Thursday, June 30, 2016

Moving using ALT

One sheet to another



To move data from one worksheet to another, highlight the data.

Hold down the ALT key and move the mouse until the pointer arrow is on the border of the selection.

Drag the selection down to the destination worksheet tab.

When the arrow touches the tab, Excel switches to the desired worksheet.

Now drag the selection to the correct position. Let go of the mouse and then the ALT key.

To copy data hold down the CTRL+ALT keys and perform the steps above.

BTW the screen will not scroll while you hold the ALT key down.



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Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Display Data Once

Report Trick


Sometimes, you may have data that needlessly clutters a report.

For instance, suppose your report is listing the fields strCompany, strFirstName, and strLastName.

If there are multiple names listed for each company, and the report is sorted by company name, repeating the company information is unnecessary.

You may want to set a group header based on the company name, but there's an easier way to hide the redundant data.
  1. Open the report in Design view.

  2. Select the control that displays repetitive information.

  3. Display the control's Property sheet.

  4. Set the Hide Duplicates property equal to No.

  5. Finally, Save and preview your report.


If the data in the modified control is the same as the data from the previous record, the control is hidden.



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Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Re-search research

Look again


Outlook has a feature functionality for "Search Folders".

Henrik Walther, at Outlook Exchange, has written a description of how to use this tool:

Using Search Folders in Outlook

Search Folders are a kind of new user interface for the Advanced Find functionality, which has been with us through several Outlook generations. The thing that makes Search Folders new and unique is the possibility for defined search criteria to be saved and represented through a kind of virtual folder in the Outlook client. What this means is it gives us a virtual folder view of the content in one or more "normal" folders, for which a search criteria has been defined.

Also:
Support.Office.com:
Search Folders



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Monday, June 27, 2016

Theses by the Numbers

Colour or Color?


The University of Calgary has a step by step tutorial on how to write a thesis.

  1. Choose a template
  2. Download a template
  3. Guidelines
  4. Styles & their Relevance
  5. Saving your files
  6. Writing - hints & tips
  7. Creating the Front Matter
  8. Assembling Chapters
  9. Page Numbers
  10. Printout & Submission

Included are Word Thesis Templates
Some of the hints may provide you with some help even if you use the letter "U" in a more parsimonious manner.



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Sunday, June 26, 2016

Shortcut Borders

Keyboard trick


Use Ctrl+1 (on the top row of number keys) to bring up Excels Formatting dialog box. Shift+B will take you to the Borders tab.

Now you can use the following key strokes (2002+):

ALT+T
Apply or remove the top border.
ALT+B
Apply or remove the bottom border.
ALT+L
Apply or remove the left border.
ALT+R
Apply or remove the right border.
ALT+D
Apply or remove the downward diagonal border.
ALT+U
Apply or remove the upward diagonal border.
ALT+H
Apply or remove the horizontal interior border.
ALT+V
Apply or remove the vertical interior border.
ALT+O
outlines the cells.
ALT+I
give interior (vertical and horizontal).
ALT+N
removes all borders.
ALT+C
brings up the color palette.



Shortcuts for Applying Borders

Ctrl+Shift+7 will outline a cell without having to display the Format dialog.



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Saturday, June 25, 2016

Plan for Your Site

Outline then do


Always a good idea. Pre-plan and then do. Too often projects are started without a plan and too often plans are made and not carried through.

"When creating a website there are several different tools and methods available, but it is important to plan the steps. This guide will help outline the important steps required for website creation and promotion. Information in this document should help readers avoid many pitfalls and save time throughout the process."
  1. Inception and Planning

  2. Design

  3. Construction

  4. Promotion
CompTechDoc.org:
Website Creation Tutorial



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Friday, June 24, 2016

Definition of Definition

One Stop OneLook


A plethora of punditry

"If you have a word for which you'd like a definition or translation, we'll quickly shuttle you to the web-based dictionaries that define or translate that word. If you don't know how to spell the word, we'll help you do that too. No word is too obscure: More than 21 million words in more than 1096 online dictionaries are indexed by the OneLook search engine.

What can you do at OneLook.com?
Define words:
Type a word into the search box on the front page to retrieve a list of dictionary web sites that define that word. Be sure "Find definitions" is selected.

Translate words:
Type a word into the search box and select "Find translations" to retrieve a list of dictionary web sites that have translations of that word into other languages.

Find words:
Type a pattern consisting of letters and the wildcards * and ? to retrieve a list of words matching your pattern."


