Closing the gap (in a spreadsheet)

Well you can always write a program to do it.... ;-)

Try holding down CTRL and selecting all the rows you want to delete one at a time then you can delete them all at once.

Closing the gap
Well, Craven you could write a program, but I sure couldn't.

I tried your more serious suggestion, but even with CTRL held down, each row was still selected separately. Frankly, I would have thought your suggestion would have worked; I don't know why it didn't.

Funny how one forgets the most useful things - I always forget how handy CTRL can usually be.

How are you selecting them? I've never used that program but I expected it to work.

Closing the gap
I did just what you said - held down CTRL, and selected each row I wanted to delete, but it didn't work. I wonder if there's something odd about Works. Just for fun I'm going to try with a sample to see how CTRL works on other spreadsheet situations (I don't want to risk messing up my real records). Perhaps, for some strange reason, this method just doesn't apply in Works

If I'm not mistaken, Microsoft Works used to be a stand alone program that was written for the DOS world before Windows was hatched. My memory of the timing may be off. It may have been created for the very first version of Windows. I remember owning the stand along program that far back in history.

That may explain why the CTRL feature doesn't work in it. Most of the program has not changed at all in many years.

Closing the gap
Ah ha! You may have it right, Butrflynet, it certainly sounds logical.

I'm not losing any sleep o the problem, though. I mean, how lazy can one get - a few little mouse clicks more or less really isn't going to spoil my day. But it's good to know there may be a reason behind the situation; that it's not just my computer not working right (or me. . .).

Thank you all for your help.

Try this (and it's really going to depend upon how you've written the spreadsheet, which I don't know).

Do you have a column for Month? And another for year (I'm assuming this goes for more than 1 year)?

If so, then select the entire spreadsheet and select Sort. It is absolutely imperative that you select the entire spreadsheet here - what I mean is everything from the top to wherever you stopped typing, both horizontally AND vertically. Otherwise, it will sort incorrectly and you will mess up ALL of your records. Since I haven't used Works in forever I can't tell you exactly where that is, so you'll need to hunt for it. In Excel, it's under a drop-down menu called "Data". Now, you can select how you want the spreadsheet sorted, and I believe you can sort under more than one column criterion (at least, you can do this in Excel). Select whichever column is the year. For the secondary sort, select whichever column is the month. Now click OK or submit or whatever does the sorting.

Now you've got all of your years together, and they're sorted by month. The blank rows are either all going to be at the very top or the very bottom. Just highlight them, right-click and select "Delete Row", which again is an Excel option but there's probably something similar in Works.

*** I highly recommend trying this on some dummy data (just write a couple of fake rows on a separate spreadsheet and do the sort) so that you can be certain you'll get it right before you tackle your actual data.

Closing the gap
Tell me about it, Jespah! Tell me all about it!!

Before I read your response I did EXACTLY what you warned against, simply because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, and the result was EXACTLY as chaotic as you predicted.

Fortunately I was able to retrieve an earlier version, and will be able to work from that. (Is there an Emoticon to express incredible relief?)

I have now printed out your instructions which I am certain will be successful. Works has the appropriate functions under Insert and under Tools, so if I just pay a little bit of attention this time, all should be well.

Thanks.

I've messed up sorts, too. Isn't that fun? Not!

So I hear ya.

You can do it!!

Is it Excel or Access where, if you use the pulldown Sort, it will sort the whole sheet, but if you use the toolbar Sort, it sorts only that column??? One or the other. I quick fast and in a hurry learned to remember that one!

In Access, if you pull down sort, the entire sheet is sorted. Not so with Excel 95. Excel 97 (if I recall correctly; it's been a while since I used it) will select all adjacent cels for sorting.

If Auto filter is available in your version of works, you could also highlight the row with your column titles, select filter -> autofilter, then pick a primary field and toggle the arrow to "blanks". This produces a list of all the blank lines within your spreadsheet. Highlight these rows and use the delete command. Toggle the filter back to "all" and you now have the spreadsheet without the blank lines.

Closing a gap
Well, all the sorting got itself done, the list looks neat and legible, everything is copacetic! Thank you all.

holding down the Control key works in the XP version....

also, you can customize your toolbar.... there's an icon for "delete row".... you can leave your mouse pointer on that icon and move down with the arrow key.... tapping out a rhythm of "down", "Click", down, "Click".... that's much faster than using the pull-down menu...

I've never used Works, so I don't know if you can customize the toolbar in that program...

Glad you didn't lose your spreadsheet!!

PaL
:-)

Gaps in spreadsheet
Me too, Peace and Love, me too!