Spreadsheet exam tomorrow - pdf question

Kelly7

I have my spreadsheets exam tomorrow and my teacher has said that we will need to save worksheets as a pdf and we can do this by going to print and changing the printer name to pdf but I've just looked at home on my excel version and I don't have this option. Does anyone know if it is only available to do this on the newer excel? Bit stressed that I'm going to be able to do the exam but fail because I can't save it to pdf. I'd be really grateful of any help.
Thanks
Kelly

Jo Clark

Kelly7 wrote: »

I have my spreadsheets exam tomorrow and my teacher has said that we will need to save worksheets as a pdf and we can do this by going to print and changing the printer name to pdf but I've just looked at home on my excel version and I don't have this option. Does anyone know if it is only available to do this on the newer excel? Bit stressed that I'm going to be able to do the exam but fail because I can't save it to pdf. I'd be really grateful of any help.
Thanks
Kelly

Hello Kelly

Don't panic

I am guessing that your test centre has installed a piece of software which will allow you to print your work to pdf rather than a hard copy document being printed. When you select 'print' you can change the printer you want to send the document to, hopefully there will be one called pdf or something similar. Select this as your printer, you will be asked to enter a file name which is then used as the file name for the pdf document. I tend to save my pdf files to my desktop and then move to relevant file or email as required.

I think your tutor will then ask you to upload the pdf file/s that you create, or if you are at a FE College perhaps your tutor will be marking these and will mark them on the electronic copy thereby saving ink/paper costs etc.

Does this help you feel any calmer?


JC

coojee

Why wouldn't you just upload the spreadsheet itself? I don't understand. As long as you set each worksheet to print correctly to one page and with a footer then the assessor can just do a print preview to make sure it's OK.

In fact you have to upload the spreadsheet anyway so that the assessor can see the formulae that you've used so there's not really any need to print anything at all, you only need to set the document to print correctly as I've already said.

Kelly7

Thank you both for replying :001_smile:

I do feel calmer now, thanks Jo. I wasn't aware of this software so that's obviously why I can't see it at home lol. I should be ok with doing that .

Coojee, I've been told to zip a folder with my data file, my answer file, my pdf documents and my question paper and upload that. I'm not sure if I will have to actually print anything, maybe just my excel worksheets.

Kelly xxx

coojee

Kelly7 wrote: »

Thank you both for replying :001_smile:

I do feel calmer now, thanks Jo. I wasn't aware of this software so that's obviously why I can't see it at home lol. I should be ok with doing that .

Coojee, I've been told to zip a folder with my data file, my answer file, my pdf documents and my question paper and upload that. I'm not sure if I will have to actually print anything, maybe just my excel worksheets.

Kelly xxx

That's what I can't understand about providing the pdf documents, it's just creating more work for you that isn't needed as all the required information is in the spreadsheet. If you've been told to do it then you'll have to do it but it sounds to me like your tutor doesn't really understand what's required.

Clarekaye

Hope I catch you in time, you dont need to phsyically print anything out but you do need to print to pdf which any decent test centre will have set up for you, and they can sometimes help make sure you have uploaded properly to so dont panic about this.

Make sure you read the questions re how many decimal places to answer them with and :thumbup1:good luck

CharlotteS

I've got my spreadsheets exam tomorrow and dont really know what to expect as I'm a distance learner.
I've never tried saving a pdf via print before, i always just save as and then change the file type to pdf. Will this do the same thing?
Good luck with your exam :001_smile:

Clarekaye

That is the same thing, I did mine last year and you get instructions to open a zip file on the desktop and to save everything in there as pdf and as a straight spreadsheet then that whole file gets uploaded.

Kelly7

Thanks guys. I think it went ok. For anyone else doing it, you change the printer to PDF and then click print which will bring you up the box to save it, didn't realize at first that I had to click print lol.

I think we were asked to print it cos its easier to mark like that?

CharlotteS

Did my exam this morning and the invigilator just said to ignore where it says print. I made sure i checked print preview to check it fitted on the page and then just uploaded the whole document. Different test centres must just do things differently

Amy Smith

Hello! I've noticed a few people asking why you have to save as a PDF?

I'm training to be a Forensic accountant so we have to prepare unique pieces of information that are highly opinionated and they MUST be sent to a solicitor/client in PDF form. This is purely because they cannot be easily edited.

I'm assuming that in the exam they ask to save as a PDF so your unique work cannot be changed

coojee

Amy Smith wrote: »

Hello! I've noticed a few people asking why you have to save as a PDF?

I'm training to be a Forensic accountant so we have to prepare unique pieces of information that are highly opinionated and they MUST be sent to a solicitor/client in PDF form. This is purely because they cannot be easily edited.

I'm assuming that in the exam they ask to save as a PDF so your unique work cannot be changed

I take your point but some of the marks for spreadsheets are for correct formulae, font, conditional formatting etc which can't be checked from a pdf. If you're asked to conditionally format a cell to be red if certain conditions are met and you just manually highlight the relevant cells then it will look right on the pdf and the assessor can't check that you've correctly formatted it. It's for this reason that they need to see the spreadsheet itself. I don't know who would be altering the work after you've done it either, you do the work, you upload it. Once it's uploaded it can't be altered and then re uploaded.

Amy Smith

It was just an assumption, I don't actually know...