Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Link to PDF

Hyperlink to page numbers


The article tells how to link to named locations, but in most cases all you'll need is the page number:

Linking to Pages or Destinations Within PDFs
Dan Shea Associate Editor

Linking To Specific Pages
This is significantly simpler than linking to named destinations because it doesn't require any special steps to be taken in the preparation of the PDF file. I personally favor the page-linking method for this reason. In order to link through to a specific PDF page, begin with the domain, as you would for any web link:

http://www.mydomain.com/

Then add the name of the PDF document:

http://www.mydomain.com/myPDF.pdf

Then append "#page=" followed by the desired page number. For example, if you were looking to link to page 7:

http://www.mydomain.com/myPDF.pdf#page=7

So in all, the HTML link code would be:

<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/myPDF.pdf#page=7">Link text</a>




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Monday, March 30, 2015

Make a Dash

M-N-Hyphen



From the Word MVP Forum:
Dashes

There are three kinds of dashes, each a bit longer than the other.
You don't need to put spaces before or after dashes (in the US).

Use the hyphen (-) for hyphenating words.

Use the en dash (–) where you would use "to," as in "business hours are 10 A.M. – 5 P.M.," in a range of numbers (pages 17–25), or to link certain compound adjectives like "the Tokyo–Hong Kong flight" or "anti–blood clotting serum."

Use the em dash (—) instead of parentheses—as is done here—to set off a parenthetical phrase. On the typewriter, two hyphens stood in for this dash.


The keyboard shortcuts are:
Alt+0150 for an N dash
Alt+0151 for an M dash or two hyphens in a row

Here's an article from the Editorium.com:
Making dashes easy
By Jack M. Lyon

Here are articles on:
Colons, Semicolons, and Em-dashes

And:
Interruptive Punctuation



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Sunday, March 29, 2015

(A:) Drive in Front

Change display



In Microsoft Windows, on mapped drives, the Drive letter may appear last.

My Financial Statements (Alpha1) (D:)
3 1/2 Floppy (A:)

To change the so that the drive letter comes first:
(A:) 3 1/2 Floppy
  1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

  2. Locate and then click the following subkey in the registry:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

  3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

  4. Type ShowDriveLettersFirst, and then press ENTER.

  5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.

  6. Type 4, and then click OK.
Key: ShowDriveLettersFirst Type: DWORD Value: 1, 2, or 4.
If the value is 1, the drive letter is displayed first for remote drives.
If the value is 2, drive letters are not displayed.
If the value is 4, the drive letter is displayed first for all drives.



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Saturday, March 28, 2015

Embed a Show

Stick it in Word



You might like to distribute a short PowerPoint slide show, and include some extra material.

Open Word and PowerPoint.
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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Friday, March 27, 2015

Forms and Slides

PowerPoint in Access


This download provides an Access database and a PowerPoint slide show.
"Create a PowerPoint slide presentation from scratch using Access data. In addition, display and control a slide show from within an Access form. Walk through the solution and explore ways to extend the sample for your own applications.

This article looks at two ways of interaction between Access and PowerPoint.

The first sample illustrates how to create a PowerPoint presentation from the data in an Access table using Automation.

The second sample shows how to display and manipulate an existing PowerPoint presentation inside of an Access form, also using Automation."
Here is an MSDN article:
Working with PowerPoint Presentations from Access Using Automation


If you have some knowledge of VBA, you can probably figure it out from the code on the Access Form.



Office 2003 Sample:
Working with PowerPoint 2003 Presentations from Access 2003 Using Automation



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Thursday, March 26, 2015

Speedy Shortcuts

11 basic Excel tricks

Sara Silverstein, by way of Business Insider, presents some Excel keyboard shortcuts that you'll wish you knew yesterday.

Use shortcuts to quickly format values
  • Ctrl+Shift! for 2 decimal places 
  • Ctrl+Shift=$ for dollar signs 

and
  • Double click to copy down 

Are just a couple:

Basic Excel Shortcuts

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Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Tables

Without reservations


Word is more versatile than Excel or PowerPoint when it comes to manipulating how a table will appear. Go to View>Toolbars Tables and Borders, and also see the Table menu especially, "Table Properties" .
(In 2007 go to Insert Table, or Right click the Table)

Often, you will insert a table at the top of a document, and then later realize that you need to enter text above the table.

