Hup-two-three-four.......

Desired. (Screenshot by the mighty MAC.)

“I think I’ve finally managed to whup this here Excel® into doing what I want it to do,” I declared last night (Friday, October 9, 2009).
“Do what I want it to do” is difficult to explain, but I will try.
My Excel spreadsheet is just expenses deductible on our Federal Income-Tax Schedule A.
To fit it on my ‘pyooter-screen, I “outline” it, so that each month’s entries compress into just one monthly total.
I.e. All that’s on my screen are the monthly totals (green), but hidden in the background (“outlined”) are the entries throughout each month.
Come tax time, I expand the whole spreadsheet so that it prints every entry.
To me, this is better than TurboTax®, etc., since it gives me the totals for Schedule A.
I’ve tried TurboTax and it was starting from scratch.
Worse yet it was breaking charity deductions into each individual charity, I suppose because some charities were deductible and some weren’t.
Schedule A didn’t want this. It only wants one total charity deduction, which my Excel spreadsheet generates.
Okay, suppose I gotta do fixes to my spreadsheet, like add an entry.
Suppose that entry is dated before the first entries for a month.


WRONG. (Not in outline.) (Screenshot by the mighty MAC.)

Okay, insert line atop first entry: Command-I. Trouble is, such an inserted line is not included in my outline (circled in red ellipse).
I.e. The “outlined” total won’t include my inserted line — which was the fix.
Okay, roundabout trick to include the fix in my outline.
Enter fix below the first entries, which makes the dates out of synch; e.g. 10/10 followed by 10/1.
Highlight and cut that line, and paste into the top line.
Looks right, but it probably ain’t.
It fully replaced that top entry with the fix, which means I probably deleted (replaced) the top entry.


Engage marching ants......... (Hup-hup!) (Screenshot by the mighty MAC.)

Solution: Enter fix below top entries; dates will be out of sequence.
Cut top entries, and paste below fix.
That gets dates in sequence, yet maintains everything in the outline.
And nothing is lost.
The cut lines become empty lines no longer in the outline, and can be deleted (“Command-K”).

• RE: “Mighty MAC.......” —All my siblings use Windows PCs, but I use an Apple MacIntosh (“MAC”), so I am therefore stupid and of-the-Devil.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.