3. Can you answer my spreadsheet question? (comp.apps.spreadsheets)
Description
This article is from the Spreadsheets FAQ, by Russell Schulz casfaq@locutus.ofB.ORG with numerous contributions by others.
3. Can you answer my spreadsheet question? (comp.apps.spreadsheets)
Probably not. Please don't mail it to me. There is no reason to assume
I, personally, have ever even USED the spreadsheet you're wondering about.
Read the manuals, and the FAQ, and the materials pointed to by it. If
you can't find an answer there, by all means post to the newsgroup.
If you need help posting, see <http://groups.google.com/> among others.
A FAQ list is intended to reduce traffic on a newsgroup, not eliminate it.
The newsgroup readers can be very helpful. Don't be shy in asking
questions. But do make sure that you:
- show you've put in effort beforehand (including reading the manual
for your software), and aren't just being lazy and abusing the
newsgroup participants
- give enough details -- some people don't even mention what
spreadsheet they're using!
- use a descriptive Subject: header (not just `Excel help' or
`Two Lotus Questions' or `Quattro problem' or `Formula needed'
or, probably worst of all, `Help me!!!!!!1')
- clearly ask your question. your message will be travelling
to thousands of computers around the world, so it's courteous
to spend a few minutes reading it over and making it perfect.
- give an example if you have a complex formula request (sometimes
a small example will say more than a lot of text. if you want a
particular result from 5 numbers, give the numbers and the result
you'd expect. or give 3 sets of 5 numbers and 3 results.)
- don't post a large attachment (these are almost ALWAYS a waste of
space, which is very rude to people whose net access is expensive;
a small example is good; a large attachment, including the example
and an extra 100k of data and file format overhead, is bad.)
These observations and suggestions hold for most newsgroups.
My personal interest is in obscure, technical and/or historical trivia,
like source code, free spreadsheets, and file formats, but not with how
to do things which are documented in the manuals. I assume that future
maintainers will rectify this imbalance.
In the mean time, the whole of section 6 lists pointers to other places
you can look which will probably have what you want.
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