A keyboard shortcut to fix this is to place the insertion point in the first cell in the top left corner of the table.

Hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter and Word will move the table down and place the insertion point at the top.

This is also the combination used to split an existing table in two.
(If there are no entries in the cell, the Enter key will move the insertion point. If there is text in the cell or a paragraph above the table, then the Enter key will just start a new paragraph inside the cell.)

Here are some more suggestions from the Word MVPS web site:
Maximising the performance of Word tables

PC World:
How to Create Tables



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Population:485

By Michael Perry


ISBN 0-06-095807-3
Perennial 2002



About the Author
Michael Perry was raised on a small dairy farm near New Auburn, Wisconsin, and put himself through nursing school working as a cowboy in Wyoming. As of this writing, he is the only member of the New Auburn (nee Cartwright Mills) Area Fire Department to have missed the monthly meeting because of a poetry reading.
See:
SneezingCow.com



Book Description
A collection of stories about life in a small Wisconsin town. What it's like to be in the volunteer fire department with your brothers and your mother.
Unable to polka or repair his own pickup, his farm-boy hands gone soft after years of writing, Mike figures the best way to regain his credibility is to join the volunteer fire department. Against a backdrop of fires and tangled wrecks, bar fights and smelt feeds, he tells a frequently comic tale leavened with moments of heartbreaking delicacy and searing tragedy.

Quote
"... The village board sent someone around to recite nuisance ordinances chapter and verse, but beyond rearranging the bikes and aligning the camper with the speedboat - feng shui primitif - nothing has changed. You take what you can get in this life. Someone calls you white trash, you go with it, and fight like hell to keep your trash. You understand it is a matter of distinctions: yuppies with their shiny trash, church ladies with their hand-stitched trash, solid citizens with their secret trash. In a yard just outside town, a spray-painted piece of frayed plywood leans against a tree. It reads Trans Ams: 2 for $2000. It has been there for two years."




New Auburn, Wisconsin, 54757



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Monday, March 23, 2015

Change Case

CAPS - No - caps



Sometimes mistakes are made in setting the case for sentences.
There are four general categories of capitalization:

Sentence Case - The first letter of a sentence is capitalized

Lowercase - all words are in lowercase

Uppercase - ALL CAPITALS

Title Case - All Words Are Capitalized
(This is, really, "Proper case". Title case would be "All Important Words are Capitalized".
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs should be uppercase. Common articles, prepositions, and conjunctions should be lowercase
.)
You can make changes to selected text by going to
Format>Change Case
and choosing the correct style. (Including tOGGLE cASE)
You could also use a keyboard shortcut.
Select the text and then hold down the SHIFT key and tap the F3 key to toggle through three of the main cases – All Cap, Lowercase, and Title.

SAP Design Guild:
Quick Guide to Capitalization in English

From The Editorium.com:
Here's a macro to change Heading styles to true Title case:
TITLE CASE MACRO, VERSION 2
By Jack M. Lyon

Word Tips:
Capital after colon

Automatically correct capitalization in most any MS 2007 App.



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Sunday, March 22, 2015

OutlookPower Magazine

Source site


One of the locations for information about Outlook and Exchange is OutlookPower.com.

Also available as a news letter, it contains a number of suggestions such as this one dealing with printing the notes area on the calendar:

Printing Contact notes
By Francine Otterson
"How you can print the comments contained in your Outlook Calendar.

Outlook Calendar has various printing options to choose from that provide some editing capabilities.

With the Calendar Details printing style, the notes area would be printed along, with all of the other Calendar details. Plus, this style will allow you to choose a range of dates to print, and gives you the option of printing each day on separate pages or continuously.

To change the printing style, select Print under the File menu. Next, select the print style you would like to use e.g. Calendar Details style. If you would like to edit this print style, select Define Style then Edit."




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Saturday, March 21, 2015

Word is Full of HTML

Clean up tools


From the Help file:
"When you save Web pages format with Microsoft Word, additional tags are added so that you can continue to use the full functionality of Word to edit your content.

To reduce the size of Web pages, you can save them in filtered HTML. Filtered format removes Microsoft Office-specific tags. If you save in filtered HTML and then reopen the file in Office programs, text and general appearance will be preserved, but some features may work differently.

