Excel - Help Me?

Damini

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I'm trying to sort out my taxes, and dear gods it's a horrible experience. I have an excel sheet, and I was filling it out, and everything was going well until for some bizarre reason I hand spasmed, slapped my keyboard, and now when ever I type in the date and click away to the next tabby mewotsit, it changes the date from 28/12/05 to Dec 05, and I don't want it to and can't work out how to undo my hand spasm. I can fix one thing, then it breaks something else. When I fixed the date, the money bit turns into #######, and then when I fixed that the date turns into a pound amount and inputs a random number (which might not be random, it may be some adding up, but I can't apply my brain well enough to work it out), and I can't get everything happy again.

Help me. Please. If I don't send back my taxes soon the taxman will repossess my cat and break my knees.

Show me the magic fix everything button plz thx.
 

Jupitus

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Lou - you need to format the cells with dates in only... Highlight a cell with a date, and then select 'Format','Cells' and then under the 'category' list choose 'Date'. You can then choose from some preset formats, just find the one that shows the date how you like to view it.

Cells which shows '######' do so because the format is making the data too wide for the column. If you resize the column you should be able to see better.

Hope that helps...
 

Jupitus

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Just read it again and you certainly seem to be formatting the data in both date areas and amounts at the same time.

To format a single cell, just click on it to highlight before doing as per above.

To select several cells, click and drag to highlight a block, but be careful of mixtures of data when you do.

To highlight a selection of cells, click on one, then holding down the CTRL key you can single click on others and they will also be selected.... this may be what is eluding you :)
 

Damini

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You are a total star, Jup. Fixed.

If only I could do my taxes in MS Paint. It's the only programme I properly understand :(
 

Pirkel

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Damini said:
You are a total star, Jup. Fixed.

If only I could do my taxes in MS Paint. It's the only programme I properly understand :(

That's exactly how I do my taxes:

taxesinmspaint.jpg
 

Tom

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I hope you're paying a good accountant to do your year-end returns, and not doing it yourself :)

I pay £300 for a fella who does a good job, and doesn't give me any shit over what I can and cannot claim against tax. :)
 

Damini

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Yeah, I have an accountant (no way near as cheap as yours is though!) but this is me compiling all my payments, incomings and outoings, to give to him.
 

Tom

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Are you a ltd company? Get dysfunction to do yours, I'm sure he'll do a FH discount :D
 

Damini

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Heh, well volunteered Dys. Yes, I do have a limited company. Truth is, I'd rather not have a friend do it, as I'm incredibly annoying and disorganised, and could test the patience of several saints sellotaped together. For example, these taxes were meant to be in September...
 

Tom

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Ah right, ltd company means bigger accounting expenses. I used to be one, hated it, too complicated. Now I'm a good honest sole trader. I even did the fixed rate VAT thing because it takes about 5 minutes to do :)
 

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