Viewing Word Documents in Excel
Years ago I developed an Access database to manage shipping containers for a distribution centre. The solution needed to display the location and stacked position of 20 and 40 foot shipping containers on a 30-by-30 grid where each square in the grid represented a 20-foot area. The approach I took was to embed an Excel workbook on […]
Continue readingWhat version of Excel are you really using?
Knowing the precise version of Excel can save hours or days of frustration. I remember when my circle of friends were all turning 18, getting their driver’s licence and buying a car. In suburban Melbourne, no car meant no social life. After one of my close friends got her licence and brought a second-hand car, I […]
Continue readingMind the (Excel) Gap
When I moved to London in 2007, I found the fastest way to get around was the underground train network affectionately called “the Tube”. It’s the oldest underground train network in the world with the first section opening in 1863. If you’ve ever travelled on the Tube you’ll be familiar with the phrase “Mind the Gap”. This […]
Continue readingCombine Excel Ranges (without VBA)
I’ve been finishing off a project modifying a client’s existing spreadsheets. The spreadsheet allows a courier company to log various aspects of its delivery business each day with one worksheet for each day. One aspect they log is failed deliveries. One each day’s tab, there’s a table for delivery issues and another for failed deliveries.So far, so […]
Continue readingIt doesn’t have to be complicated to save an hour a day
It doesn’t have to be complicated to save an hour a day.That’s almost 3 full days each and every month) with a simple Excel solution. At one client, an investment bank, financial analysts would look up details regarding investment bonds from an intranet site. They would enter the bond’s code (an ISIN) and then copy-and-paste […]
Continue readingHow to turn Excel into a Vespa
The head of the 5-member PMO team at this mid-size bank was exasperated.She needed a simple solution for her small team to monitor & report the costs of projects within the department. A single Excel workbook, by itself, wasn’t suitable for a team of five.She reached out to the head of IT development for a […]
Continue readingSo why (the heck) is VBA still being used in Excel?
Here’s a common scenario I witness frequently, particularly in finance:A business manager approaches their IT Department in need of a solution. Maybe there’s been a regulatory change, or they have a manual process which has inherent operational risk, or there’s a new product they want to trade.The IT Manager says “Sure, we can have something […]
Continue readingCoding VBA on the Dark Side
Have you ever wanted to change the colour scheme or theme of Excel’s Visual Basic Editor? Read on to find out how and start coding on the Dark Side.Coding VBA on the Dark Side If you’ve been coding in any modern Development Environment, you may know that many of them come with colour schemes. A […]
Continue readingWhy learn VBA when I can just use the Macro Recorder?
Why learn VBA when I can just use the Macro Recorder? What are the limitations of recording a macro in Excel rather than writing VBA code? The VBA macro recorder in Excel is indeed a handy-dandy tool.For a beginner, it’s a useful place to start learning about VBA. Even for seasoned VBA developers it’s handy to […]
Continue readingRecording the history of a cell’s value
Here’s the situation. You’ve got a spreadsheet where you’d like to track the changes to some cell values over time. Maybe they’re stock prices, or exchange rates or input parameters to a model. Whatever. But when you change the value tomorrow, you want a record of what that value was last week.The Curse of Excel’s Track Changes FeatureThe first […]
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