If you reopen a Web page in Word that you saved in filtered HTML, your text and general appearance are preserved, but you may not be able to use certain Word features in the usual way to edit your files. For example, the appearance of bulleted or numbered lists is preserved; however, some of the Word functionality associated with lists will not be preserved.

If you will need to edit the file later, you can maintain two files: one in Word format and one in filtered HTML format. You can edit the content in the Word document, save it in Word format for future editing, and then save a copy in filtered HTML format."


Using filtered HTML save may not clean everything up. If you need more help see Informit.com:
Clean HTML from Word: Can It Be Done?
By Laurie Rowell.

Also:

HTML Tidy Library Project



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Friday, March 20, 2015

Conditional Formatting

If it's Tuesday, it must be mauve


Conditional formatting is one of Excel's better features. It allows you to preset certain font styles, colors, and cell-background colors based on cell values.
This can be very useful for highlighting important information and values outside an accepted range or providing a visual cue to associate value ranges with color codes.

The best part is that conditional formatting is very easy to set up.
Just click the cells you'd like to format and select Format >Conditional Formatting. The Conditional Formatting dialog box lets you set up the conditions by which the formatting of the cell will occur.
You pick the operator (between, equal to, less than, etc.) and the value or range of values. Click Format to open the Format Cells dialog box, where you can select the colors and styles to be used.

Each cell can have several conditional formats. For example, you might say that if a certain cell's value is between 20 and 50, the text should be blue on a yellow background.
However, you can format that same cell to exhibit red, bolded text on a green background if it contains a value between 51 and 100.


Conditional Formatting

Before 2007, you could use up to three conditions, but earlier versions of Excel can be tricked to use more if it should become necessary.

Oz Grid:
Excel VBA Macro Code to Get Around Excel's 3 Criteria Limit in Conditional Formatting

GR Business Process Solutions:
Graham Barrow and Ray BlakeHighlight the current or past month in Excel with conditional formatting

Chip Pearson:
Conditional Formatting

Also:
Adding Customized Rules to Excel 2007

Demo:
Data takes shape with conditional formatting



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Thursday, March 19, 2015

Samples Queries,Reports, Forms

Examples to part out




This sample queries database contains examples of useful database queries, including the crosstab query, the union query , and the join query

Sample: query topics database

Here are some other sample databases. They are all for Access 2000, but the installed base is predominantly in that format. Access 2000 is also the default format for Access 2002 and 2003.
Sample Access databases that you can download and adapt

Database of Access 2000 sample forms
The sample forms in this database demonstrate a variety of form types and techniques, including how to manipulate data, use controls, and create undo and redo operations.

Some forms include:
  • Bring a subtotal from a subform to a main form
  • Create a running sum
  • Create a stopwatch form
  • Display line numbers on subform records
  • Fill current record with data from previous record automatically
  • Hide the combo box drop-down arrow
  • Simulate drag-and-drop capabilities
Database of Access 2000 sample reports
The sample reports in this database demonstrate a number of techniques, including how to shade every other row or every nth row in a report, how to create a table of contents or an index for a report, and how to create a top 10 report.




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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Time Counts

Thoughts and Tick Tocks


Brad McCormick has the kind of web site that is built to be thumbed through. There are some serious linkage pages:

What Time Does Your Computer Think It Is?



And also a collection of his thoughts and others. I found it worthwhile to just surf from spot to spot.

There is good stuff at almost every click.


"Happy the person who can find genuine interest and satisfaction in something nobody else wants -- for then (s)he has a better chance of being allowed to have it. "

"Big problem: How to avoid wasting one's life to earn one's living. "

"When will we advance to a level where not just owning persons (slavery) but also renting them (wage labor) is outlawed and abolished? "

"Some persons can judge [many] books by their covers. Other persons can't judge a book even by its contents. "

"Why not speak, conciliatorily, of the complementary sex (gender), rather than, oppositionally: 'the opposite sex'?"




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Monday, March 16, 2015

Holiday Templates

Make your own stationary


Microsoft Office Online has a group of themed holiday designs.

  • Holiday party invitation
  • Holiday menu
  • Holiday place cards
  • Holiday stationery
  • Holiday thank you card (quarter-fold)
  • Holiday gift certificate
Poinsettias



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Sunday, March 15, 2015

Link Browser

Error warning



You may see a warning about browser selection. It happened to me after playing with Firefox and then coming back home again.



