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Introduction
The following are suggestions for people who are new to the Excel newsgroups. These are
suggestions and guidelines, not commandments. Use your best judgment, and play nice.
This list is maintained and posted more or less monthly by Chip Pearson. Thanks to everyone who has
made suggestions for the list (you know who you are!). Send suggestions, comments, and questions (or
even compliments) to chip@cpearson.com
The List.....
1 Always tell us what versions of Excel and Windows you're
using. We don't want to give you a simple answer that works in XL2000 but won't work in XL95.
2 Use an illustrative subject line. Don't put in a subject line
like HELP ME! or EXCEL question. Instead, say
something like Trouble With Pivot Tables In XL97. And remember, saying
URGENT doesn't make it any more urgent to anyone but you.
3 Post in the appropriate group. There are various
microsoft.public.excel groups, for charting, programming, etc. If your message isn't about VBA programming, don't post to the
programming group. Don't post to more than one group, unless the question really applies to more than one group. The "regulars"
read all the Excel groups, so someone will read your message. It won't be
lost.
4 Don't ask more than one or two unrelated questions in the same
post. Of course, you may need to ask more than one question to address a single issue. Generally, each post should deal with only
one problem.
5 Include example data and formulas in your post. The more you tell
us up front, the easier it is for us to answer your questions. If your formulas aren't giving the results you want, include the results you
want to get, as well as the results you're getting. Your post should
include at least
- some sample data,
- the formula you're using now,
- the result you're getting now,
- an explanation of why your
result isn't what you want, and
- the result you want to get.
6 Remember, we don't know what you need, or expect, or what your
abbreviations mean. Please include as much detail as you can.
7 If you've already tried using some formulas or VBA, include what
you've already tried. You may be very close.
8 Be very specific when reporting error messages that you get. Don't
say "I get an error when I do this". Tell us the text of the error
message. Exactly what did you do to get the error? Was it generated by Excel, VBA, or Windows? If it came from VBA,
was it a compiler error, or a run-time error. What line of code caused the error?
Be specific. Details count.
9 Don't attach a
workbook to your message. Click here for
the reasons.
10 If you're following up to a previous post, you don't need to
include everything. Snip out what's not relevant. But do include what is relevant. Some people may have missed the original post. (See #11
below)
11 When posting a follow-up to a post, put your new text at the top
of the message, above the cited text of previous messages. (See #10 above). This makes it much easier to others to read the responses to
a message that has been posted.
12 Please post messages in "plain-text" format, without formatting.
No HTML. Generally speaking, we don't want to see the cool new stationery or GIFs you've found.
13 Please don't email your questions directly to us. There are
(hopefully) many people on these newsgroups that will have the answer to your question and you might be helping others who are having the
same problem. If you post to the group, you'll likely have an answer within a few hours (sometimes even within a few minutes!).
14 Please don't ask us to email you directly because you can't get
back to the newsgroup to check. Some of us email all their responses to the original posters, but generally you will find that we don't
have the time to email and post the answer. As one frequent contributor wrote, "Read it where you post it."
16 We are not here to do your work (or your homework) for you.
Before posting a question or request for help, make sure you put in
time and effort yourself.
17 RTFM. That's what F1 is for. First try to find your answer in
online help (press F1 and go from there). Next try Microsoft online support and Knowledge Base: http://support.microsoft.com
If you are still stuck post away.
18 Check
the archives at Google (http://groups.google.com) before asking a
question. It may have been answered last week. Google archives every
newsgroup post ever made, so if it was asked here, you can find it there. If you don't find it there, post away!
19 Take a look at the Comp.Apps.Spreadsheets FAQ
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/spreadsheets/faq/
20 Try it out. Before posting a question asking "Will this work?" or
"Can I do this in Excel?", try it out for yourself. You might be smarter than you think.
21
"I posted a question an hour ago, but didn't get any responses. Should I post it again?"
No. It can take
anywhere from a minute to a day for your post to actually show up on the server. Then, someone has to read it and come up with an answer.
Give it a few days before thinking about resubmitting a post.
22 "I posted a question last week, but didn't get any
responses. Should I post it again?" Well, maybe, maybe not. The
regular responders to the groups probably read your question, but had no idea what you were talking about. If you didn't get any responses
to a question, rewrite your question, and include (more/better) sample data and formulas. Also, check
Google to make sure that the message
actually did get posted.
23 "I posted a question, and no one emailed me an answer. Should I
post again?" No. You should not expect to get an email reply to your
question. Replies will show up in the newsgroup, not your email.
24 Be polite. Rudeness has never been a problem around here, and
let's keep it that way.
25 This is not the "I hate Microsoft" group. There are other
newsgroups for that.
26 The MS support and development people don't read these newsgroups
(or they do so covertly). This is not the forum in which to
- complain about features that aren't available, or
- suggest new ones.
The "regulars" here aren't MS employees, and we don't have
Bill Gates' secret email address. This is public, peer-to-peer support.
27 When declaring variables in VBA, use explicit declarations, with
explicit types. Sometimes errors arise from an improperly declared
variable in VBA. For example, use
Dim W As Workbook
rather than
Dim W
or
Dim W As Object
28 When including dates in example data, try to use a
dd-mmm-yyyy format. This will prevent confusion among international date styles.
For example, 09/02/98 means 2-Sept-98 to USAn users, but it means
9-Feb-98 to many (most?) European users. Using 2-Sept-98 leaves no
room for misunderstanding. If you're dealing with dates after 1999, use the full 4 digit year.
29 Be careful using characters like "!" in the subject line of a
post. Some folks automatically filter out messages based on the subject line. A
subject like "Help Me !!!!" can be
easily confused with a line like "Make Money Now!!!".
30 Where do I get more on-line help? There are a number of very good
Excel sites on the Web. In my humble opinion, the best are:
John Walkenbach's site has a very comprehensive list of links, so you
can find many other sites from there.
31 Learn to use the VBA debugger. Learn how to set breakpoints and
to examine the contents of variables. This skill can save you many,
many hours of frustration.
32 For best results, connect directly to the Microsoft news server:
msnews.microsoft.com . If you connect through your local ISP's news
server, your message may be dropped or may take a few days to show up on the MS server. In your newsreader (e.g., Agent or Outlook
Express), find the "Tools" or "Options" menu, choose
"Accounts" or something similar, and add a new news account, pointing to
msnews.microsoft.com .
33 Google and CNET Customers and other "web portal
users".
Please remember that your questions are not answered by Google or CNET
users. Neither of these services provides any answers
whatsoever. These services simply forward your question to the public
newsgroups, where other people, wholly unconnected with Google or CNET answer
your questions. All Google and CNET really do is allow you to see
advertising while you look for answers written by others. Google
and CNET do not provide any answers themselves. The only
thing they do is pass the questions on to us, and splatter advertising
across your screen. If this appeals to you, then that's just
wonderful. Just remember, when you ask a question on CNET or Google,
neither of these advertising services are giving you the answer.
34 Please use you're
real name in your messages. And include your real name in the body of
your message. A nickname like "Kewl Guy" might seem cool on
AOL or CNet, but in the newsgroups, we're friendly and informal.
Use your real name.
35 Don't email me telling me that plural of "formula" is
"formulae", not "formulas". I already know this.
And Last But Not Least....
If we have helped you save some time, some hair pulling, some frustration, or whatever... a quick "thank you" is always appreciated,
either through the newsgroup or directly by email. Remember that none
of us are getting paid to do this. We don't work for Microsoft; we do this to help the Excel community and to help others grow (and to grow
ourselves).
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