OneLook.com



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Thursday, June 23, 2016

Email Garage

Auto Archive


Auto archiving of old messages is a two-part process. Go to Tools>Options and choose the "Other" tab.

Click the "AutoArchive" button.

Select where you would like the archive.pst file to be stored and how often you want messages to be moved to the archive.pst file, for instance every 14 days.

OK your way out.

AutoArchive is a process that searches for folders that have items that need to be saved.

Now you need to set up the folders that you want AutoArchive to look at. Go to View>Folder list.

Right click on a folder such as Inbox, Family letters, any other directory that you have created.

On the Right click Shortcut menu, choose Properties.

Choose the AutoArchive tab.

Put a check next to "Clean out items older than" and choose the time period. You can decide to have items in that folder sent to an archive file of your choosing. For instance older than 3 months.

OK your way out.

Now ever 14 days AutoArchive will look at the folders and archive files that have become older than 3months.

Also see:

Outlook Email Archiving Tips and Tricks - The Naked PC
Setting Up Retention Settings in Outlook -Microsoft Office Online
An Overview of Archive and AutoArchive - KB 290847



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Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Adjust a Page Border

Fix the box


There is a border around your title page, but the bottom line doesn't print. Usually the reason is that the bottom line (or on a landscape page, the right border) falls within your printer's unprintable area. Here are some suggestions for finding just where that area is and how to adjust your border so that it will print.

  • Find your printer's unprintable area

    Your printer manual may specify the unprintable areas. Inkjet printers, in particular, often have a large unprintable area at the bottom of the page.

    Here's a way to discover them for yourself in Word.

    1. Choose File>Page Setup>Margins tab. Change all four margin settings to 0". Choose OK.

    2. You're told that one or more margins are set outside the printable area of the page. Choose Fix.

    3. Word adjusts the margin settings to your printer's minimum values. Jot down your printer's settings for your future reference, then Cancel the dialog.

  • Adjust the Page Border

    1. Set the insertion point on the page that's bordered, then choose Format>Borders and Shading> Page Border tab. Choose Options.

    2. At the Border and Shading Options dialog, note that the default settings are to have all four borders set to 24 pt (which is 1/3"), and to have Measure from: set to Edge of Page.

    3. To maintain the measurement from the edge of the page, yet move the borders in more toward the center, set the measurements for each of the four margins to 31 pt (the maximum allowed).

      For an alternative setting, set Measure from: to Text. Now the Margin settings measure outward from your text margins. You can set the Margin values anywhere from 0 pt to 31 pt.

    4. Click OK>OK. Use the Standard toolbar's Print Preview tool to evaluate your results.

The border is measured from your text margins, not from your actual text. So, if your bottom border still doesn't print, increase the size of your bottom margin, then adjust the other margins as needed for a balanced appearance.



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Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Update Excel on the Web

Auto Republish


You can save an Excel file as a Web page and makes it easy to update data in a worksheet that has already been saved to the Web.

Here is how to save an Excel file as a Web page and set it up it for automatic updates:
  1. Click Save As Web page from the File menu. (click the Office logo in 2007+)

  2. In the Save As dialog box, click the Publish button. (click Publish, Create Document Workspace in 2007+)

  3. Use the drop down arrow beside Choose to select what you want to publish.

  4. In the File name field, enter a file name.

  5. Place a check beside Auto Republish every time this worksheet is saved. This way the data will be updated each time you make changes to the worksheet.

  6. Select Open published page in Web browser to view the data in your Web browser after you click Publish.

  7. Click Publish.
Lockergnome.com:
 Save Excel as Web Page

DevX.com:
 Four Ways to Use Excel on the Web

Penn State:
 Interactive Excel on the Web



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Monday, June 20, 2016

Does Butter Fly?

Not Birders - Butters?


North American Butterfly Association
The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) is, by far, the largest group of people in North America (Canada, United States, and Mexico) interested in butterflies.

[Butterflies - North American Butterfly Association Home Page Graphic]

Here are some quotes from the FAQ:
How many kinds of butterflies are there?
There are approximately 20,000 species of butterflies in the world. About 725 species have occurred in North American north of Mexico, with about 575 of these occurring regularly in the lower 48 states of the United States, and with about 275 species occurring regularly in Canada. Roughly 2000 species are found in Mexico.
How many kinds of butterflies can I find near where I live?
In most parts of the United States, you can find roughly 100 species of butterflies near your home. The number is higher in the Rio Grande Valley and some parts of the West, somewhat less in New England. As one goes northward into Canada the number decreases, while as one goes southward into Mexico the number greatly increases.
How long does a butterfly live?
An adult butterfly probably has an average life-span of approximately one month. In the wild, most butterflies' lives are shorter than this because of the dangers provided by predators, disease, and large objects, such as automobiles. The smallest butterflies may live only a week or so, while a few butterflies, such as Monarchs, Mourning Cloaks and tropical heliconians, can live up to nine months.