Try going to Start>Run and entering:

regsvr32 Urlmon.dll

Here are other ways to do it:

In the following selections, you should know that The URL:Mailto Protocol is located at the top of the list proceeded by (None), not at the bottom with the other U's.

Microsoft KB;
The Locate Link Browser dialog box
appears when you open a Web link in an e-mail message in Outlook 2003

To resolve this problem, follow these steps to clear the Use DDE check box:
  1. Double-click My Computer.
  2. On the View menu, click Folder Options (or Tools>Folder Options).
  3. On the File Types tab, click URL:MailTo Protocol in the Registered File Types list, and then click Edit.
  4. In the Actions box, click Open, and then click Edit.
  5. Click to remove the Use DDE check box, and then click OK.
  6. Click Close two times.
Also:
 Clicking a link opens the Locate Link dialog box (Firefox)
  1. OpenExplorer
  2. Select Tools and then Folder Options
  3. Select the File Types tab
  4. Select Extension: (NONE), File Type: URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol
  5. Click Advanced toward the bottom of the window
  6. In the Edit File Type window, select open and click Edit
  7. Clear the check for DDE above the DDE message box (which should contain "%1" or similar)
  8. Click OK, Click OK
Repeat for File Type: HyperText Transfer Protocol with Privacy and FTP In the "Locate Link Browser" box, go to C:/Disk/Program Files/Internet Explorer/iexplorer.exe. Select the application and click "OK." Or In the "Locate Link Browser" box, go to C Disk/programs/Mozilla/Firefox.exe. Select the application and click "OK."



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Saturday, March 14, 2015

Regedits

Plus or minus 32



Microsoft "removed" regedt32.exe from XP.

Regedit.exe's functionality has been merged with regedt32.exe's.

In Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, Regedt32.exe is a small program that just runs Regedit.exe.

Pre XP:
Regedit.exe is the registration editor for 16-bit Windows. It is used to modify the Windows registration database.

Microsoft recommends that you use Regedit.exe only for its search capabilities on a Windows NT 4.0-based or Windows 2000-based computer.

Regedt32.exe is the configuration editor for Windows NT. It is used to modify the Windows NT configuration database, or the Windows NT registry. This editor allows you to view or modify the Windows NT registry.

The editor provides views of windows that represent sections of the registry, named hives. You must use extreme caution when you use it to change registry values.

Missing or incorrect values in the registry can make the Windows NT installation unusable.

Meryl.net:
An explanation with follow-up links.
A Tale of Two Regeds
By Meryl K. Evans

Also:
Editing the Vista Registry

Windows 8 Registry



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Friday, March 13, 2015

Outlook Query Builder

Find it



Another way to retrieve information in Outlook.
Outlook 2002 through 2007 has an option for filtering dialog called QueryBuilder.

To use it you just need to add the QueryBuilder key to the registry:

  1. Use Regedit to go to the appropriate location.
  2. Right click and choose to add a new Key.
  3. Name it QueryBuilder.
There aren't any other entries that need to be made.
Outlook 2002:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\QueryBuilder
Outlook 2003:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\QueryBuilder

The next time you go to Tools>Advanced Find, there will be a new tab for the Query Builder.







Now you can create an AND/OR query using the Filter dialog in Search Folders, Define Views, Automatic Formatting, or Advanced Find.
With Outlook 2007:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\QueryBuilder
Go to Tools>Instant Search>Advanced Find. The shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+F.

For more information, see:
Sliptick.com:
Using the Query Builder
Microsoft KB:
How to Use the Query Builder for View Filters and Advanced Searches



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Thursday, March 12, 2015

Command the Line

Hands on control



"You can use Command-line reference to familiarize yourself with new and enhanced command-line tools, to configure your command prompt, to learn about the command shell, and to automate command-line tasks by using batch files or scripting tools."

Command-line reference A-Z

Command shell overview
"The command shell is a separate software program that provides direct communication between the user and the operating system. The non-graphical command shell user interface provides the environment in which you run character-based applications and utilities.
The command shell executes programs and displays their output on the screen by using individual characters similar to the MS-DOS command interpreter Command.com.
The Windows XP command shell uses the command interpreter Cmd.exe, which loads applications and directs the flow of information between applications, to translate user input into a form that the operating system understands."


