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Tuesday, June 30, 2009 – Permalink –

Thirtieth Condition Formatting

Three is not always enough

Pre-2007 Excel gives the user the ability to specify up to three conditions under Format>Conditional Formatting.

If that is not enough, Frank Kabel and Bob Phillips of xlDynamic.com offer a free download that extends the conditions to 30!

Extended Conditional Formatter

Also see:
Conditional Formatting (including 2007)

[Edited entry from 5/15/2006]

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 3:05 AM

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Monday, June 29, 2009 – Permalink –

Access Tools for Free or Fee

Shareware/Freeware

Peter De Baets has some for pay and some for free downloads at Peter's Software.

In the past I have used his Shrinker-Stretcher

ShrinkerStretcher will automatically rescale/resize your MS Access forms, controls, and fonts to fit any screen resolution, desktop scheme, or font setting.

Using ShrinkerStretcher means you can develop applications without concern for your end user's display settings! Scale your 800x600 application down to 640x480, or to any other screen resolution!

For free includes:

ChromaForm: Let your users set their own form color schemes.
Custom Time Functions -: Perform mathematical operations on custom time values that include fractions of a second.
TableLinker: Manage linked tables from multiple databases, ODBC sources, or any combination of the two. Easily refresh table links or connect to tables in a different data environment.

[Edited entry from 5/14/2006]

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:35 AM

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Sunday, June 28, 2009 – Permalink –

30 Days Hath

One Day at a Time

Here's how to add a calendar to your web page.

Publishing Outlook Calendars on the Internet or an Intranet
(From THE definitive Outlook/Exchange site - Slipstick.com.)

Other methods:

Htmlgoodies.com
It's actually just a simple table with a couple of additions. (free)

HTMLCal
HTMLCAL is a Web calendar maker and editor that lets you maintain a group calendar for your Web site or intranet.
This software will let you maintain live calendars on your site that anyone can view or update from any Web browser. ($25)

Htmlcalendar.com
HTML Calendar Maker Pro was designed with ease of use in mind. Now you can type your events quickly and easily and they will be transformed into a customized and professional monthly calendar within seconds. Simply follow the on-screen tutorial to create your calendar and then place the finished web page on your site. It's perfect for planning for the weeks ahead or noting past historic events. ($26.50 +)

All about Calendars by:

Claus Tøndering

[Edited entry from 5/13/2006]

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Labels: Expression Web, FrontPage, HTML, Internet, Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:00 AM

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Saturday, June 27, 2009 – Permalink –

Exploding Slides

Break up or Blow up

Kathy Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote, give the steps needed to make your shows a little more dramatic.

"Have you ever wanted to have a picture appear on your screen as one thing and then blow apart to separate elements? It is a great technique for explaining parts of a process, photo, or structure in detail.
We are going to step through blowing apart pictures, but this same idea can be used for expanding organization charts, process diagrams, and all kinds of other elements."

Blowing Things Up!

[Edited entry from 5/12/2006]

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:23 AM

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Friday, June 26, 2009 – Permalink –

Paper Skyscrapers

Fold your own steamship

This beats paper airplanes. If you order you get hard paper cards with all the pieces.

What exactly is a Micromodel? Micromodels are card or paper models that were originally sold from the 1940's through the 1960's. Most were designed by Geoffrey Heighway.
Each model was made up of several small cards illustrated with the pieces of the model, all wrapped up in a label. You could cut the pieces out and carefully assemble an intricate little three-dimensional model.
Micromodels were known for the amazing details that people would add to customize their models. There were more than 100 original Micromodels of all types.

MicroModelsUSA

[Edited entry from 5/11/2006]

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:56 AM

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Thursday, June 25, 2009 – Permalink –

Compact Before Synchronizing

A DB two step

If you're working with a replicated database, always compact it twice before you synchronize.

The first time you compact, Access marks objects that need to be deleted, but it doesn't actually remove them.

The flagged objects are removed the second time you compact the database. Although there's no harm in additional compacting, there's no added benefit.

