Unofficial Excel Stuff

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Mail Excel

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:43:00 +0000

VBA + sample

Excel Guru Ron de Bruin has put together the VBA code needed to send Excel via email.
He has also included the sample workbooks for those that are not VBA literate.

Also:

". . . a new add-in named RDBMail for Excel/Outlook 2007-2010
http://www.rondebruin.nl/mail/add-in.htm

The add-in create a new tab on the Ribbon named RDBMail with a lot of mail options.
You have the option to send as workbook or PDF for every mail option."

Code to send mail from Excel

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Video Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:42:00 +0000

What you see

"MIStupid.com is The Online Knowledge Magazine that publishes information that everyone should know, wants to know, or forgot.
MIStupid.com was created in 2001 by Greg Renza with the desire to eradicate the world's stupidity."

A few of the lessons include:

Concatenating Cells
Conditional Formatting
Subtotals
Data Sorting
Formulas and Named Cells
Create Graphs and Charts

MIStupid.com

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Selection Address

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:59:00 +0000

What's the count

". . . know what range is selected at any given time. You can look at the Name Box, but that only show the active cell."

Display number of Rows and Columns

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Custom QAT

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:31:00 +0000

Access additions

Applications put most of the most-used commands on the Home tab's Ribbon, not everything is there. You may want to add Close, Close All, or Print commands, for example.

In the upper Left corner is the Quick Access Tool bar.

To update the QAT:
Click the down-pointing arrow to the right of the QAT.
Choose any common commands (New, Close, Print, etc.) by checking the option.

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Custom Toolbars

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:09:00 +0000

You’re not restricted

You can create your own toolbars. Here's some code that helps:

Toolbars for Fun and Profit

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Command Reference

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:14:00 +0000

2003-2007-2010

Those of you that are just now making the switch to the Ribbon world, will find this valuable.

ComputerWorld.com

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Office Training

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:55:00 +0000

Suggestions

TechRepublic lists a number of areas that you might explore when training is needed for a new Office version.

Here are a few:

LINKS TO TIP SHEETS AND ARTICLES
"Instead of telling your users to go out to Microsoft.com and do a search, put hyperlinks to the printer-friendly version of tip sheets and articles on your company’s main portal page. Providing links to information you know they need will help you cover the training bases. And presenting the links on an internal web site they already use will show your users that it’s okay to go outside of their four firewalls to learn something new. Include your favorite hyperlink in your signature line so it goes out in every e-mail you send."
ONLINE TRAINING
E-LEARNING
WEBCASTS
VIRTUAL TRAINING
MULTILINGUAL SCREENTIPS AND TRANSLATIONS
COMMAND REFERENCE GUIDES
OFFICE ONLINE AT WORK

10 ways to train your users on Office 2007 for free

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Tips for Word and Excel

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:32:00 +0000

Also some Windows hints

This site has useful information about:

Word
Word VBA
Excel
Excel VBA

and
Windows

Tribbs.co.uk

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Color Scales

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:42:00 +0000

Conditional colors

Here is some information on Conditional color scales in Office 2010.

Microsoft Excel 2010 Blog 1

Microsoft Excel 2010 Blog 2

Microsoft Excel 2010 Blog 3

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Where's the Template

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:48:00 +0000

Find and/change storage spots

Describes the different template categories and the locations of templates in 2007 Office programs. Also describes the registry settings that control where to find your custom templates.

Support.Microsoft.com

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Help ID's

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

VBA code

When you build a macro, you can call up information from the Excel Help file.
Ron DeBruin has the information needed through 2007.

Right clicking the Helpfile and choosing Properties will show the HP####### number in 2010.

Help Context IDs for Excel

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Text Files to Excel

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:53:00 +0000

A hard way to do an easy job

Text files can be imported or just pasted into Excel. If you want to learn more about SQL statements and non-code coding, look at this blog:

"Excel doesn't have an easy way to append multiple text files into one worksheet through the user interface. From time to time I hear customers asking how to do this in an easy way. Do you have to use Access or VB code to solve this problem? No. There's a way to do it in Excel by using a simple SQL statement in the connection string."