Also See:
An Obsession with Butterflies

"Just living is not enough, said the Butterfly. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. "

-Hans Christian Anderson (1805-1875)




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Sunday, June 19, 2016

Copy Paste

Excel tables


One way to create a new table in an Access database from information included in an Excel spreadsheet is to select the pertinent data on the spreadsheet, including the field names.

Copy the selection (Edit>Copy, or CTRL+C)

Switch back to Access .

With Tables objects being shown in the database window, choose Edit>Paste, or use the CTRL+V shortcut.

Access will ask if the first row contains the field names and then will paste the information as a new database table.



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Saturday, June 18, 2016

Outlook's Right

The bounty that is a right click.


  • Right click on Outlook's group headers to Collapse All or Expand All

  • Right-click your calendar and choose Open in New Window. When you do, Outlook opens a new window for your calendar and you can toggle back and forth using the Windows taskbar

  • Right-click the message in the message view window and select Options. The box "Request a read receipt for this message" under Tracking Options will have a check in it if the message was sent with a read receipt

  • Right click in the middle of the file name if there is a file attached. You will see the option box with the choice of Print, Save As etc…

  • Right the name in the email you receive if you want to add to the contact list. click on Add to Contacts in the context menu and entry for the contact will open with the name and e-mail address already filled in. Fill in the other details if required and save the contact

  • Right-click the folder you want to search in the Folder List or Outlook Bar and select Advanced Find

  • Right click on the Day planner's time scale to change the scale or access Time Zone settings.

  • Right click Personal Folders and choose Properties. Select Folder size to see the size of your PST

  • Right click on any Day/Week/Month view for a host of options, include Go to Day...

  • Right click on folders (including shortcuts on the Outlook bar) to see folder options

  • Right click the Deleted Items folder Click Empty Deleted Items Folder on the shortcut menu.

  • Right -click the folder you want to Archive, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu. Click on the AutoArchive tab. Specify whether you want to archive this folder and it so, whether to use the default AutoArchive settings or your own settings

  • Right click on any white pace in any folder view to access view options. (Double click in white space to create new items)
Here's one of the sources for these tips:
 Outlook-Tips.net



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Friday, June 17, 2016

Unicode is Huge

More symbols and letters


This free download lets you see and select more characters in the Unicode set. The Unicode Character Grid shows all assigned characters and private use characters in Unicode 6+.



BablePad

Here's a blog covering Scripts, Unicode, Character Encoding and BabelStone Stuff
BableStone Blog



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Thursday, June 16, 2016

Gambling for Tuition

Casino tutoring


An education will probably increase your lifetime earnings. Why not make that probability work for you? Or not.


Teaching probability can be challenging because the mathematical formulas often are too abstract and complex for the students to fully grasp the underlying meaning and effect of the concepts. Games can provide a way to address this issue. For example, the game of roulette can be an exciting application for teaching probability concepts.
In this paper, we implement a model of roulette in a spreadsheet that can simulate outcomes of various betting strategies. The simulations can be analyzed to gain better insights into the corresponding probability structures. We use the model to simulate a particular betting strategy known as the bet-doubling, or Martingale, strategy. This strategy is quite popular and is often erroneously perceived as a winning strategy even though the probability analysis shows that such a perception is incorrect.

The simulation allows us to present the true implications of such a strategy for a player with a limited betting budget and relate the results to the underlying theoretical probability structure. The overall validation of the model, its use for teaching, including its application to analyze other types of betting strategies are discussed.


Illustrating Probability through Roulette


More Roulette strategy and statistics:
To Be Ahead And Quit


The Laymans Guide to Probability
"An in-depth but easily readable guide on probability theory, covering various aspects of the theory with a bias to gambling games and strategies. Includes working examples in an excel spreadsheet."