This is particularly important to do when working with the Design Master. Each time you make design changes to the Design Master, a copy of the original object is kept in the database.

If you edit and save a Report or Form 10 times, your database actually has 9 older versions of the form in it. The same is true if you change the schema of a Table or Query If you synchronize before compacting, all of the versions are sequentially sent to the other replicas until everything is in synch, and you can't reclaim the space taken up by the older versions.

However, if you compact the database first, only the most recent form version is sent to the replica.

[Edited entry from 5/10/2006]

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:26 AM

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009 – Permalink –

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

Up close and free!

Brian Friesen has created a web site called Freezerware.

One of the clever pieces of free programming on the site is named ZoomIn

ZoomIn is a screen magnification program allowing you to view any area of your screen under magnification. ZoomIn allows you to control the amount of zoom, view a pixels location and color, and save it as a bitmap.

ZoomIn is a very simple program to use. Place your mouse over the main window and click and hold the mouse button then drag the "zoom" window over the area of the screen to enlarge. The scrollbar controls the zoom amount.

As an alternative to using a mouse, you can use the arrow keys to scroll the "zoomed" view, and the plus and minus keys control the zoom. Once you have selected the area of the screen, release the mouse button.

By placing your cursor over the pixel in ZoomIn you can see the pixels coordinates as well as the color (in RGB format).

Some of the other free programs on the site are:

Briscola: a very famous Italian card game. Play against the computer in this one-on-one card game. There is included help with the rules of the game, for those who have never played Briscola before.
Dropper: allows you to get the exact color of any pixel on the screen and converts it to commonly used representations. .; [Edited entry from 5/7/2006]; See all Topics

Plus a number of others

Labels: Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:37 AM

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009 – Permalink –

Mail Your MDB-ACDB

Don't let Outlook stop you

There was a lot of frustration with Outlook 200x. If an Access MDB file is received, Outlook expects the worst and blocks the attachment.

The trick has been to ZIP the file or change the extension to something like .DAT.

Here's a registry trick that restores Outlook to the good old days.

Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002 and Outlook 2000 SP3 allow the user to use a registry key to open up access to blocked attachments. (Always make a backup before editing the registry.) To use this key:
Run Regedit, and go to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security 
(change 10.0 to 9.0 for Outlook 2000 SP3,11.0 for Outlook 2003, 12.0 for Outlook 2007)
Under that key, add a new string value named Level1Remove.
For the value for Level1Remove, enter a semicolon-delimited list of file extensions. For example, entering this:
.mdb;.url
would unblock Microsoft Access files and Internet shortcuts. Note that the use of a leading dot was not previously required, however, new security patches may require it. If you are using "mdb;url" format and extensions are blocked, add a dot to each extension.
Note also that there is not a space between extensions.

If you are using this registry entry, a glance at Help>About Microsoft Outlook will show Security Mode: User Controlled above the license information.
After applying this registry fix or using one of the above tools, the user still has to save the attached file to a system drive before opening it. In effect, the fix rolls the attachment behavior back to Outlook 2000 SR-1, with its included Attachment Security Fix.
An end-user cannot bypass this "save to disk" behavior and open the file directly from the mail message, though an Exchange administrator can.

Slipstick.com:

Opening .exe Attachments

Also see:
Shortcuts for Sending Access Objects via Email

[Edited entry from 5/8/2006]

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Labels: Access, Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:27 AM

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Monday, June 22, 2009 – Permalink –

Presentation Prep

Review before you're reviewed

Things to keep in mind as you prepare your presentation.

From Scott Hanselman's blog:

Speak their Language (Know the Audience)
Be Utterly Prepared (No excuses)
CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT (Have some)
System Setup (Be unique, but don't be nuts)
Speaking (Um ...)
Accessibility (Two words: Font Size, and this means YOU!)
Demos and Tools

You'll find the full suggestions here: Tips for a Successful MSFT Presentation [Edited entry from 5/6/2006] See all Topics

Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:21 AM

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Sunday, June 21, 2009 – Permalink –

Clip Art at Home

Install more

Do you remember all of the clip art that was available locally with Office XP?