Also:
DOS were the Days



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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Flying Pigs

and other cool stuff


I was lucky enough to find an outlet for Flying Pig material in my home town. If you are interested in very clever paper machines, make Flying-Pig.co.uk a must click location.




Also:
Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

Timber Kits



And:
the Paper Airplane Museum



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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Virus Information

Source list


"A virus is a type of program that can replicate itself by making (possibly modified) copies of itself. The main criterium for classifying a piece of executable code as a virus is that it spreads itself by means of 'hosts'.
A virus can only spread from one computer to another when its host is taken to the uninfected computer, for instance by a user sending it over a network or carrying it on a removable disk. Additionally, viruses can spread to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another computer.

Viruses are sometimes confused with worms. A worm, however, can spread itself to other computers without needing to be transferred as part of a host. Many personal computers are now connected to the Internet and to local-area networks, facilitating their spread.

Today's viruses may also take advantage of network services such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, and file sharing systems to spread, blurring the line between viruses and worms."


(Wikipedia)

Virus Information



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Monday, March 09, 2015

Identify Formatting Inconsistencies

A suggestion I don't suggest



Microsoft Word can detect formatting inconsistencies as you type and then mark them with a blue, wavy underline.You may want to have all the headings in a document formatted the exact same way, but you inadvertently formatted some of them differently. Word can detect these inconsistencies as you are typing and underline them with a blue wavy line to alert you.

Microsoft Word File Tab:
  1. On the menu, click Options, and then click Proofing.
  2. Under Editing options, select the Keep track of formatting check box, if it is not already selected.
  3. Under Editing options, select the Mark formatting inconsistencies check box.
    Formatting inconsistencies will be marked with blue, wavy underlines.
  4. Click OK.
  5. In your document, right-click the blue, wavy underline where a formatting inconsistency has occurred.
  6. Do one of the following:
    To correct the inconsistency, click the command that describes the inconsistency.
    To have Word remove the blue, wavy underline and not correct this inconsistency, click Ignore Once.
    To skip all occurrences of the inconsistency in the document, click Ignore Rule.
ShaunaKelly.com:
How the Styles and Formatting pane works in Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003  

Styles in Word 2010



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Sunday, March 08, 2015

Hot Knots

Tied Up?


The KnotPlot Site
By Rob Scharein


"Knot theory is a branch of algebraic topology where one studies what is known as the placement problem, or the embedding of one topological space into another."

The site includes a collection of knots.



You can, also, download a program called KnotPlot to develop your own knots


Click to see more moiré knots.

Animated Knots

Other nots:

Ripley's Believe it or not!



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Saturday, March 07, 2015

Cascading Combo Boxes

Everything's connected

"Cascading combo boxes are used to help aid the user in determining a choice when entering data into a form.
They help to breakdown the options available into selectable sub-groups such a State & City, Product Type & Product, Department & Employees.
 The user can select, for example, Customer Services in a combo box and the second combo box's list will reflect this selection and only list those employees within Customer Services.
Switch to Finance and all the Finance employees become selectable, etc."


A cascading combo box solution:

Roger J. Carlson

CascadingComboBoxes.mdb (beginner)
CascadingComboInSubform.mdb (intermediate)



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Friday, March 06, 2015

Power Utility Pack

Excel the way you've wanted it


John Walkenbach (J-Walk.com) has improved on the previous versions of PUP. It now includes more than 70 general purpose Excel utilities and 50 worksheet functions.

You can download a 30 day trial at PUP V7

Here are some features just in the area of Chart & Graphics Tools:

Chart Data Labeler: IMPROVED
Lets you apply labels (contained in a range) to a chart data series -- a feature that is surprisingly missing from Excel. Enhancement: Now ignores data that is hidden as a result of autofiltering.
Resize Charts: NEW
Makes it easy to make a chart an exact size, or make all charts the same size.
Convert Chart To Picture: NEW
Makes a copy of a chart as a static picture. This is useful for saving charts that depict various what-if scenarios.
Chart Report: NEW
Produces a detailed report that documents a chart, or produces a report that documents all charts.
Object Align, Size & Space: NEW
Back by popular demand. This utility was removed from PUP v5, but now it's back. It provides an easy way to precisely align, size, and space a group of objects or embedded charts.
Object Hide / Unhide: NEW
An interactive way to hide or unhide charts and other objects on a worksheet.


