Odd Excel problem

[superdave1984]

One of our users has to do weekly updates to an Excel doc. She uses a saved Excel sheet that came from who knows where that had been formatted and has other sheets with graphs, etc. Anyway the problem is this Excel sheet lists procedures and things and they are counted and added numerically. When you open the sheet and view it, change data, etc, all is fine. Except that column A is missing. See pic.

But, when you print it, the numbers are off.

These numbers are fine until you print or preview the thing. Everything looks perfect, changes take effect, etc until you print. The printed copy has the number jump, but the actual sheet doesn't. I have tried unhiding, undo format, and everything I can think of. I even consulted a guy that teaches an Excel class and he couldn't figure it out. Any ideas?

 

[bla!!]

You have hidden columns and rows.

Click on the gray box in the very upper left corner of the spreadsheet (above 1 and to the left of b) to select everything. Then right click the grey box and click unhide.

You should see everything now.

 

[superdave1984]

Unhide isn't there as an option. It is for the individual rows and columns, but not the "select everything" box. And unhiding the individual rows and columns does nothing. There isn't a password or any locks on the thing either.

 

[Leady4]

If you click on the upper most grey box as "bla!! says and then right click on column B you should see the option for unhide. If not then I can only suggest that there is some kind of protection on the Excel spreadsheet. Does it do for others? or just this one?
Try going to protection under the tools heading. if it says unprotect sheet then this may be your problem. There may be locked cells that cannot be unhiden. if so try unprotect sheet / workbook. Also check File - permission, this should be set to unrestricted access.

 

[starkmann]

it's either hidden or (I'm not trying to be a jerk here but...) the scroll bar isn't all the way to the left.

 

[MrCoffee]

Format menu > column > Unhide

Might work (assuming you have a hidden column here), sometimes the unhide option doesn't appear on the context menu for some reason.

As for the printing anomalies I imagine there are defined print areas or page breaks.

 

[superdave1984]

Leady4: no unprotect option, only protect. This would mean it is not protected at all. Also, it says unrestricted access.

Mr. Coffee: not there. I can't figure it out. Unless the creator of the sheet deleted something during the process and didn't make corrections. All the data prints correctly, just the numbers are wrong. This makes the person managing the data have to actually count the number of procedures instead of looking at the bottom number on the sheet.

Edit: I am giving up on figuring this one out. I have evn tried to find the original creator of the thing and it turns out it was originally created in 2001 and the company the person worked for was being investigated for fraud to the tune of $1.3 billion. Doesn't help me, but it does make it funny.

 

[starkmann]

you could insert a colum, have that column give you the correct numbers and just select the print area

or

put a field at the bottom with the count function, that would solve the wrong number thing

 

[Trotter]

My wife is an Excel wizard. She said if you sent her a copy, she'd play with it until she figure it out. However, I doubt that you could do that.

 

[RyanS]

I would try copying all the data in to a fresh spreadhseet and saving that. The assumption being the file is somehow corupted.