When you have an Internet connection, you have access to the Office Online collection, but if you would like more clip art installed on your machine:

A small amount of sample clip art images was included The 2007 Office systems and Office 2003 and is part of the "local collection" that is searched when you do not have Internet access to the Microsoft Office Online Clip Art and Media Web site. Office 2003 no longer included a media content CD with additional clip art. However, the Microsoft Office XP Media Content CD can still be installed locally or on a network share.

The Office XP Media Content CD contains approximately 35,000 clips that are a subset of the clips that are available on the Microsoft Office Online Clip Art and Media Web site. The Office XP Media Content CD was included with Microsoft Office XP Professional, Microsoft Office XP Standard, and Microsoft Publisher 2002 Deluxe Edition.

To install the contents of the Office XP Media Content CD on a computer, follow these steps:
Exit all programs that are running

Insert the Office XP Media Content CD into the CD drive or into the DVD drive
(Hold down the SHIFT key to prevent the program from automatically starting. If Microsoft Windows Installer automatically starts, click Cancel)
Click Start, click Run, type the following command, and then click OK:
msiexec.exe /i CD_drive:\CAG.MSI ADDLOCAL=ALL /qb
(CD_drive is the letter of the drive that contains the Office XP Media Content CD)

Support.Microsoft.com
How to add clip art to Clip Organizer in a 2007 Office system and in Office 2003

[Edited entry from 5/5/5006]

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Labels: Access, Excel, Expression Web, FrontPage, PowerPoint, Vista, Windows, Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:53 AM

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Saturday, June 20, 2009 – Permalink –

Scripts You Can Use

DHTML, Javascripts, PHP

Dynamic Drive provides original DHTML & Javascripts to enhance your web site.

There is an extensive collection as evidenced by this TOC.

Calendars
Date & Time
Document Effects
Dynamic Content
Form Effects
Games
Image Effects
Links & Tooltips
Menus & Navigation
Mouse and Cursor
Scrollers
Text Animations
User/System Preference
Window and Frames

From

DynamicDrive.com

[Edited entry from 5/4/2006]

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Labels: Expression Web, FrontPage

<Doug Klippert@ 3:36 AM

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Friday, June 19, 2009 – Permalink –

Dead Yet?

Approximate your last breath

Let me guess. The odds are that you are less than 77.6 years old.
The longevity figures have increased as medical science finds ways to hold off sending a final bill.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Center for Health Statistics have almost all the data you'll need between now and then:
Life Expectancy

My high school held a 100 year reunion September 15. 2006.
Of the 38,797 graduates, 24,176 or 62% could still be alive.

Living Graduates

CelebrateStadium.com

Stadium History

Maybe you saw the movie:
10 Things I Hate About You

[Edited entry from 5/3/2006]

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:33 AM

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Thursday, June 18, 2009 – Permalink –

Über Updater

Universal

To check on the latest version of a piece of software, you can poke around Tools, Tasks, About or some other menu.
To check out your whole machine including programs that weren't written by Microsoft, or Adobe, look at CleanSofts Update Notifier

What is Update Notifier?
The Update Notifier is a small utility that scans your computer for installed software and displays a list of updates. Also you can see the latest updates for applications from your Watch List.

It will show you updates for programs you forgot you ever installed.
It's a simple download app that is not "installed".

CleanSofts.org

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Labels: Vista, Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:25 AM

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009 – Permalink –

VBA Variable Problems

Explicit protection

It's good practice to always use the Option Explicit statement in the beginning of your code modules to ensure that all variables are unambiguously declared in your procedures.

With this process in place, you'll receive a "Variable not defined" error if you try to execute code containing undeclared variables. Without this statement, it's possible to mistype variable names, which would be interpreted as new Variant type variables.

This could severely impact the results of your code, and you might not ever know it. If you do find a problem, tracking down where the error is can be a chore.

