Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Calculate Running Total

Using the OFFSET function


Adding up a running balance can be frustrating when new data is added or old transactions are removed.
"How to create a data list to manage transactions, add and delete rows from the list, and accurately calculate a running balance using the OFFSET function."
Cash flow using OFFSET.PDF

Office.Microsoft.com:
Calculate a running total



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Monday, October 30, 2017

Define URL Parts

More than dot com


Google engineer and blogger Matt Cutts has defined the pieces that make up a Uniform Resource Locator.

At least as Google refers to them when they're sitting around in their backrooms
Domain

Dynamic URL
Fragment or a Named anchor



The Googlers I've talked to are split right down the middle on which way to refer it. Disputes on what to call it can be settled with arm wrestling, dance-offs, or drinking contests. Typically the fragment is used to refer to an internal section within a web document. In this case, the named anchor means "skip to 2 minutes and 30 seconds into the video."






Host





Parameters





Path





Port





Protocol





Second-level domain





Static url





Subdomain





Top-level domain



Parts of a URL



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Sunday, October 29, 2017

Annotation Preservation

Hold that note



Remember the old days. You did your John Madden thing. You've scribbled notes all over the slide and would like to keep them. That old-fashioned 2002 version of PowerPoint couldn't help, but 2003+ will!

Not only can you save your highlights and underscores, but you can turn them on and off when you re-run the show.

Carefully mark up the slide and then at presentation time make it look like you do this sort of thing all the time on ESPN.

When you close the presentation you are asked if you want to save the changes.
You can't highlight text in PowerPoint like you can in Word, but you can do it with screen annotations




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Saturday, October 28, 2017

Full Moon Stuff

50 things about the moon


The an article on moon detritus:

3 -Lunar eclipses - caused by the passage of the earth's shadow across the illuminated hemisphere - only occur during a full moon. However, because of the angle of tilt of both bodies the moon normally passes either north or south of the earth's shadow.

4 -The chances of being bitten by a dog are twice as high during a full moon, according to a study at Bradford Royal Infirmary, which reviewed 1,621 cases of dog bite between 1997 and 1999. However, a study at the University of Sydney in Australia concluded there was no identifiable relationship between the state of the moon and dog bites.

16 -In October 1939 in Springfield, Missouri, the full moon appeared to fall from the sky. The event was reported in the local newspaper but was later revealed to be a plunging weather balloon.

26 -The full moon may appear round, but is actually shaped like an egg with the pointed end facing earth.

33 -The full moon is the brightest object in the night sky. It has an apparent magnitude of -12.6 compared with the Sun's of -26.8.

50 -In a study of 1,000 tonsillectomy operations, 82 per cent of post-operative bleeding crises occurred nearer the full moon than the new moon, according to the Journal of the Florida Medical Association.

The sky at night



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Friday, October 27, 2017

Google Guide

Get a Job



There are a number of templates installed in Word that will help in creating a good looking resume.
Get started on your job hunt with Word templates

Here are some suggestions about what a resume should look like:

About.com
Resume and Cover Letter Guide

The Riley Guide:
Prepare Your Resume for Emailing or Posting on the Internet


Want to work for Microsoft?

Microsoft's Zoe Goldring and Gretchen Ledgard:
What is it like to interview at Microsoft?

Chris Sells:
Interviewing at Microsoft

Blog:
Technical Careers@Microsoft



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Resume Writing

Get a Job



There are a number of templates installed in Word that will help in creating a good looking resume.
Get started on your job hunt with Word templates

Here are some suggestions about what a resume should look like:

About.com
Resume and Cover Letter Guide

The Riley Guide:
Prepare Your Resume for Emailing or Posting on the Internet


Want to work for Microsoft?

Microsoft's Zoe Goldring and Gretchen Ledgard:
What is it like to interview at Microsoft?

Chris Sells:
Interviewing at Microsoft

Blog:
Technical Careers@Microsoft



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Thursday, October 26, 2017

Insert Line Breaks With Code

Label Captions


If you've ever needed to insert line breaks in a message box prompt, you most likely built a string that incorporated a line feed or carriage return character. Unfortunately, label objects aren't as forgiving when it comes to using these characters.

If you're setting a label's Caption property with code, you'll find that the special control characters are interpreted as squares, since they're otherwise un-displayable.
To successfully insert a line break in a label caption, you need to include both a line feed character and a carriage return character, entered consecutively.

