Part 2 Yes you are asking for people to read your mind, particularly when you didn't post a particular example book. You're no different from 90% of posters. Expressing precisely what you want is a difficult art. You know exactly what you want and therein lies the source of the problem. Most posters can't step outside their world view and think how what they say could be interpreted differently by others who have never seen their problem before. I offer you these views to assist you should you wish to post other queries. If you get a reputation for what are construed as unfair comments then you are not likely to find any assistance. I'm not taking this personally since I think you have just acted without taking the trouble to find out how things work here. That's laziness which resulted in a wrong decision rather than any malicious intent.
Part 1 Sorry Stephen, that's not the way the forum works. Maybe you would have been better advised to see how it works first. Then you might not have acted as you did. I've checked with other mods. and in the 100s of thousands of posts over the years, no one could actually recall a negative reputation. Some didn't even know there was such a facility. Yours is possibly a first. If someone helps you and you find it useful and if you wish give, them a positive reputation point. At worst and if you feel your query has not been advanced at all then maybe a neutral reputation is an option. But you tell me. What makes you think that a genuine attempt to help you deserves a negative response. My response wasn't offered in a cavalier or offhand way, and if you weren't sure what is an acceptable standard hereabouts, maybe you should have taken a little trouble to check.
Part 2: Stupid 1000 character limit. No one expects you to be a mind-reader - and I'm not asking for that. What I do expect, is if I post how to do something (in my understanding of what they want done) and I get it right, I would expect positive feedback, if I give them an answer that doesn't support what they need, then I expect negative feedback. I appreciate you taking the time to work with people on this forum -- you've contributed a lot of time, that I am sure of. Again, don't take feedback personally. Life's too short to get all stirred up about one negative feedback.
Richard, I'm sorry that you took that personally. I do not think that you purposefully lead me in the wrong direction, or any other reason that you have so listed as "reason" for giving a negative feedback. Maybe I should have posted the actual spreadsheet right away, instead of just explaining it -- I'll remember to do that in the future -- thanks for the tip. I'm new to this particular forum, and wanted to give credit where due. IMO, feedback should be left regardless of whether it is positive or negative. If all you ever do is post positive feedback, then everyone thinks you're a hero and never screws up. The whole point of feedback and ratings is just that - so that people know (on average) how well that particular person does at answering questions.
Hi Stephen, Can I just say I thought your award of a negative reputation for my response was undeserved. The first one I've ever had in over 2500 postings. Your question was somewhat ambiguous and with the best will in the world we are not mind readers. You didn't bother to upload a workbook in the first instance which makes answering even more difficult. Your mention of ending up with 'identical cells' clearly led me to thing that you were inadvertently copying cells rather than formats, and that of course was my first suggestion. I have no way of knowing how skilled you are with Excel and hence how much allowance to make. All in all I'm rather disappointed. A negative response was not called for IMO. Yes give a negative response if someone is deliberately unhelpful, or off hand or rude or dismissive, but can I suggest you don't in future mark someone down just because they haven't answered an ill-defined question and are trying to help you. Rgds,
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