Although you can manually type the statement into your modules, changing a setting in Access can ensure that the statement is always added to new modules.

Open a module (start the VBA Editor)
Choose Tools>Options from the menu bar
On the Editor tab of the Options dialog box, select the Require Variable Declaration check box in the Code Settings panel
Finally, click OK

[Edited entry from 5/2/2006]

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Labels: Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:33 AM

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009 – Permalink –

Resend on Behalf

Alternate to Forward

Let's say you get a message that you would like to forward, but you don't necessarily want to take "ownership."

Open the message in its own window
Go to Actions>Resend This Message
(Other Actions in 2007)
When you click Send, you will be reminded that you are not the original sender of the message
Click OK

The message will be from you, "on behalf of" the original sender.
IMPORTANT: If the recipient clicks the Reply button, his message will go to the original sender, not to you.

Thanks to Ed Bott for pointing this out,

EdBott.com

[Edited entry from 5/1/2006]

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Labels: Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:53 AM

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Monday, June 15, 2009 – Permalink –

SQL Warning in Word

Merge Ahead!

When you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data source, you may receive the following message:

Opening this will run the following SQL command:

SELECT * FROM C:\file_name.log

Data from your database will be placed in the document. Do you want to continue?

This message helps protect you from unintentionally sending data to a malicious user.
To suppress this message, you must first create the following registry key:

Open Registry Editor.
Locate, and then click the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options

(Use 12.0 for Word 2007)
Click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Under Name, type:

SQLSecurityCheck
Double-click SQLSecurityCheck.
In the Value data box, type:

00000000

See
Microsoft KB 825765

Installing Office XP SP3 appears to cause the same problem. For Word 2002 (XP also known as 10.0) you need to place the registry key in: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Word\Options

(Thanks to Brian Livingston at WindowsSecrets.com for pointing the way to a solution)

[Edited entry from 4/30/2006]

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Labels: Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:07 AM

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Sunday, June 14, 2009 – Permalink –

Julian Dates

Gregorian to/from Julian

Julian dates refer to the number of days from the first of the year and the number of days until the end of the year.

The year -45 has been called the "year of confusion," because in that year Julius Caesar inserted 90 days to bring the months of the Roman calendar back to their traditional place with respect to the seasons. This was Caesar's first step in replacing a calendar that had gone badly awry. Caesar created a solar calendar with twelve months of fixed lengths and a provision for an intercalary day to be added every fourth year. As a result, the average length of the Julian calendar year was 365.25 days.

The Gregorian (Pope Gregory XIII) calendar is based on a cycle of 400 years, which comprises 146,097 days. Since 146,097 is evenly divisible by 7. Dividing 146,097 by 400 yields an average length of 365.2425 days per calendar year, which is a close approximation to the length of the tropical year. The Gregorian calendar accumulates an error of one day in about 2500 years.

Calendars by L. E. Doggett

From Chip Pearson's site CPearson.com:

"Many applications (especially mainframe systems) store dates in the Julian format, which is a 5-digit number, consisting of a 2-digit year and a 3-digit day-of-year number. For example, 24-August-1999 is stored as 99236, since 24-August is the 236th day of the year. Excel does not support Julian dates directly, but you can use them with only a few fairly simple formulas.

Converting A Standard Date To A Julian Date
The formula below will convert a standard Excel date in A1 to a Julian Date.

=RIGHT(YEAR(A1),2)&TEXT(A1-DATE(YEAR(A1),1,0),"000")

This formula takes the 2 right-most characters of the YEAR of the date in A1, and then appends the number of days between the date in A1 and the 0th day of that year. The TEXT function formats the day-of-year number as three digits, with leading zeros if necessary.

Converting A Julian Date To A Standard Date

The formula below will convert a Julian date to a standard Excel date.

