Why does data in Excel database move to another cell by itself

Question

I am using Excel in Office 365 with W10 to rebuild a database which was originally in an old version of Lotus database. The trouble was that some information was not transferred when I moved it and I am having to gradually replace it, records having one or more cells of data. The trouble is that I now find the data which involves several cells in a record has later moved, without any action from me, either upwards or downwards, to the next record's cells. It does not always happen , but has happened to the same records more than once. And does not happen if the neighbouring cells already contain data. It's annoying to waste time replacing the records to where they should be. Any idea why it is happening and how I can I stop it happening in the future.

Answer 1

Hi Glenn,

Sorry for delay but have been dealing with other things.

I had to transfer the files to a new format as my new PC would not recognise Works documents. I am sorry to say the course of events in doing this are now lost to me. Open Office (version 4.1.7) was involved but I can not remember the sequence of events except it was non-readable files by Windows 10 that I used to make the change of format. Any Works software I had is long thrown out, while original Works documents have been long deleted.

I can say that I also changed other files from Works which are Excel worksheets by type while the file I am having problems with, though opening in Excel, is an Open Document spreadsheet according to type of file.

Regards

John

Answer 2

Hi m23to53,

Greetings from the Microsoft Community Forum! Please accept our warmest regards and sincerest hope that all is well.

So it has been over 72 hours since our very first reply to your thread and unfortunately we have not heard a reply from you confirming if any of our suggestions have been helpful or not.

We want to make sure that we can deliver the support you need, and we know this issue you have in this thread may not be resolved yet. As such, we want to share the following support resources where you can get helpful troubleshooting articles, tips, solutions, videos and more.

1. Submit/create new thread in Microsoft Community using this link for new queries via https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/newthread
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5. For users with active M365 subscription, you can get real-time ‘Phone or Chat Support’ with Microsoft Global English Support at http://Support.Microsoft.com/en-us/contactus

We highly recommend though that you submit/create new thread using the first link above if the issue is still unresolved or you have a different or new query since we will now close this thread.

Thanks again for choosing Microsoft! We’re here when you need us.

Sincerely,

Glenn

Answer 3

Hi Glenn,

I run Excel version 2019 (build 14430.20306) on windows 10 version 20H2.

The database is a listing of literary writers and the pseudonyms they write under. Columns A-C comprise of the author's real name, his/her nationality and dates, and a column which lists odd information like legal name changes. The individual pseudonyms are in column D onwards, mostly one per author but some writers use several names. Column D is usually stable and the problem lies with those columns from E onwards. But as I said, the problem is random rather than affecting all author records using more than one other byline. See example below where the Agee names should follow Jack Adrian in record 20071 and not be in the record above. I may have poor hand cordination because of a stroke, and make the odd error, but no way am I continually making them as I rigourously check before pressing Save.

I did start using Lotus, but eventually used Microsoft Works database (and created another database listing by pseudonym.). I transferred both databases via OpenOffice to Excel. The pseudonym listing transferred okay and I am using it to update the author listing as the pseudonym information in it did not transfer (I had used one field of maximum size to list the pseudonyms for each author). Over 55000 records to be added so I do not need to waste time correcting these errors.

Regards

John

Hi m23to53,

From the way you've described this problem it sounds a lot like it's isolated to just this database only. Also, I get the distinct feeling that you'd like help in fixing this database which is basically an Excel file from what I see. You're not having this issue in any other Excel file are you?

If it is just this one database as you call it, I'm concerned about the part where you said, "I transferred both databases via OpenOffice to Excel." The thing is OpenOffice's Calc app uses a different file format than Excel so the transition or conversion of the file could also be the side effects you're seeing on the database now.

So when you move the databases to OpenOffice what was the file format or extension that was used? And when you transitioned to Excel did you just open those OpenOffice files in Excel?

Regards,

Glenn

Answer 4

Hi Glenn,

I run Excel version 2019 (build 14430.20306) on windows 10 version 20H2.

The database is a listing of literary writers and the pseudonyms they write under. Columns A-C comprise of the author's real name, his/her nationality and dates, and a column which lists odd information like legal name changes. The individual pseudonyms are in column D onwards, mostly one per author but some writers use several names. Column D is usually stable and the problem lies with those columns from E onwards. But as I said, the problem is random rather than affecting all author records using more than one other byline. See example below where the Agee names should follow Jack Adrian in record 20071 and not be in the record above. I may have poor hand cordination because of a stroke, and make the odd error, but no way am I continually making them as I rigourously check before pressing Save.

I did start using Lotus, but eventually used Microsoft Works database (and created another database listing by pseudonym.). I transferred both databases via OpenOffice to Excel. The pseudonym listing transferred okay and I am using it to update the author listing as the pseudonym information in it did not transfer (I had used one field of maximum size to list the pseudonyms for each author). Over 55000 records to be added so I do not need to waste time correcting these errors.

Regards

John

Answer 5

I am using Excel in Office 365 with W10 to rebuild a database which was originally in an old version of Lotus database. The trouble was that some information was not transferred when I moved it and I am having to gradually replace it, records having one or more cells of data. The trouble is that I now find the data which involves several cells in a record has later moved, without any action from me, either upwards or downwards, to the next record's cells. It does not always happen , but has happened to the same records more than once. And does not happen if the neighbouring cells already contain data. It's annoying to waste time replacing the records to where they should be. Any idea why it is happening and how I can I stop it happening in the future.

Hi m23to53,

First and foremost, thanks for reaching out to our Microsoft Community Forum and please accept our sincerest hope that all is well.

We understand that you're trouble trying to rebuild a Lotus database in Excel.

In order for us to better assist you I need to ask:

1. What exactly is this Lotus database? I admit I'm not an expert with non-Microsoft software but I do recall using a old school spreadsheet software called Lotus 1-2-3 back in the day and that's about it. Basically I just need to know what program is this.
2. What version of Excel are you using? I specifically need the Product name and Version number as mentioned in the following guide: About Office: What version of Office am I using?
3. When you say "rebuild a database" are you like taking an existing database and just opening it up in Excel? Or are you manually copying data from an existing file and then transferring it to Excel manually? A video of how this is done will be real helpful at this point.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Glenn Rue

Consumer M365 Forum Moderator

Microsoft Community