To do so, you can use the Chr() function, such as:

Me.Label1.Caption = "Line 1" & _
Chr(13) & Chr(10) & "Line 2"

However, you can also simplify your code using an built-in constant:
Me.Label1.Caption = "Line 1" & vbCrLf & "Line 2"




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Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Zoom Box

Better view


Access does not provide much room to enter long expressions in queries, forms, or reports.
You can drag the column wider, but there is a neater, quicker method.

With the insertion point in the field, hit: SHIFT+F2.
A Zoom box opens. Enter the formula and hit OK.

New Folders


BTW: If you enter Field names in the Zoom box without square brackets, if the fields are recognized, Access will add the brackets.



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Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Print Calendars

Good looking printouts


The standard calendar print out is dull:



The new free Calendar Assistant makes it more fun.



The Calendar Printing Assistant for Office Outlook 2007-13



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Monday, October 23, 2017

Office Art

2007+ choices


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

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

Here's a description:

Office PPT Art




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Sunday, October 22, 2017

Bad Typography

Ugly when you look close


"From the company that popularized Arial, here are three examples of bad typography in Microsoft Word.
Bad typesetting in Word finds its way into résumés, business plans, research papers, government documents, even published books.
These small inconsistencies and imperfections may be un-noticeable in small doses, but paragraph-after-paragraph they stack up-resulting in ugly, visually in-cohesive documents.
Word isn’t for professional typography work, but that's no excuse for these typography sins.

Arial:



Garamond



Here's one that shows it can be done right:

BatangChe





Examples of Bad Typography



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Saturday, October 21, 2017

Google Guide

How to do dat


Why Take The Google Guide Tutorial?

Google Guide

"Google is so easy to use, why take this online tutorial? If you're like many people, you use only a fraction of Google's features and services. The more you know about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve your needs.

Just as the best way to learn how to sail is to sail, the best way to learn how to search with Google is to search with Google. Consequently, this Google tutorial contains many examples and exercises designed to give you practice with the material presented and to inspire you to find amusing or useful information."

Using Search Operators:
Advanced Operators

Google Guide TOC:
Table of Contents

Also:
GoogleTutor.com

and
Googling for XML



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Friday, October 20, 2017

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets



As a web page is formatted in Expression Web/FrontPage, the style choices are applied to each element.
To format the body of the page, the HTML code might be:

<body background="blue" color="white" font-family="times, serif" font-size=10pt>

Every page on the site would need to be coded this way in order to have a consistent look.
Cascading Style Sheets will simplify the problem. On an external page the elements can be defined like this:

body {
background: blue;
color: white;
font-family: times, serif;
font-size: 10pt


Each page would contain a reference to the CSS definitions:

<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mystyle.css">
</head>


When the element "body" is used it will now use the CSS references.

For more information see:

Using Cascading Style Sheets on Your Web Site - David Berry
and
Eric Meyer's Site

In this Blog:
CSS Links
and:
More Cascading Style Sheet Help



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Thursday, October 19, 2017

Place Controls Where You Want

Works with other apps as well


The Snap To Grid feature is an invaluable tool for aligning controls when you're designing forms and reports. However, when you fine-tune the placement of some controls, you'll probably want to move some of them to positions that aren't exactly aligned with the design grid.

You can temporarily disable the Snap To Grid feature by holding down the [Ctrl] key. Then, you can use your mouse or the cursor arrows to place the controls exactly where you want them.



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Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Create a Template

More of a good thing


After putting together the ultimate proposal, or dunning notice, you can save the document as a template so that you don't have to re-invent the whole thing.

Here's how to do it in Word 2007-13.
(Earlier versions also use "Save As")


  1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Open.

  2. Open the document that you want.
    Make the changes that you want to appear in all new documents that you base on the template.

  3. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Save As.

  4. In the Save As dialog box, click Templates if your computer is running Windows or Vista, or click Trusted Templates if your computer is running Windows XP.

  5. Give the new template a file name, select Word Template in the Save As type list, and then click Save.
Note You can also save the template as a Word Macro-Enabled Template (.dotm file) or a Word 97-2003 Template (.dot file).

Create a new template

Also:
Templates are digital stencils  



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Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Read All About IT

Excel reading


Bastien Mensink, from the Netherlands, runs ASAP-Utilities.com.

He has aggregated the headlines from a number of Excel Blogs.

If you don't have them as part of your RSS list, you should.

Weblog Headines



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Monday, October 16, 2017

Synch Time

Time Server


Things I've forgotten or never knew.