=DATE(IF(0+(LEFT(A1,2))<30,2000,1900)+LEFT(A1,2),1,RIGHT(A1,3))

If the year digits of the Julian date are less than 30 (i.e., 00 to 29), the date is assumed to be a 2000 century year. If the year digits of the Julian date are greater than or equal to 30 (i.e., 30 to 99), the date is assumed to be a 1900 century year. This formula works by taking advantage of the fact that the DATE function can handle days beyond the "normal" days in a month. For example, DATE correctly computes 100-Jan-1999 to be 10-April-1999.

These Julian dates must have the leading zero or zeros for years between 2000 and 2009. For example the 123rd day of 2000 must be entered as 00123. Format the cell as TEXT before entering the data, or enter an apostrophe before the Julian date -- e.g., '00123. This will prevent Excel from treating the Julian date as a number and suppressing the leading zeros."

US Naval Observatory has this definition (and a calculator):

Julian dates (abbreviated JD) are simply a continuous count of days and fractions since noon Universal Time on January 1, 4713 BCE (on the Julian calendar). Almost 2.5 million days have transpired since this date.

April 29, 2004 at 6:00 AM would be 2453854.75

[Edited entry from 4/30/2006]

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 3:41 AM

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Saturday, June 13, 2009 – Permalink –

World's a Web

Join the group

Daniel Will-Harris is a designer and author. He has put together a web site with step-by-step instructions about how to set up your own web site.

" Everyone and their dog needs to build a web site these days. But even with the best software there's all sorts of stuff a mammal has to understand before it can create a truly useful site.

eFuse.com offers information, inspiration, and assistance written in plain English by professional writers and designers so it's easy to understand and use. eFuse.com is for everyone who wants to build a more attractive and effective web site. Learn what you need, painlessly. No experience necessary. You'll be web-savvy in no time.

Take a look at the site map.
eFuse.com:
Site Map

Learn how to Plan, Design, Build and Grow your web site

[Edited entry from 4/27/2006]

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Labels: Expression Web, FrontPage, Internet

<Doug Klippert@ 3:30 AM

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Friday, June 12, 2009 – Permalink –

Frequent XP Problems

Windows XP answers

John Barnett has a nice site with over 100 good WinXP solutions.

"The Windows XP frequently asked questions section contains some of the more popular tips/tweaks. Obviously, this section will be updated pretty regularly so do keep visiting to check what new FAQ's have been added. All FAQ replies are supplied 'as is' I am unable to accept any responsibility resulting from the use of any of the FAQ replies. You use them at your own risk!'

Here's a sample:

How Do I Enable Show Hidden Files and Folders
How Do I Get XP To Empty The Temporary Internet File Folder When My Browser Closes (UPDATED)
How Do I Hide Icons In The Notification Area
How Do I Add/Remove 'Supplied By From Internet Explorer Title Bar
How Do I Replace a lost, broke or damaged Windows XP CD
How Do I Delete An Undeletable File
How Do I Create A Desktop Shortcut To The Windows Disk Defragmenter
How Do I Enable Single Clicking Of Icons To Open An Application
How Do I Disable The Windows XP Splash Screen
How Do I Change The Default Location Of The My Document Folder
How Do I Backup The Registry In Windows XP

Windows XP FAQ's

[Edited entry from 4/26/2006]

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Labels: Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:37 AM

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Thursday, June 11, 2009 – Permalink –

Map Yourself

Make your own

You know you've wanted to play with Google maps on your own. It's not super easy, but here's a description about how to do it.

"One of the great things about Google maps is it has its roots in XML. To translate for the non-web developers out there, it basically means Google maps are user hackable.

This how-to will show you how to make your own annotated Google map from your own GPS data. Plus, you'll be able to tie in images and video to create an interactive multimedia map.

We'll walk you through the steps we took to generate an annotated map of a walk we took recently through our hometown, now that it's actually starting to get warm enough to want to walk about!"

Make your own annotated multimedia Google map

Also:
gmaptrack.com
"gmaptrack allows you to create and place your own information onto Google Maps, and share with others."

[Edited entry from 4/25/2006]

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:47 AM

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009 – Permalink –

Automaticaly Setup a Database

Link in a snap

When you're creating a new database that will link to data that isn't in an Access format, you can speed up the setup process.

