Stick it in Word

Arrange the windows so that both applications can be seen.
(Right-click an empty area of the Task bar and choose "Tile Windows Vertically."

Type your introductory text in the Word document.

Switch to PowerPoint and open the PowerPoint file.

In Slide Sorter View, hold down the Ctrl key and select the slides you want to include.

Drag the selected group of slides onto the Word document.

You will only see the first slide in the document, but if you double-click on the image, the PowerPoint show will run.

It will also work in Excel.

(This, of course assumes that the target machine has PowerPoint or PowerPoint Viewer installed)



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excel

Labels: General, Link, Tips

Formatting slip

The formula is filled down the column as long as there is data in an adjacent column.

But wait! I don't see the value. I see the formulas!
In addition, the formulas are still in lower case and the relative references have not been updated.

Easy to fix, I hear you say. Just reformat the column as General.

Nothing happens.

To fix the problem, make sure the column is formatted as General.

Select the first cell. Click in the formula bar and hit the Enter key.

Now double click the Fill handle.

(You could also use Edit>Replace to replace = with =. However, Relative references will be incorrect and unless you have reformatted the whole column as General, any new formulas will still display as text.)

The reverse also causes a problem. In a column formatted as General, enter some formulas.

Now reformat the column as Text. The formulas still work, but if you edit one of them, it reverts to a text display.

Microsoft KB:
Cell Linked to Text-Formatted Cell Shows Formula Not Value

Formulas can, of course, be toggled using CTRL+~ (Tilde)
(Though it really should be called CTRL+` (Grave Accent), since the Shift key is not used.)



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excel

Labels: Formulas, General, Troubleshooting

Choose your own location

Word

you can change the default location by going to Tools>Options. On the "File Locations" tab you can modify the storage location.

Excel

Tools>Options. On the "General" tab change the default location.

PowerPoint

uses Tools>Options and the "Save" tab.

Access

Tools>Options and the "General" tab for Databases and Projects

Publisher

Tools>Options "General".

Outlook

will make you take an underground tour into the Registry to change the location to save e-mail attachments.

FrontPage/Expression Web

appears to require the same sort of spelunking.

Labels: Customize, General

Free money (tracker)

Your income

Just your take-home pay, which is what you control and spend.

Cash reserve

A reserve equal to 3-6 months of take-home pay.

Savings

A portion of your income set aside to fund your retirement.

Fixed expenses

Expenses that you must pay over the course of a year.

Replacements

You also must pay to replace things that eventually wear out.

Weekly allowance

Partly discretionary, partly not; paid by cash from your pocket.

Periodic purchases

Discretionary purchases paid by check periodically.

Future purchases

Big-ticket discretionary purchases that you must save for.

Summary

A summary of your income and where it goes—and where you are.

QuickForm

You can switch to this format once you're familiar with the method.

Tips

Ideas to help pare your expenses.

Labels: General

Smile!

1. Edit>Copy the Cell or Range
   
2. Choose the target cell
   
3. Hold down the Shift key and choose Edit>Paste Picture Link

If you're going to do this frequently, go to Tools>Customize. Choose the Commands tab and locate Camera in the Tools category. Drag to place the Camera button on your toolbar.

If the Camera tool is on your toolbar:

1. Select the Cell/Range
   
2. Click the Camera tool
   
3. Move the cursor to the target position and click to insert the linked picture

To create a static picture from cells, or a chart to use in another part of your workbook, or another program:

1. Clear cell gridlines if you do not want them displayed in your picture.
   (Click Options on the Tools menu, click the View tab, and then clear the Gridlines check box")
   
   
2. On the worksheet or chart sheet, select the cells or click the chart you want to copy as a picture
   
3. Hold down SHIFT and click Copy Picture on the Edit menu
   (For the best picture quality, make sure As shown on screen and Picture are selected)
   
4. Click OK
   
5. Select the worksheet or other document where you want to paste the picture
   
6. Edit>Paste.

You can use the Picture toolbar to change the image.
(to display the toolbar, right-click any toolbar and choose Picture)

To paste information you've copied from another program as a picture in Microsoft Excel, hold down SHIFT and click Paste Picture or Paste Picture Link on the Edit menu.


You can, also, create a dynamic linked text box by using the tool on the Drawing toolbar to place the object on the worksheet.

