Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2020 April 24

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April 24

XL formatting issue

I had a recent problem with an XL spreadsheet I maintain. I finally worked out how to fix it, but I'm at a complete loss as to how it happened in the first place.

When I opened it up one morning, I noticed there were many, many rows missing. Some in small consecutive blocks, others singly, all apparently at random. Aproximately 1,500 out of the 8,500 rows were gone, inexplicably. Then I noticed short double lines where the cursor was between rows, and if I clicked, the missing row would re-emerge. I though if I used Control-A and the Unhide button I could get the same outcome for the whole spreadsheet in one click, but no such luck. So I started to do double click row by row, as this was the only thing that seemed to work. I was prepared to do this as long as it took, but I also checked in online forums, where various people had the same problem, and various solutions were offered. The one I finally tried, Clear Formats, had the desired result. The entire worksheet was restored to its former glory. Deo Gratias!

But I had never knowingly applied any Formats in the first place, certainly not anything designed to reduce the height of any rows to zero, and certainly never at random all throughout the worksheet. What could have caused this problem to occur? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 02:11, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

I assume you mean "Excel" as in Microsoft's product.

Another thing you can do to restore cell width or height, is select all the affected cells and then double-click on the dividing line between them, in the ruler area. That should auto-size all of the ones you highlighted.

I don't know specifically why the formatting was damaged for you. Do you save it in the latest "xlsx" XML format, or a compatible older format? Elizium23 (talk) 02:18, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Yes, Excel. Doesn't everyone call it XL? I aLways have.

Thanks. I'll try that if there's a next time.

I'm using Excel 2010, but that hasn't changed since I've had this laptop, which from memory was 2010/11. I know I need to upgrade soon as support is ending. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 05:11, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

But are you saving as Excel 2010 format? In the "Save as..." box you have a dropdown choice of format. If your file extension is ".xls" then you are definitely in a compatibility format. One way or another, you should make sure you are saving in the latest format unless backward compatibility is absolutely needed. Corruption can occur as the application translates older file formats. Elizium23 (talk) 05:14, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Is there any possibility that you'd turned on filtering? Filters work by selectively hiding rows based on choices made in their control menus. For example, you can choose to hide all rows showing values of 0 or starting with the letter Q or greater than 17 or whatever. I have seen instances where people had done that - or were unknowingly working on a file where that had been done - and then wondered at the "loss" of data. Filters display differently when in action, but if the header row has scrolled off the top or the column being filtered was off-screen, it would be easy to miss. Matt Deres (talk) 19:49, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Extremely unlikely. I did turn filtering on and off a few times while looking for the solution. The horrible little triangles would appear in the top row, and then go off. But I never specified any filters, and it couldn't have been a pre-existing filter since I created the worksheet from scratch. I have used the Custom Sort button a few times, and it sits right above the Filter button, so it's possible I could have mistakenly pressed the Filter button, and not noticed the triangle things if I was working out of sight of Row 1. But just pressing it without specifying any parameters does nothing. That's the one on the Home tab. I've only just discovered there are other Sort and Filter buttons on the Data tab. I've never touched either of them, because I didn't know they existed. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:51, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

open proxy/vpn server/webhost etc

• How do I check if an IP is one? --Thegooduser Life Begins With a Smile :) 🍁 02:26, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

  From Wikipedia:WikiProject on open proxies: IPCheck is a tool that can help identify open proxies. Elizium23 (talk) 02:38, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

  Also from the templated links there, IP Quality Score website might be of some use. Elizium23 (talk) 02:40, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Code2001 viewing problem

Under macOS, both in Firefox and in Chrome, I see only an upper part of the characters when using the Code2001 font. So in pod, which should show "pod", the first character looks like a Gaelic type "n", the second like a strongly arched frown ⌢ , and the last like a frown with a chimney or minaret. When, at browser zoom level "Actual size", I increase (using style="font-size:X%;") the font size to 401%, the bottom parts also pop up. That threshold between clipped and whole characters is lower when zooming in. I have tried removing and re-installing the font (and clearing the cache), but that did not solve the problem, which has persisted through several releases of Firefox. On Safari there is no viewing problem. What could be the cause (and fix)?  --Lambiam 08:00, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

like a strongly arched frown -- I do not know what is causing your font problem, but to avoid possible confusion I just want to point out that the word "frown" has a different meaning in US English and British English. Any BE speakers are probably confused by your use of "frown" here, since to them a frown is primarily a wrinkling of the forehead. [1] CodeTalker (talk) 21:12, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

I was referring to the Unicode character U+2322, named frown by the Unicode Consortium.^[2]  --Lambiam 00:31, 25 April 2020 (UTC)