Rather than creating a new database and then using the File>Get External Data>Link Tables,

Choose File>Open from the menu bar
Select the appropriate data format from the Files Of Type dropdown list
Open the file as you would any Access database

Access will automatically create an MDB file with the same name as the data source you selected and will set up links to the data.

[Edited entry from 4/24/2006]

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:53 AM

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Tuesday, June 09, 2009 – Permalink –

Netiquette - Etiquette

Why do you need email etiquette?

A company needs to implement etiquette rules for the following three reasons:

Professionalism: by using proper email language your company will convey a professional image.
Efficiency: emails that get to the point are much more effective than poorly worded emails.
Protection from liability: employee awareness of email risks will protect your company from costly law suits.

If you need to formulate a policy for your company, here are some suggestions:

32 of the most important email etiquette tips

Netiquette — Yale

Career Planning — About

E-mail Etiquette (Netiquette) — Chris Pirillo

Netiquette — Virginia Shea

Spam Is Not the Worst of It

[Edited entry from 4/23/2006]

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Labels: Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:37 AM

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Monday, June 08, 2009 – Permalink –

Art and Words

One picture can mess up a thousand words

Linda Johnson has put together a well laid out basic tutorial about combining text and graphics on a page.

Aligning Text and Graphics in Word

I might have added "Edit Wrap Points"; a feature that allows more control over how text wraps around a picture. Also the use of Format>Picture from the menu. The Layout tab on the dialog box has an Advanced button. The Advanced Layout section presents more precise layout choices if needed.

Linda dismisses the Drawing Canvas that pops up in Word 2002+. I think she is correct, in most situations.

For more information on the "DC" see:
Drawing Canvas - More than I want

[Edited entry from 4/22/2006]

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Labels: Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:33 AM

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Sunday, June 07, 2009 – Permalink –

Preview Resolution

Browser View

To see what your web page will look like in other browsers, go to File>Preview in Browser.

[Edited entry from 4/20/2006]

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Labels: Expression Web, FrontPage

<Doug Klippert@ 3:23 AM

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Saturday, June 06, 2009 – Permalink –

PowerPoint Accesability

Make it easy for everyone

When a PowerPoint show is converted to a web presentation, it is not compatible with a screen reader.

Here are some suggestions that will help make your show more available.

"People who use screen readers will need to have the slides in HTML format in order to access them. This is the only format that can be considered reliably accessible to the various brands of screen readers on the market. Some screen readers can read PowerPoint slides on the Web to some degree, but not well enough to be considered truly accessible.

As for the other disability categories, those who are deaf will be able to access the slides without any problems, unless there is embedded multimedia. In such cases, captions and/or transcripts will be necessary. Those with motor disabilities will have no special difficulties. Even those who cannot use a mouse will be fine, since the slides are keyboard-accessible. Those with cognitive disabilities will not have any particular difficulties, although text-only presentations may be difficult in some cases. "

WebAIM.org
PowerPoint Accessibility Techniques

Also

How to Make an Accessible Web-based PowerPoint Presentation:
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired

[Edited entry from 4/18/2006]

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 7:15 AM

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Friday, June 05, 2009 – Permalink –

May I HAve a Word?

Vocabulary game

Sometimes what we know is wrong. Try this puzzle to see if you really know what words mean.

"In this etymology game you'll be presented with 10 randomly selected etymology (word origin) or word definition puzzles to solve; in each case the word or phrase is highlighted in bold, and a number of possible answers will be presented. You need to choose the correct answer to score a point for that question. Beware! The false answers will often also seem quite plausible, and some of the true answers are hard to believe, but we have documentation!

What is arachibutyrophobia?

A fear of spiders.
A fear of ingesting too much margarine.
A fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
A fear of butane lighters.

Etymologic.com

[Edited entry from 4/17/2006]

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:31 AM

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Thursday, June 04, 2009 – Permalink –

Database Examples

Clever timesavers

Roger Carlson, RogerCarlson.com, has collected a group of Access databases that demonstrate different functions.