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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Who dat

And Where


Let's say you wanted to set up a web site for your friend Bob, who lives in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Would you know that the root zone code was .ba and that the contact person has an office at:

Universtiy Telinformatic Centre (UTIC)
Zmaja od Bosne 8 (objekat 33)
Sarajevo 71000
Bosnia-Hercegovina

See:
International Assigned Numbers Association:
Root-Zone Whois Information

There is also a page that defines such top level domains as .COM and .NET.
Generic Top-Level Domains

BTW.
Sorry feline fanatics,
"The .cat domain is reserved for the Catalan linguistic and cultural community and is sponsored by Fundació puntCat"




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Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Cleanup Your Presentation

Design suggestions



Julie Terberg is a contributing editor for Presentations Magazine.
There are a number of PDF copies of her columns, plus PowerPoint shows that can be downloaded at Terbergdesign.com

Some topics discussed include PNG format, exploring print options, animation tools, and bringing a company logo to life.



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Monday, June 13, 2016

Messy Email

Junky appearing addresses


Office-Watch is a great newsletter covering Email/Windows/Access and Office in general.
One of their recent offerings tackled email addresses:

Which of these email addresses (all fake) is formatted correctly?

f.r.e.d.a.g.g@gmail.com

"Frederick Dagg"@freddagg.com

Fred+sheepdip@freddagg.com

Fred*Dagg=funny@freddagg.com

FredO’Dagg@freddagg.com

Bruce^Bayliss@freddagg.com

Prof~Taihape@freddagg.com

FD{Prof}@freddagg.com

Pa$toral@freddagg.com

The answer is that they are all strictly valid though they might not be useable in practice.

Further discussion at:
Office-Watch.com



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Sunday, June 12, 2016

Guided Help

Microsoft to the rescue


Guided Help is a program that you can download from some Microsoft Knowledge Base articles. Depending on the task, Guided Help can automatically perform the task that is described in the article, or Guided Help can guide you through the steps to perform the task yourself.

Guided Help performs the steps by interacting directly with the Microsoft Windows user interface, or by using functions that are included with Guided Help. For steps that interact with the user interface, you see the steps occur on the screen.

For some tasks, you can select to run Guided Help in one of the following ways.
  • Do it automatically: The whole task is automatically completed while you watch. You might be prompted for input if input is required.
  • Show me step-by-step: Guided Help points on the screen to where you must click or type to perform the task.
For Instance:

 Troubleshoot Windows 10



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Saturday, June 11, 2016

When 28 is 30

How long is a month?


When you use the banker's DAYS360 function to calculate the number of days between two dates, you can get an odd answer.

If you use the DAYS360 function with a start date of February 28 and with an end date of March 28, a value of 28 days is returned.
You expect a value of 30 days to be returned for every full month. (12*30=360)

This behavior may occur if you use the U.S. method, also known as the NASD method, with the DAYS360 function.

To work around this behavior, use the European method with the DAYS360 function. With the European method starting dates and ending dates that occur on the 31st of a month become equal to the 30th of the same month. To use the European method with the DAYS360 function, use the following syntax:

=DAYS360(cell number of start date,cell number of end date,TRUE)

Using FALSE or omitting the third parameter uses the U.S. method

Support.microsoft.com
An unexpected value with the DAYS360 function



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Friday, June 10, 2016

It's Your Move

Do the Hucklebuck


Echosvoice.com has some sample animations techniques you can borrow.

  • Grow/Shrink

  • Jeopardy (exit animations)

  • Text crawling across slide during bulleted list

  • Text crawling across slide continuously
  • Modifying animations for just a few slides

  • Animating bulleted text

  • Animating bulleted text individually

  • Star Wars Credits

  • Adding Animation vs Changing Animation

  • Using Triggers
Animation Features

Also see:
Animation Videos



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Thursday, June 09, 2016

Hold the Book in Your Hand

DaVinci and friends


It's close to impossible to be able to physically handle a classic text by Mozart, Jane Austin or others.

There is a way to get pretty close. Look at:
Turning the Page



This was brought to my attention by
BookofJoe.com



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Wednesday, June 08, 2016

Reduce Trips to the Toolbox

Save shoe leather


Where is Control Toolbox in Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010 and 2013?


When you add controls to forms and reports you'll often need to add several of the same type, such as when creating a group of option buttons or a series of unbound text boxes. In such cases, repeatedly moving between the Toolbox and the object you're designing can quickly become tedious.

Fortunately, you can make the process easier. When you select the control you want to add from the Toolbox, double-click the control button (like double-clicking the Format Painter). Doing so lets you add as many controls of that type as you need. When you finish, click the button again to disable the control tool.