MSDN Excel Blog

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Keyboard and Key Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:54:00 +0000

Finger it out

2007 apps look different because of the ribbon, but the keyboard can still be used to speed up tasks.
Microsoft has an online course that may help

After completing this course you will be able to:
Accomplish tasks by using sequential shortcut keys, known as Key Tips, shown on the Ribbon.
Navigate around the Ribbon using the TAB key and arrow keys.
Accomplish tasks by using key combinations — keys you press at the same time - exactly as you've done in previous versions of Office.

Office.Microsoft.com/Training

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New Calendars

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:24:00 +0000

Another year

Here are free Excel calendars for downloading.

Twelve months on one sheet or one month per tab.

DotXLS.com

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Chart Null Data Gaps

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:18:00 +0000

Fill in the spaces

When creating a chart, data can sometimes be missing. You have a choice of leaving the cells empty or making them zero.

By default, an empty cell will leave gaps in your graph. Zero entries will send a line graph down to the base line.

One way to force Excel to interpolate the data is to enter the function =NA() in the empty cells.

Another way is to go to Tools>Options and choose the Chart tab.

Pick how you want data plotted - with gaps, as zero, or interpolated.

Microsoft also has this suggestion:

Gaps between the dates

"If the datasheet data for the category axis contains date number formatting, Microsoft Graph automatically uses a special type of axis in your chart called a time-scale axis.
A time-scale axis shows a blank category for dates for which you have no data. If you do not want to see these gaps — for example, if you have data for 1-Jan, 15-Jan, 3-Feb, 12-Feb, and 2-Mar, and you want to plot the days next to each other - you can change the time-scale axis to a standard category axis.
On the Chart menu, click Chart Options, click the Axes tab, and then click Category under Category (X) axis."

Note, For 2007+, on the Design tab, click Select Data in the Data area, and then click Hidden and Empty Cells on the Select Data dialog box.

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Link Workbooks

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:10:00 +0000

Tie them together

Excel is a flatfile database, but you can do some Access kinds of relationships.

"A link is a formula that gets data from a cell in another workbook. When you open a workbook that contains links (a linking workbook), Microsoft Excel reads in the latest data from the source workbook or workbooks (updates the links).

Use links when you want to maintain information in a single workbook, but also use the information in other workbooks. For example, if your product prices change frequently, you might keep a master price list.
Other workbooks that use the price data in calculations, such as purchase orders, inventory valuations, or sales estimates, can create links to the price list workbook so calculations always use current prices. When prices change, you only have to enter the new prices in one place."

Open both workbooks.
In the source workbook, select the cells you want to link to and click the Copy button.
Switch to the destination workbook and click the upper left cell of the range where you want the links.
On the Edit menu, click Paste Special, and then click Paste Link.

Create and Manage Links

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Have a Geeky Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:20:00 +0000

And a Functional New Year

It is rather late in the season, but this is a gift that gives all year long:

This hilarious clock is the perfect accessory for any Excel power user. Each numeral has been replaced with a suitable Excel function that will evaluate to that numeral.

We've used one function from as many function categories as possible to really provide a broad range of functions.

For instance:

=FACT(3) - The FACT() function returns the Factorial of a number. The Factorial of 10 is 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1. This function is great for statisticians calculating combinations and permutations. In our case, the Factorial of 3 is 3x2x1 or 6

MrExcel.com:

Excel Function Clock

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Display Row, Column Headings

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 11:11:00 +0000

User Function

Here's an odd little use of functions.

If you want to display the Row number on a spreadsheet, the formula

=Row()

works just fine.
You could then hide the Row and Column headings and format the Row numbers any way you want. If a Row is deleted the numbers will automatically update.

Column headings are a little harder. The formula =Column() will show the number of the Column, not the letter, i.e. "2" instead of "B".

The following formula extracts the Column letter:

=SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(1,COLUMN(),4),"1","")

To break it down:

=ADDRESS(row_num,column_num,abs_num)

This finds the address at Row number "1" and current Column number. The abs_num of "4 " says make the result a relative address.

The formula will produce a result such as "AA1".

SUBSTITUTE(text,old_text,new_text)

This function looks at the address, i.e. "AA1".
It replaces the Row number character ("1") with a null or empty value ("").
The formula will produce a result such as "AA".

Also see Daily Dose of Excel by Dick Kusleika.

Dick mused:'

"Sometime before the year 3,000, Microsoft will hopefully increase the number of columns in Excel (Hey, I can dream can't I). The challenge before you is to write a function that converts a column number to its letter equivalent assuming columns go to ZZZZ. That’s about 450,000 columns - maybe more than I need."

