As Jump-start walked into a client’s office to deliver training, a loud voice from a former student came from the top of the stairs. . . “I’m so happy that you’re here!”
“I can’t copy my worksheet. I’ve tried everything. I’ve talked to every Excel power user in this company and they can’t figure it out. I’ve been dealing with this for over a year.”
Sure enough, the worksheet wouldn’t copy. Right-click nothing, CTRL and drag nothing. . . Jump-start was stuck.
After a brief moment, Jump-start asked, “Wait a minute, how long are your worksheet names?”
The original sheet name, “Annual Sales Northwest Division”, had 28 characters which is within Excel’s maximum of 31. But, when he tried to copy the worksheet, Excel tried to name it “Annual sales Northwest Division (2)” which has an additional 4 characters (space, parentheses, 2, parentheses). This put it over the 31 character limit, so the copy task couldn’t work.
Sure enough, the client shortened the name and was then able to copy his worksheet.
That One Thing that you need to remember is to keep your worksheet names short.
If your business wants to increase employee capacity, solve frustrations, and apply best practices to Microsoft Office, give us a call or contact us. We’d love to help.
