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Thread ID: 23213	2002-08-10 06:01:00	Oink!! Don’t HOG!!! All The Sheets	grandad w (510)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
69943	2002-08-10 06:01:00	In the days way back in Nov.99 when 13 GBs & 96MB Ram & Win 98 SE were considered HUGE and the prospective owner was already ‘Elderly & Confused” ?:|he was persuaded to open the wallet and acquire a PC. Thus started a voyage of exploration –may I say “in a state of almost complete igorance”?:|. In the course of this voyage such hitherto unknown things as SpreadSheets?? were discovered and to the delight of the voyager,:-) after much close examination it was revealed that these sheets were capable of being used to unravel the mysteries of a set of accounts supplied by a certain Trust Company. The additions, multiplications, divisions, subtractions, the ability to arrive at percentages, to press the ‘sum’ and tot up long columns of figures …the list goes on (as does the E.C.):8} Yesterday when working (most of the day) with this most wonderful assistant. Strange things started to occur. :O Having developed the habit of “saving” by hitting the TV at the top of the desktop, it started later in the day, to produce down at the bottom on the left-hand side of the desktop, a series of blue oblong rectangles that proceeded to march along until the “hour glass” disappeared. (much like the AV updating) B-) During the course of the day there was much Inserting/Deleting of Columns/Rows also Copying/Pasting. Having shut down while having the evening meal and then starting up later in the evening the file in the Folder revealed that over 46,000 KBs had been saved!! On opening the file the “blue oblong rectangles” reappeared and marched again?? and seemed to take forever to open!!:O What is odd is that similar SS. with a similar amount of information have happily been saved with generally no more than say 200KBs.?:| I had this problem some time ago and wondered why it took so long to do a “back up” in the end because I was updating the information I deleted the offending file. On this occasion, I Copied & Pasted onto a renamed spread sheet which when saved to the folder showed 10 KBs!!! I then deleted the original 46,000KB SS Is it possible to explain these happenings?? An EC?:| Grandad W.B-)	grandad w (510)
69944	2002-08-10 06:26:00	My first computer, an XT had a 10Mb hard drive! But that WAS 16 years ago. I once met a similar problem in Word. I have absolutely no idea how the user caused it as I was only called in to fix it. Somehow, between a couple of words Word had had a hiccup and inserted a massive amount of unseen data. How I solved it was to copy and paste pages one by one into a new sheet. I believe we then saved and checked the file size. Eventually found the problem spot and narrowed it down to the specific words. Backspaced till the words met, reinserted the space and it was fixed. Computers save things in 0s and 1s (ie 2 states). A disk stores data magnetically - the bits are either north polarity or south polarity. Memory holds things in chips (the older computers used transistors. A transistor was either on or off). Basically, if there was a slight glitch in the power lasting microseconds you would have got what is called "impulse noise" or a "burst error" - a random selection of 0s and 1s stuck in the file somewhere. "Some of the sources of impulse noises are voltage chages in adjacent lines, lightening flashes during thunder storms, fluorescent lights and poor connections in circuits" If this happens often then it may pay to look for the source - perhaps install a spike suppressor on the power point. (Not a bad idea in any case and quite cheap) If it was just a once off - double check your figures and don't worry about it.	Heather P (163)
69945	2002-08-10 07:11:00	Heather has the right idea. Something happened to corrupt the file (either as Heather described, or some other way). If it happens again soon, it is time to find out how to stop it. If it never happens again - good. Until I read the end of you post I was going to suggest you copy and paste into a new file. this seems to be the best workaround. G P	Graham Petrie (449)
69946	2002-08-10 07:49:00	Spike (or surge) suppressors are a good idea PARTICULARLY if you have fluctuations in power . A double power point suppressor looks like a double adaptor with a light . They cost around $20 . You can also get them in strips of 4 or 6 with various extra features built in .	Heather P (163)
69947	2002-08-10 09:19:00	Heather. SNAP. My first M/c was the same, XT 10mb which I upgraded to a "Massive" 20mb. I got it from the second Dick Smith's store to open in Auckland, Cnr of Khyber Pass & Park Rd. I gave it away 2 years ago & it was still working well. Compared to today tho, it was a case of the Tortoise & the Hare. Old Poppa John :)	Poppa John (284)
69948	2002-08-10 09:41:00	I'd be inclined to closely inspect your spreadsheet Grandad My immediate suspicion is that you have inadvertantly created a much larger than you intended. Without seeing the spreadsheet it's almost impossible to pinpoint the problem but you would do well to check for "Circular References" I'm reasonably competent with spreadsheets and am happy to help. Capt Jimbo	Capt Jimbo (17)
69949	2002-08-10 10:21:00	A better way of describing an impulse noise would be: The captain is standing on the deck of his sinking ship with a torch in a lightening storm signalling for help. As in a computer his entire message is sent in binary - 2 types of signal. He uses his torch to send the message: ... --- ... Unfortunately, as he is sending the message a lightening bolt rends the sky. The watchers on the shore read the message as: ..---------------------------------------------------------------. The ship sinks. Double check your calculations with a calculator. The extra bits may or may not have been in critical cells.	Heather P (163)
69950	2002-08-10 10:34:00	A very good reply Heather, reading the morse, with the lightening as one long "dash" gives an elongated letter "F" Probably tells the people on the shore what the Captain was thinking.....	godfather (25)
69951	2002-08-10 10:58:00	- --- - .-. ..- . and incidentally, Press F1 doesn't like the language either. I didn't make it bold.	Heather P (163)
69952	2002-08-10 11:13:00	"TO TRUE" [spelling] Sorry, you failed the compulsory 12 words a minute/accuracy test..... Its one of those things I will never forget, I can look at text and hear it spelt out in morse....scary.	godfather (25)
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