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Tuesday, June 07, 2016

Format Cleansing

Go back to a simpler time


There can come a time when a document becomes too complicated and the formatting appears more like mud.

For most documents it's a good idea to use styles. These help standardize the formatting for the whole document. But what happens when the paragraph or word doesn't appear in the correct style? While a style is set for each paragraph, it can be overridden by separate formatting for all or part of the paragraph. When you paste in text from another document or web page, it will bring with it the formatting on the source page.

Here's a quick shortcut that will remove all additional formatting from a selection and leave you with normal formatting.

Ctrl+SPACEBAR Remove character formatting

Ctrl+Q Remove paragraph formatting

To clear up the whole document try:

Ctrl+A Then one or both of the shortcuts.

To just get back to Normal Style use:
Ctrl+Shift+N



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Monday, June 06, 2016

Shut it All Down

Close the spreadsheet and Excel


As it comes out of the box, at this point, Excel 2007 is set to display spreadsheets on the task bar. No big deal 2003 did too.

If, however, you only have one workbook open and want the application to shut down when you close the book you must make a little change.

Just as before, you must deselect Windows in the Taskbar from the View Options.

In 2007+ it is located by clicking on the logo icon, then choose Excel Options. The Windows entry is on the Personalize screen





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Sunday, June 05, 2016

Insert Page Numbers

Don't get framed


If you use Insert>Page Numbers to number your document, the character will be contained in a frame.

This can, sometimes, make formatting the Header or Footer difficult.

A more versatile solution is to use Insert>Field.
Look for PAGE and NUMPAGES.

See:
Word.MVPS.org:
How to control the page numbering in a Word document

"Page X of Y" gives wrong numbers

YouTube:
Placing the page number correctly on a landscape page


There is, also, an excellent discussion about how Word handles numbering at the
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ Site



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Saturday, June 04, 2016

Online Crash Analysis

May you never need it



Windows Memory Diagnostic


The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows, you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of your motherboard.

Windows Memory Diagnostic is designed to be easy and fast. On most configurations, you can download the diagnostic, read the documentation, run the test and complete the first test pass in less than 30 minutes.




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Friday, June 03, 2016

Disable Confirmation

Only for the brave


Access tries to prevent user errors that would have calamitous effects on data or an application by throwing up confirmation boxes before potentially dangerous actions. This provides users with an out before committing irreversible changes to the database.

Although you probably want these confirmation dialog boxes in place for end-users, you may find that they slow your work down too much. You may, also, click through the dialog boxes so quickly that they're essentially ineffective.

If you have a programmer's version of hubris, you can prevent Access from displaying confirmation dialog boxes.

To do so, choose Tools>Options from the menu bar and click on the Edit/Find tab. Then, clear the appropriate check boxes in the Confirm panel that correspond to the dialog boxes you want to suppress.

Finally, click OK.
In 2007+, click the Office logo and then Access Options



Good luck, you've been warned.



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Thursday, June 02, 2016

Where da Store

Pick your own location


If you need to change or just locate where Outlook stores its information:

"With Outlook closed, open Control Panel and double-click Mail. (Type Mail in the Search box.)
In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Data Files and then click Open Folder. This opens Windows Explorer using the folder where your Outlook Personal Stores (PST) file is located. The default name is Outlook.pst. Back up that file, which contains all your messages, rules, contacts, and appointments."




See more from Ed Bott:
Find your e-mail folder fast



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Wednesday, June 01, 2016

Lock the Barn

Protect your work



John Walkenbach has put together an FAQ on Workbook/Worksheet/VBA protection.
Spreadsheet Protection FAQ

The Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB 293445 Has a list of references to protection information.


Microsoft Excel provides multiple layers of protection to allow you to control who can access and change your data:
  • Worksheet protection: You can protect elements on a worksheet (for example, cells with formulas) from all user access, or you can grant individual users access to the ranges that you specify.
  • Workbook-level protection: You can apply protection to workbook elements, and you can protect a workbook file from being viewed and edited. If a workbook is shared, you can protect it from being returned to exclusive use and prevent the change history from being deleted.
... articles address some of the more frequently asked questions about workbook and worksheet protection in Excel:
  • How can I grant only a few users access to a range in my worksheet?
  • Why are users not allowed to edit the ranges that I established permissions for?
  • What new features are available in workbook protection?
  • Why don't the permissions that I set on ranges in my worksheets carry over to Windows 98 computers?
Here is more information
Overview of security and protection in Excel



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