  1. Double click on the date and time on the taskbar to open the time applet.

  2. Click on the Internet Time tab.

  3. Choose a time server, and click on the Update Now button.

As long as you are connected to the internet, Windows will attempt to synchronize the time once per week.
You can type the name of a time server if you want to use one that is not listed. Only time servers that use the Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP) will work. Inserting an Internet address that uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) will not work. The time server time.windows.com is operated by Microsoft. The time server time.nist.gov is operated by the U.S. government. Other time servers provided by your computer's manufacturer might also be listed.



Also:
Time Flies Like an Arrow



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Sunday, October 15, 2017

Foley Sounds

Clip Clop


Here's a subject you have heard about:

A Foley Artist 'recreates' sound effects for film, television and radio productions on a Foley Stage in a Post Production Sound Studio.
Using many different kinds of shoes and lots of props - car fenders, plates, glasses, chairs, and just about anything found at the side of the road - the Foley Artist can replace original sound completely or augment existing sounds to create a richer smoother track.
Almost every motion picture and television show you have ever seen and heard contains a Foley track!


NPR presented this story:
Jack Foley: Feet to the Stars

Also:
Art of Foley

Film Sound Q&A



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Saturday, October 14, 2017

Hardcopy Relationships

Document database


When you're documenting your database applications, you may want to include the same visual diagram of your table relationships that's available through the Relationships window.
In Access 2000 thru 2003, this is easy. Simply display the Relationships window as usual and then choose File>Print Relationships from the menu bar. Doing so displays a report preview that you can then print or save.

In 2007-13, to just print out a report, find Database tools on the Ribbon and click on Database Documenter.

Relationships are at the bottom of the All Object Types tab





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Friday, October 13, 2017

Life with PowerPoint

Cruel tips


" Don McMillan is "Technically Funny". Before he became a nationally known stand-up comedian, Don spent 10 years as an engineer at IBM, AT&T, and VLSI Technology. He knows what corporate life is all about. His show is funny, smart, clean, AND he is the ONLY comedian working in PowerPoint.


Life After Death by PowerPoint



Don McMillan



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Thursday, October 12, 2017

Specifications for Excel 2007-2016

More flexibility


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

Here are some more changes:

  • Worksheet and workbook specifications and limits

  • Calculation specifications and limits

  • Charting specifications and limits

  • PivotTable and PivotChart report specifications and limits

  • Shared workbook specifications and limits

Excel 2007-2016 Specifications



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Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Piggyback on Gmail

An added tool


Google's Gmail is free and offers some features you can use in conjunction with your email program.


  • Send email to Gmail

  • Forwarding

  • Gmail spam control

  • Centralized Email

  • Additional email storage
"As well as a backup, it means you can easily access your messages via Internet terminal or mobile phone. Gmail is easily searched online or indexed offline using Google Desktop Search."
Here's a YouTube:
Gmail as your spam filter

Here's GMail's Fetch gadget:
How to set up Mail Fetcher



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Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Use the Ruler

Measure by Measure


Here is an article that explores the use of Word's Rulers.

About the only thing I don't see is that you can bring up the Page Setup dialog box by double clicking in the dark area of the ruler that indicates the margin.

Once again this tip comes from the Microsoft Word MVP site:

Ruler of all you survey:
How to make the best use of Word's rulers

Here's the spot to click to show rulers in Word 2007-13:





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Monday, October 09, 2017

Clippy and Friends

Office Assistants


They were in the background, waiting to pounce.

Chris Pratley was there in the beginning:
Clippy and User Experiences


Stanford University:
Bob and the assistants
Social science research influences computer product design
..."They have found that to a very considerable extent people treat their computers and other computer-driven technology in the same ways that they treat people - as if the computer possessed reason, feelings, etc. People also treat pictures on screens as real objects, rather than as representations of real objects. This is relevant to anyone who wants to design technology or content that is as effective as it can be ..."


Also see:
Microsoft Bob
Clippy's Revenge



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Sunday, October 08, 2017

Undo Excel

Level talk


In Excel 2007+. the number of levels of the "undo stack" was increased from 16 levels to 100.

Setting AutoFilters, showing/hiding detail in PivotTables, and grouping/ungrouping in PivotTables are now reversible.

And the undo stack is not cleared when Excel saves, be it an AutoSave or a Save by the user.

If you think the number of undos should be changed, here's how:


  1. Close any programs that are running.

  2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.