Now click to the Formula box. Type = and the click on the cell you wish to link.

Also see: Copy - Paste Methodology
by Jon Peltier

The process is a little different in 2007. Either add the Camera tool to the Quick access toolbar, or just select the range and drop down the Paste options.

Choose copy as Picture.

Next pick a location and choose Paste as picture.






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excel

Labels: General, Link, Tips

More dimensions than Star trek

When a company accumulates a great deal of information, it becomes un-wieldy to work with just basic Excel or Access databases.

There is a database concept called on OLAP cube (On-Line Analytical Processing).

This multidimensional collection of data can be thought of as a 3-D pivot table viewed from flat land.

MSDN:
Just What Are Cubes Anyway?
(A Painless Introduction to OLAP Technology)

OLAPReort.com:
What is OLAP


Wikipedia:
OLAP

Wang.se (Wang Sweden) a Swedish software company:

Create an OLAP Cube



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excel

Labels: General, Tutorials

Split the sheets (?)

Recently a large group of friends and I went on a multi-city tour of Europe that lasted a couple weeks. There was a lot of planning that went into this trip and responsibilities for booking different legs of the trip were spread out across the group. How do you efficiently handle paying back multiple people while getting reimbursed for your costs at the same time?

Split Costs

You can download the spreadsheet here:Split_Costs.zip




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excel

Labels: General, Templates, Tips, Tutorials

Game with Excel

• Excel fun
  
  
• 3D Viewer
  
  
• Battleship
  
  
• Blackjack
  
  
• Breakout
  
  
• Golf Stats
  
  
• Mastermind
  
  
• Maze
  
  
• Minesweeper
  
  
• Reversi
  
  
• Rubix
  
  
• Slots
  
  
• Sudoku Solver
  
  
• Tetris
  
  
• Video Poker

Labels: General

Design suggestions

European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group:
Spreadsheet mistakes - news stories

John F. Raffensperger:
(oldies but . . .)
Spreadsheet Style

Microsoft Assistance:
Worksheet design strategy

Raymond R. Panko, PhD University of Hawaii
What We Know About Spreadsheet Errors




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excel

Labels: General, Tips

Numbers from the ether

"The Excel 2007 Web Data Add-In makes it easy to use a Web page as a data source in Excel.

The add-in plugs into Excel 2007 seamlessly, its entry point located on the Data Tab under the From Web option. The system extracts data by learning from a user’s selection of data they wish to capture into Excel. The more selections, the more the system is trained."

Labels: Addins, General

Don't hide

• Stock quote from MSN MoneyCentral
  
  
• Company report from MSN MoneyCentral
  
  
• Recent news on MSN MoneyCentral
  
  
• Insert a refreshable stock price
  
  
• Remove the Smart Tag
  
  
• Smart Tag options (This brings up the Smart Tags tab on the AutoCorrect menu.)

Complete tasks quickly with Smart Tags




How to turn on smart tags.

Smart tag functionality is turned off by default. Before you can use smart tag functionality, you must turn on smart tag recognition. To do this, follow these steps, as appropriate for the version of Excel that you are running.

Microsoft Office Excel 2007

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Excel Options.
   
   
2. Click Proofing.
   
   
3. Click AutoCorrect Options.
   
   
4. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, click the Smart Tags tab.
   
   
5. Click to select the Label data with smart tags check box.
   
   
6. In the Recognizers box, click to select the check boxes next to the specific smart tag recognizers that you want to turn on, and then click OK.
   
   
7. Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box.

Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and earlier versions of Excel

1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options.
   
   
2. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, click the Smart Tags tab.
   
   
3. Click to select the Label data with smart tags check box.
   
   
4. In the Recognizers box, click to select the check boxes next to the specific smart tag recognizers that you want to turn on, and then click OK.
   

Labels: General, Shortcuts, Tips

All(most) all you need to know

• Add numbers
  
• Subtract numbers
  
• Multiply numbers
  
• Divide numbers

Labels: Formulas, General, Tutorials

Spokes of the web

• Excel Add-ins
  
  
• Excel Help
  
  
• Excel Password Recovery
  
  
• Excel Templates
  
  
• Excel Tips & Tricks
  
  
• Excel Tutorials
  
  
• Excel VBA
  
  
• Free Excel Add Ins
  
  
• Spreadsheet Research

Labels: General, Link, Lists

Geek fame

"You probably have a document you use over and over again, something you created to solve a particular problem. You may even find yourself occasionally sending the document to others in e-mail because it's so useful. Now you can share your clever solution with everyone who uses the 2007 Microsoft Office system!

