something. Thanks in advance for any help that you can offer! --Tom
"Save as picture" saves the display size
Let's say an image is reduced in Word—for example, a 10-inch-wide image is reduced to 65% so it fits within page margins. If I left-click the image and "Save as picture," the saved file is 6.5 inches wide and blurry. The only way to save a full-size image seems to be to blow it up to 100% and then save. If the original image information is still there, why doesn't Word save the original image file? I DID try checking the Advanced option checkbox "Do not compress images in file," but that made no difference. (I didn't expect it to but thought someone would want me to try it.)Drag to fill not working at all
My drag to fill randomly stopped working the other day. The option doesn't appear to even show up anymore even though the "Enable fill handle and cell drag and drop" option is selected in the advanced options. I did some research and someone suggested to go into the control panel, select modify Microsoft 365 and do internet repair. I did this and it did not work. I completely uninstalled and reinstalled Microsoft 365 apps and that did not work. I have tried clicking and unclicking the "enable fill handle and cell drag and drop" option and this hasn't worked either. Any other ideas?Markup Panel appearing with every word document. Comments column now in some weird thing.
Good day, I am so confused I do not even know how to explain all the issues. 1) Opened a word document today that I closed yesterday. Opens up with some thing called a Markup Panel. Go to review and select no markup. Fine for now, but then appears every time I reopen the document, and all other documents. 2) Up until today, my comments were nicely formatted in a column on the right side of the screen. Now they are in some thing called a "reviewing panel" which is terribly formatted and located in the wrong place until I drag to to the right side. Is this something I have caused or some Word Update (God, I hope it is not the latter.) 3) Also, the little indicators next to the lines where the comments are located are no longer present, so the only way I know there is a comment on that line is by clicking on the comment in the stupid "reviewing panel" How do I get back to what I had yesterday? Thanks so much for your help. DaveExpand section when checkbox is checked without the need for VBA
Is it possible for me to use either a checkbox to control if the section gets expanded or collapsed? Or is it possible for me to be directed to a section when I choose a value from a dropdown list? Hoping not to use VBA for this, so that the document can be maintained / revised by others when needed.WinFix Toolkit (All Windows 10 & 11 Repair Tools in One Excel)
After I published this small information tool (Excel (365 & 2016) with network information), several people contacted me and asked if I had a tool with Excel for general service tasks that, while available in Windows, are a bit scattered and confusing. So, I've prepared this small tool for Service Level 1, with most of the service options included. Hardware Repair Tools Repair Action Label Description Reset Windows Update Components UpdateReset Stops related services, renames cache folders, restarts services. Check System File Integrity (sfc /scannow) SFC Scans and repairs corrupted system files. Check Disk for Errors (chkdsk /f /r) CHKDSK Scans hard drive sectors and attempts repair. DISM Health Restore (dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth) DISM Repairs Windows image and component store. Network Reset (netsh int ip reset, netsh winsock reset) NetReset Resets TCP/IP and Winsock catalog. Flush DNS Cache (ipconfig /flushdns) DNSFlush Clears DNS resolver cache. Device Manager (open) DevMgr Opens Device Manager for hardware inspection. Software Repair Tools (examples) Repair Action Label Description Microsoft Office Quick Repair OfficeRepair Launches Office repair tool (Quick or Online). Reset Microsoft Store StoreReset Runs wsreset.exe to reset Store cache. Repair OneDrive OneDriveReset Resets OneDrive client (onedrive.exe /reset). Windows Defender Full Scan DefenderScan Triggers Windows Defender antivirus scan. Reset Windows Firewall FirewallReset Restores default firewall rules. Reset Windows Search Index SearchReset Rebuilds Windows search index. Clear Temp Files TempClean Deletes temporary files and folders. Reinstall UWP Apps (if broken) AppsReinstall Re-registers all built-in Store apps. I hope it might be helpful to some people. The tool has been tested, but it could still use some improvements, so I'd like to ask everyone who has looked at or used this tool for feedback. I would appreciate any constructive feedback or additional suggestions. Happy Excel-ing! *My tool are voluntary and without guarantee! NikolinoDE I know I don't know anything (Socrates)Best Practices for Sharing Community Updates with Microsoft 365
Hello, I manage an online community and use Microsoft 365 to keep members informed by posting announcements in Teams, storing patch notes and FAQs on SharePoint, and automating alerts with Power Automate. This workflow worked well for our latest update (shared on [https://nullsbrawl.tech/](https://nullsbrawl.tech/)), but I’d appreciate suggestions on improving SharePoint design for better engagement, automating updates more efficiently, and tracking which members read the announcements.
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