Microsoft phone support?

W

Wapiti

Is there phone support available from Microsoft for Excel? I'm having a
strange issue, see yesterday's post entitled, "Font Corruption".

Its completely off the wall - and I need to get it taken care of. Microsoft
used to have phone support for each of their office products - via a
separate number. That was years ago however - and the numbers I have no
longer work.

Do you know if this support is still available? If so, how to reach them?

Of course, I'd rather have free support, but if its pay-per I will have to
bite the bullet on this one.

Thanks!

Mike
 
C

Chip Pearson

Mike,

You get one free incident, call (425) 635-7056. Also try (800)
936-5700 for $35 per incident.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
 
W

Wapiti

Chip, thanks - I was able to contact them and get the free first incident
support -- totally stumped them on the issue but at least I know its not
only me now. Clued the tech in on some other issues he didnt know about
Excel too - that was interesting. grin.
 
D

David McRitchie

I was going to ask if you posted the problem, but I see that
you did, double height and width for Arial 16 point.
http://google.com/[email protected]

What operating system, what version of Excel, what printer.
Is it just the display that is messed up, what about Print,
and Print Preview.

Sounds like a Font got messed up or is missing, or
perhaps a table of fonts got messed up.

Try telling your system that you have a different printer
and assign that as your default printer. Does that change
your viewing. Print drivers control what you see on the
screen as well as the printer.
 
W

Wapiti

Thanks.

OS is W2k, Excel vers is 2000.

This actually happened on a client of mine's computer. She emailed the file
to me (I have a different printer) and it did the same thing. When I talked
to the MS guy, I emailed it to him, and he got the same thing. If I change
the font from Arial 14, to some other font, all is okay. BUT, at some point,
that font too gets all messed up - then, if I were to change it back to
Arial 14 - its fine. Then messes up again after a save,close and reopen.

I got her able to work by having her change the View | Zoom setting - for
some reason this clears it up - until you close and reopen the document.

Microsoft tells me we have to upgrade to 2002/2003 to get it fixed. I think
they have no idea what the problem is - they can see it as I sent them the
document - but have no intention of providing further support than
that -especially if it is unpaid support.

Rather frustrating - my client is now breathing down my neck and I'm at a
complete loss. And of course, I don't feel it right to charge them for all
the time its taking me to figure this out - better, because I'm doing
software development - my real job with them isn't tech support. grin.

Ideas??

Mike

-m


David McRitchie said:
I was going to ask if you posted the problem, but I see that
you did, double height and width for Arial 16 point.
http://google.com/[email protected]

What operating system, what version of Excel, what printer.
Is it just the display that is messed up, what about Print,
and Print Preview.

Sounds like a Font got messed up or is missing, or
perhaps a table of fonts got messed up.

Try telling your system that you have a different printer
and assign that as your default printer. Does that change
your viewing. Print drivers control what you see on the
screen as well as the printer.
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Chip, thanks - I was able to contact them and get the free first incident
support -- totally stumped them on the issue but at least I know its not
only me now. Clued the tech in on some other issues he didnt know about
Excel too - that was interesting. grin.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
D

David McRitchie

Don't forget to check out simulation with a different printer,
and update print driver.

Try setting and keeping the zoom at exactly 100%.
A lot of graphical and printer problems are held at bay
if the zoom level is maintained at 100%, used to be
people would ask if that was an H-P printer. Either
there are so many other printers or they fixed their drivers.
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm
 
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