  3. In Registry Editor, expand one of the following registry subkeys, as appropriate for the version of Excel that you are running:

    Microsoft Office Excel 2010
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Excel\Options

    Microsoft Office Excel 2007 uses Office\12.0\
    Microsoft Office Excel 2003 uses Office\11.0\
    Microsoft Excel 2002 uses Office\10.0\
    Microsoft Excel 2000 uses Office\9.0\


  4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value. Select New Value #1, type UndoHistory, and then press ENTER.

  5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.

  6. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, click Decimal under Base. Type a value between 0 and 100 in the Value box, click OK, and then exit Registry Editor.

  7. Start Excel. Excel stores an undo history for the number of actions that you specified in step 6.


Modify the number of undo levels
 

If you want to clear the undo stack, just run a macro such as:


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

Allen Wyatt:
Clearing the Undo stack



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Saturday, October 07, 2017

Leaf Automation

Animation tip


This tutorial will walk you through the steps you can use to display a leaf as it floats and swirls across the screen.

There is also a file that you can download to see how its done.

PowerPoint Heaven:

Leaf Motion



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Friday, October 06, 2017

Startup Switches for Access

Your choice


"This article shows you how to customize the way that Microsoft Office Access 2007+ starts by adding switches and parameters to the startup command. For example, you can have Office Access 2007+ open a specific file or run a specific macro when it starts."


Office.Microsoft.com

Also:

Support.Microsoft.com

and

VB123.com



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Thursday, October 05, 2017

Screen Capture Gear

Better than PrtScn


You can add graphics to instructions using the built in PrtScn button, but there's not much versatility.

WritersUA by WinWriters, Inc has a discussion on some available apps that can help.



"Almost all of us need to include screen captures in our user assistance from time to time.

Of course, it's possible to do almost all of this by pressing + to copy the active window to the clipboard, and then pasting it into your favorite image-editing application.
However, for each screen capture this requires you to go through the same set of actions in order to crop, set the color depth, add borders or edge effects, and finally save it.
If you only take the occasional screen capture, then this is fine. But it can become extremely tedious and time-consuming if you have a large number of screens to capture."


Capture Tools



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Wednesday, October 04, 2017

Non Stop Show

Stop the breakout


If a PowerPoint show is running, it can be stopped by using the escape key. Here's a way to prevent that from happening.

A User can exit out of a show accidentally/intentionally by pressing the ESC key. This add-in disables the functionality of the ESC key.

Note: If the show is set to run in Kiosk mode, disabling the ESC key will provide no way of getting out of a slide show, hence please ensure that you have provided an escape route (e.g an invisible shape set to End show) to exit the show.


No ESCape Add-in
by Shyam Pillai



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Tuesday, October 03, 2017

Continued

More to come



You can place the word "More" or "Continued" at the bottom of every page except the last one.
The field, for those of you who know how to use them is:

{ IF { PAGE } = { NUMPAGES } "" "more" }

You can't just type in the brackets, you must use Insert>Field or Ctrl+F9.

Here is a more sophisticated formula:

{ IF { PAGE } < { NUMPAGES } "Continued on page {={PAGE} + 1}" "Last Page"}

Also see the Word MVP site:

How to control the page numbering in a Word document



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Monday, October 02, 2017

Cmabrigde

Crorcet Sllipneg



"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."


Spanish:
"Sgeun un etsduio de una uivenrsdiad ignlsea, no ipmotra el odren en el que las ltears etsan ersciats, la uicna csoa ipormtnate es que la pmrirea y la utlima ltera esten ecsritas en la psiocion cocrrtea. El rsteo peuden estar ttaolmntee mal y aun pordas lerelo sin pobrleams. Etso es pquore no lemeos cada ltera por si msima preo la paalbra es un tdoo."

Russian:



See: Matt Davis - Cmabrigde, for a full discussion.

True or fsale?

TheSpellingBlog



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Sunday, October 01, 2017

Use a Table Alias

to change names in a query


When you need to change the table name referenced in an existing Access query, it can be a pain. This is especially true if the query contains a large number of fields.

You typically might use an alias when you need to relate a table to itself or tables have long or unwieldy names.

If you make a practice of always using aliases in your queries, you can easily change which table is used by changing the one occurrence of the original table name in the query's FROM clause.
  1. To set a table alias in the query's Design view,
  2. Right-click on the table field list and choose Properties.
  3. Then, enter the alias name you want to use in the Alias text box.





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