# Converting a Word Document to Excel **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157 "2010-01-16T02:12:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/21 "2010-01-16T17:56:29Z")
Why do you need to keep it to one page? And what are you doing with the information? The point is, is “How do I duplicate this Word doc in Excel?” really the question you should be asking? If you approached the issue as “How do I improve my methods of entering and tracking data?”, would you end up with a different solution? ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/22 "2010-01-16T18:39:43Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > Why do you need to keep it to one page? And what are you doing with the information? > > The point is, is “How do I duplicate this Word doc in Excel?” really the question you should be asking? If you approached the issue as “How do I improve my methods of entering and tracking data?”, would you end up with a different solution? I need to keep it to one page because that’s the form my office uses. My handwriting is terrible so I’ve been given approval to use electronic means to keep my tally sheets as long as the output looks reasonably close to the official sheets. I understand that at some point the original sheet was made in Word but I am unable to get access to that original file if it still exists ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/23 "2010-01-16T18:40:50Z")
> [@MannyL](#): > > Can I move a table into the footer? You can’t force a table to overlap into the footer. You can cause tables to bleed out into the left and right margins but not header or footer; Word just floats the rows that don’t fit onto the next page. You can adjust the margins and header and footer size to minimize/eliminate the header and footer, though. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/24 "2010-01-16T18:41:10Z")
> [@MannyL](#): > > I have a file I use at work to track the people I deal with daily. Right now it’s a word document and is alright, but one thing I have to do is tally up how many calls of each type I get and being a lazy person think it would be easier if I used Excel for the tracking document because it could do the totals for me. > > The problem is when I try to re-create this in Excel it takes up more than one page. I can’t post the word document online but I can put an [image](http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a51/MannyLNJ/SDMB/screenshot18.jpg)of one page. How can I recreate this in Excel and keep it down to one page If you’re just totalling a column of numbers, you can do that in a Word table. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/25 "2010-01-16T18:43:20Z")
> [@MannyL](#): > > Can I move a table into the footer? No, I’m pretty sure you can’t. It is possible to merge cells in those bottom rows, so you end up with 7 columns of larger cells rather 12 comumns like in the rows above. But, you won’t be able to do much with the columns widths, beccause whatever you change there will also change the columns above. I don’t see any easy solution. You could actually construct a text and graphics object and drop it in there as a kind of footer, but that’s rather clunky, I agree with Hunter Hawk. What is the problem that you are trying to solve by doing this conversion? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/26 "2010-01-16T18:44:38Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > You can’t force a table to overlap into the footer. You can cause tables to bleed out into the left and right margins but not header or footer; Word just floats the rows that don’t fit onto the next page. You can adjust the margins and header and footer size to minimize/eliminate the header and footer, though. He’s talking about an Excel sheet, though it was originally made in Word. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/27 "2010-01-16T18:46:44Z")
> [@MannyL](#): > > I need to keep it to one page because that’s the form my office uses. My handwriting is terrible so I’ve been given approval to use electronic means to keep my tally sheets as long as the output looks reasonably close to the official sheets. > > I understand that at some point the original sheet was made in Word but I am unable to get access to that original file if it still exists Well, you seem to have it in Word.. otherwise, what is the document you sent me? Why won’t it work? ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/28 "2010-01-16T18:51:47Z")
That is one that I have made in word. I’m gotten “counseled” lately because I have not tallied up some of the numbers at the end of the day. If I had this in Excel I could make it tally for me and not have to worry. At the end of the week they get filed away for a year . We have to save them in case of an audit then they get shredded at the end of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/29 "2010-01-16T19:23:05Z")
So is your office standard “There _shall_ be 30 rows per page”? What happens if a workers does enough stuff that a 31st row is needed? Or if it’s a slow day and only 17 rows are needed? If the business goal is to track information, ISTM like something like a database would be more appropriate. If all the employees are doing is manually writing stuff down, that information is static and you can’t do anything with it (like generating reports or what-have-you) unless it’s transcribed through some sort of data-entry process anyway. ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/30 "2010-01-16T19:36:17Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > So is your office standard “There _shall_ be 30 rows per page”? What happens if a workers does enough stuff that a 31st row is needed? Or if it’s a slow day and only 17 rows are needed? > > If the business goal is to track information, ISTM like something like a database would be more appropriate. If all the employees are doing is manually writing stuff down, that information is static and you can’t do anything with it (like generating reports or what-have-you) unless it’s transcribed through some sort of data-entry process anyway. Yes if we go over 30 contacts then we start a second page and so on. The papers are used for random audits of productivity or if a supervisor wants to see how much work was done by employee X on day Y they can pull the papers. Other than that there is no tracking of the data. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/31 "2010-01-16T20:10:17Z")
Ok, your row heights in the Word doc are significantly smaller than the rows in the Excel sheet. If you make the row heights and column widths the same, the excel sheet will fit onto one page. Leave one blank row underneath row 30. On the next row, put in title for each of your sums, and maybe skip a coumn between each title so the text doesn’t run together. In the next row down, put in your sum or count formulas under the appropriate label. You can format a box around each total to make it look nice. IMO, that is a good enough approximation of what your boss wants to be workable. ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157/32 "2010-01-16T20:53:58Z")
I thank you for your help [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-word-document-to-excel/525157.md?page=1)