People like you all over the world are allowing others to download and use their document templates on Office Online. Some of these templates have tens of thousands of downloads. They were submitted by people who either wanted to help others or show their great solutions. You can, too.

Labels: General, Templates

2007 choices

Office 2007 uses OfficeArt to format text boxes, graphics and pictures.

It's available in Word, Excel , and PowerPoint, but it is most active in PowerPoint and Excel.

Here's a description:

Office PPT Art

Also:
Reflections



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excel

Labels: General

Excel reading

Labels: General, Tips

More flexibility

Lots of limits have been changed with 2007. The size of a worksheet is now 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns. The number of undo levels has gone up to 100.

Here are some more changes:

• Worksheet and workbook specifications and limits
  
  
• Calculation specifications and limits
  
  
• Charting specifications and limits
  
  
• PivotTable and PivotChart report specifications and limits
  
  
• Shared workbook specifications and limits

Labels: General

Level talk

1. Close any programs that are running.
   
   
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
   
   
3. In Registry Editor, expand one of the following registry subkeys, as appropriate for the version of Excel that you are running:
   
   Microsoft Office Excel 2007
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Options

   
   Microsoft Office Excel 2003 uses Office\11.0\
   Microsoft Excel 2002 uses Office\10.0\
   Microsoft Excel 2000 uses Office\9.0\
   
   
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value. Select New Value #1, type UndoHistory, and then press ENTER.
   
   
5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
   
   
6. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, click Decimal under Base. Type a value between 0 and 100 in the Value box, click OK, and then exit Registry Editor.
   
   
7. Start Excel. Excel stores an undo history for the number of actions that you specified in step 6.

Sub ClearUndo()
    Range("A1").Copy Range("A1")
End Sub

Labels: Customize, General, Macros, Tips

Eavesdrop on the experts

Labels: General, Tips

No add-ins needed

• Raw text, HTML, XHTML, Microsoft Word, RTF, PDF, PS, Open Office, Star Writer, Pocket Word, Word Perfect
  
  
• CSV, dBase, Microsoft Excel, Pocket Excel, Lotus 123, Quattro Pro, Star Calc, Open Office spreadsheet
  
  
• MathML, Star Math, Open Office math
  
  
• Microsoft Powerpoint, Star Impress, Open Office presentation

Convert files into universal formats like Adobe PDF, PS (PostScript) or CSV to print, fax or simply read them on any computer, without special software.

Learn morse code with the text to morse converter ;-)

Labels: General, Tips

More than you wanted to know

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then
   
   
2. Cick Access Options, Excel Options, PowerPoint Options, or Word Options.
   
   
3. Click Resources
   
   
4. About Program Name, click About.
   Note Program Name is the name of the program you are in, for example, About Microsoft Office Word 2007.
   
   
5. To see information about your computer, in the About Program Name dialog box, click System Info.

Labels: General

When to use one or the other

Use Access when you:

• Require a relational database (multiple tables) to store your data.
  
  
• Might need to add more tables, in the future, to an originally flat or nonrelational data set.
  
  
• Keep a very large amount of data (thousands of entries).
  
  
• Keep data that is mostly text.
  
  
• Rely on multiple external databases to derive and analyze the data that you need.
  
  
• Need to maintain constant connectivity to a large external database, such as one built by using Microsoft SQL Server.
  
  
• Want to run complex queries.
  
  
• Need many people working in the database and you want robust options that expose that data for updating.

Use Excel when you:

• Require a flat or nonrelational view of your data (that is, you do not need a relational database with multiple tables).
  
  
• This is especially true if that data is mostly numeric - for example, if you want to maintain a financial budget for a given year.
  
  
• Want to run primarily calculations and statistical comparisons on your data - for example, if you want to show a cost/benefit analysis in your company's budget.
  
  
• Know that your dataset is manageable in size (no more than 15,000 rows).

Labels: General