There is, of course, PUP v7  
Power Utility Pak v6



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Thursday, March 05, 2015

Explorer Default

Choose your Folder


When you click the Windows Explorer shortcut on your Start Menu, you are probably used to the fact that it always opens in the same folder. For example the My Documents folder. Vista opens to your personal User>Documents folder.

You can arrange for it to open to the folder of your choice by editing the properties of the Explorer shortcut.

Open Windows Explorer and locate your Start Menu folder (if you are using Windows XP, this will be in the c:\Documents and Settings directory under your profile). Right click the shortcut to Windows Explorer and click Properties. From the Shortcut tab, change the target so it reads as follows:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e, c:\folder
where c:\folder is the path to the folder that you want Explorer to open.

If you leave off the /e switch, Windows Explorer opens in a single pane view.

Another switch is /n. It opens a new single-pane window for the default selection. This is usually the root of the drive that Windows is installed on. If the window is already open, a duplicate opens.

Explorer.exe Command-Line Options

Click OK. Now when you launch Windows Explorer from the Start Menu, it will open in the folder that you specified.

If Explorer is not one of the shortcuts, Right click the contents pane and choose New>Shortcut.
Enter the same instructions.

You could also Right click the desktop and create a new shortcut.



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Wednesday, March 04, 2015

Excuse me, your formula's showing

Formatting slip



Try this experiment. On a sample worksheet, enter some arbitrary data in say the A1:B5 range.
Select the C column and format it as Text.
(Right click choose Format Cells - on the Number tab choose Text)

In cell C1 enter a function, such as =sum(a1:b1)

With C1 still selected, double click the Fill handle
(the tiny box at the lower right corner of the cell.)

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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Tuesday, March 03, 2015

PC Tick Tock

How a computer tells time

"Computers running Windows 95 or later can take advantage of a third circuit to measure time even more accurately. The frequency of this high- speed oscillator varies from one computer to another. But it usually produces a few million pulses each second.

Because this timer ticks so furiously, Windows allocates more space to store its current value. This counter can continue to increase until it's recorded a total of 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 ticks! This should take at least 21,350,398 seconds (assuming a fast 10 MHz oscillator), or a little over 58,454 years, before the counter reaches its limit. They tell me at that point the count is reset to zero and begins again."
The late Karen Kenworthy

BTW:
If you're a real geek, you may want this:
Excel Function Wall Clock

Some of the functions used to indicate the time are:
=INT(PI)

=FACT(3)

=GCD(77,49)

and

=ROMAN(2)



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Monday, March 02, 2015

Word Ranges

Pre-defined locations



When entries are made in a document, Word creates a Story Range to identify what part of the document is being used. These ranges can be used in macros to search for items , change text, or other actions.

This macro, for instance, changes the text in just the header of the first section:

Sub HeaderFooterObject()
Dim MyText As String
MyHeaderText = "This would be your text"
With ActiveDocument.Sections(1)
.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Text = MyHeaderText
End With
End Sub

When you use Edit>Replace in Word, it does a fine job of locating all occurrences of the target in the body of the document or in the header or footer.

Something fails, however, when you record the action and try to run it as a macro. To make it work, you must loop through the built in ranges of a Word document.

The exercise is interesting if only for the exposure to the built in ranges such as:

  • wdCommentsStory
  • wdEndnotesStory
  • wdEvenPagesFooterStory
  • wdEvenPagesHeaderStory
  • wdFirstPageFooterStory
  • wdFirstPageHeaderStory
  • wdFootnotesStory
  • wdMainTextStory
  • wdPrimaryFooterStory
  • wdPrimaryHeaderStory

    and
  • wdTextFrameStory.
See this article for more information: Word.MVPS.org:
Find and replace with VBA
 

Also: Microsoft KB
VBA macro examples to insert text into a document



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Sunday, March 01, 2015

List Box Filter

Multiple selections



Filter a Report based on List Box
Fabalou.com:
"How to open a report based on a multiple selection in a list box. For example, you may have a list of makes of car and a report that shows various details for each make of car. You want to allow the users to select a range of cars and pull up the report according to that selection."


Microsoft KB:
How to Use a Multi-Select List Box to Filter a Form




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