The Library includes tutorials and a good list of files that can be downloaded.

See the Table of Contents

CascadingComboBoxes.mdb: This sample illustrates how to restrict the value of one combo box based on the value of another
EmailingSpecificReports.mdb: This illustrates how to email the same report with different data to a variety of users
RelinkOnOpen.mdb: This sample illustrates how re-link, automatically, tables if the database has been moved
UIDesign.mdb: Shows a variety of samples of good and bad User Interface design techniques

And many more

[Edited entry from 4/16/2006]

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:32 AM

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Wednesday, June 03, 2009 – Permalink –

Reading Pain

It's not my glasses, the print's too small!

Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen Blog "Thoughts on .Net, Web Services, and Life" had this entry about Outlook:

Changing the Font Size of the Reading Pane in Outlook: Impossible?

"Is it sadder that:

You can only change the font size for the Reading Pane in Outlook 2003 by right clicking the tiny grey border around the Reading Pane.

When you do click the menu item then move to another email, the option switches back to Medium for the next message.

The menu items have no effect (the font sizes don't change) on 90% of corporate mail including RTF and WordMail.

Is this totally broken or am I totally broken?"

I can't find a way to make the change permanent either, but:

Some users prefer the better visibility of a larger font size for reading their messages in the Reading or "preview" pane. You can make the text or font in the pane larger or smaller by using the scroll wheel on your mouse. Using the scroll wheel is the only way you can change the text size, although more options are being considered for a future version of Outlook.

Use the Reading Pane, highlighted in red, to preview your messages without having to open them. Click in the Reading Pane, press CTRL, and roll the scroll wheel. Rolling the wheel away from you makes the text bigger, rolling it towards you makes the text smaller.

Note The text size doesn't persist when you change views. If you go to your Calendar, for example, or another mail folder like Sent Items, the text goes back to the default size.

For information about the OL interface, see Slipstick.com.

Managing the Outlook Interface

[Edited entry from 4/15/2006]

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<Doug Klippert@ 3:15 AM

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Tuesday, June 02, 2009 – Permalink –

PowerPoint Bloats Word

Diet tips

For various reasons, it can be helpful to send a PowerPoint show to Word. You can have great looking handouts and be able to format the document in ways that are not possible in PowerPoint.

The problem can be the size of the resultant file.

One of the easier, more practical ways to slim the doc down is to break the OLE links.

The size of a Word document may be 20 to 50 times larger than a PowerPoint presentation when you send the presentation to Word.

Start PowerPoint.

On the File menu, point to Send To, and then click Microsoft Office Word.

Click Paste link, and then click OK.

In the resulting Word document, click Links on the Edit menu.

Select all the links that are listed, and then click Break Link.

Click Yes when you are prompted.

Save the Word document.

When you eliminate the OLE overhead, you can reduce the size of the Word document by 90 percent

Support.microsoft.com
Size of Word Document

[Edited entry from 4/14/2006]

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<Doug Klippert@ 3:10 AM

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Monday, June 01, 2009 – Permalink –

Count the Colors

I bid 3 Red

What if you would like to know the color name or to count or to sum cells by a fill color? There is no built-in function in Excel.

In this case you can make a User Defined Function (UDF).

Here is the sample UDF that you can use to analyze, count and sum the cells depending on their filled color.

These UDF function can be used in the same way as built-in functions that you can use in the worksheet.

AnalyzeColor Returns the color name, the color index or color index in RGB.
Syntax: AnalyzeColor(color range, optional; "text" or "index" or "rgb". When it is omitted "text" is used.)

CountColor Counts the number of cells depending on their filled color.
Syntax: CountColor(color range, target range)

SumColor Adds all the numbers in a range of cells depending on their filled color.
Syntax: SumColor(color range, target range)

Sum and Count by fill color

Chip Pearson:
Working with Cell Colors

[Edited entry from 4/11/2006]

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<Doug Klippert@ 3:13 AM

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