Of course Office 2007-10 has taken it up to 16,284 columns.

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Sparklines

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:27:00 +0000

Quick graphic reinforcement

A graph or chart can give the reader a visual representation of a great deal of data. Concepts or results can be more easily grasped by a well formatted graphic.

Charts, usually, take up more space in a document than is absolutely required.

Edward Tufte has come up with the concept of Sparklines (Sparklines:Intense, Word-sized Graphics)
.
These are small graphs about the same height and width as common words. They are not out of place in the text of a document.

Sparklines give the reader a snapshot of the data that quickly supports the material being discussed.

See:
Bisantz Sparklines

The Sparkmaker can create Sparklines for Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. They can also be produced in HTML.

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Curves

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:02:00 +0000

and More

Famous curves from Cal State at LA. All your favorites from Astroid to Witch of Agnesi.

Here is a collection of Functions relating to astronomy from Stargazing.net.

Can't tell who might be interested in the obliquity of the equator given date in days after J2000.0. See: Astro VBA

Other Curve stuff:

DelphiForFun.org: converting polar coordinates to Cartesian coordinates.

"Students of analytic geometry, (the kind that combines algebra and geometry), often work in one of two coordinate systems: Cartesian or Polar - and frequently must convert from one to the other.

The Cartesian system locates points on a plane by measuring the horizontal and vertical distances from an arbitrary origin to a point. These are usually denoted as a pair of values (X, Y).

The Polar system locates the point by measuring the straight line distance, usually denoted by R, from the origin to the point and the angle of an imaginary line from the origin to the point, θ, (Greek letter Theta), measured counterclockwise from the positive X axis."

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Password Background

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:55:00 +0000

Unencrypted

Alan Myrvold has written a background article on how Office handles passwords and what password strength means.

"Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have been able to password protect documents for several versions by setting the 'password to open'. What we felt could be improved was the ability to enforce password strength rules, similar to what may be required when logging into your computer at work."

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New Conditional Formatting

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:48:00 +0000

Much more capabilities

Pre-2007 Excel was limited to only 3 conditions. The new Office is more generous and versatile.
Here are some of the features:

Format all cells based on their values
Use this to create a data bar, 2-color or 3-color color scale, or icon set rule.
Format only cells that contain:
Use this to create the Excel 2003-style rules and more (format cells greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to, equal to, not equal to, between, not between). This is also the entry point to create rules of type: specific text, date occurring, blanks, non-blanks, errors, non-errors.
Format only top or bottom ranked values:
Use this to create top n, top n%, bottom n, bottom n% rule types.
Format only values that are above or below average:
Use this to create above average, below average, 1 or 2 or 3 standard deviation above, or 1 or 2 or 3 standard deviation below rule types.
Format only unique or duplicate values:
Use this to create rules that format unique or duplicate values.
Use a formula to determine which cells to format:
Use this to create Excel 2003-style rules where you can enter a formula to determine whether a format should be applied.

2007+ Conditional Formatting

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Formatting Overview

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:39:00 +0000

Looking good

The judicious use of formatting can make data easier to understand as well as pleasant to see.
Scott Lowe put together a series of articles on how to format data in Excel.

The Articles are on TechRepublic.com

Anatomy of Excel formatting: Part 1

Boldface, italicize and underline cell content
Change the size and font of your text
Apply a default Excel style (i.e. dollar, percent, etc) to cells
Use date and time formatting in your spreadsheet
Apply shading

Anatomy of Excel formatting: Part 2

Apply borders
Resize rows
Resize columns

Anatomy of Excel formatting: Part 3

Text formatting
Justify cell contents
Change the direction of the text in your spreadsheet
Word wrap text

Anatomy of Excel formatting: Part 4

Automatically format cells based on their contents
Change the margins for your printed page
Add a header and footer to your printer spreadsheet

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Color News

noreply@blogger.com (Doug Klippert) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:08:00 +0000

A multidiscipline subject

Here is a study about how color effects a reader's choice of concentration.

It was intended for newspaper publishers, but the same knowledge can be used in Web design, PowerPoint, or any other reporting application. Word and Excel will also benefit.

Color, Contrast, and Dimension in News Design

ColorProject

The Poynter Institute is a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalists.
Poynter.org

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