Moved to the Excel Twitters archive:
Excel Twitters 20090214
 
|
Last week I saw a an article by Giles Thomas, who uses a Resolver One spreadsheet to play music. If it can be done in another spreadsheet, Excel must be able to play music too, so I checked with the most likely suspect, John Walkenbach. Sure enough, he created an Excel midi-player that you can download. He also has a Dueling Banjos Excel player, that he posted on his blog a couple of years ago. Music Playlist CreatorIf you're not musically gifted, you can still use Excel to help you enjoy your music collection. Dave Peterson has created an Excel Music Playlist Creator that you can download. The code in Dave's workbook creates a playlist of music from a selected folder, and puts it on your desktop. _______________________________ Continue reading Musical Spreadsheets Do you have a few Excel files that you usually have open all at the same time? Maybe the files are linked, and you update one and check the results in the other file. Or maybe there are a few files that you open first thing every morning, to enter or update the data. After you open the files, you might spend a minute or two arranging the files so you can see everything as you work. Then you make the changes, close everything, and do the same thing again tomorrow. Save Time With a WorkspaceTo save time, you can use Excel's Save Workspace feature. It remembers which files are open, how you have them arranged, and where the files are located. The Workspace file doesn't contain the files themselves. You'll still be able to open the files individually, and use the Workspace file when you want to open Continue reading Quickly Open a Set of Excel Files When you set up a worksheet for other people to use, data validation messages can help them get started. The messages appear, like little ToolTips, when a user clicks on a cell. After using the workbook for a while, users might not need those messages anymore, and they become annoying, rather than helpful. AlexJ, who recently shared his technique for hiding rows with Excel outlining, has created another useful sample. In this file, he lets users turn those data validation messages on or off, by choosing TRUE or FALSE from a drop down list. When TRUE is selected, the label cells, such as Name, are green. Click on a label cell and a data validation input message appears, with instructions for that field. Select FALSE and the label cells turn white, and no data validation input message appears when you click on a label cell. How ItContinue reading Show or Hide User Tips In Excel Do you use many colours in Excel? I keep most of my Excel workbooks relatively colour free, except for a few headings or charts, or to mark cells for data entry. Usually, I use Excel's standard colours, but sometimes I need something a little different. For example, if I'm building a workbook for a client, I might want to match their corporate colours. Modify a Colour in Excel 2003The colour options are hard to find in Excel 2003. To use a new custom colour to your workbook, you'll have to modify one of the existing colours. On the Tools menu, click Options. On the Color tab, click on one of the standard colours that you don't plan to use in this workbook Click Modify, to open the Colors dialog box Select a Colour in Excel 2007In Excel 2007, you can use a Ribbon command to open the Continue reading Custom Colour Tips For Excel Do you ever accidentally close a tab in Firefox, then want to get back to a website that you were exploring in that tab? It happens to me a couple of times every day – I click on a link, and when I'm finished reading that page, I close the tab. Oops! That link hadn't opened in a new tab, and now I've lost the original page that I was reading. Re-open a Closed Tab From the History MenuFortunately, Firefox remembers what you've had open, and stores those tabs in its History. To re-open a closed tab: Click the History Menu Click Recently Closed Tabs, to see a list of web page names. Click the name of the web page that you want to re-open.Re-open the Last Closed Tab From the Shortcut Menu You can also re-open the last closed tab by using a shortcut Continue reading Re-open a Firefox Tab That You Accidentally Closed Moved to the Excel Twitters archive: Excel Twitters 20090207 Recently, I've made some progress in clearing out my office, and organizing my files and bookshelves. This week, after I was stabbed by a push pin, while trying to dig out a paper clip, I realized that my desk drawer could use some improvement. At some point, I had good intentions, because you can see the boxes and clear container with storage compartments, that were meant to organize things. Somewhere, though, things got off track. Buried under the top layer are the paper clips, in assorted sizes, that I need occasionally. The glue sticks and Scotch tape are easily accessible, but I don't use them too often. Stamps, that I use about once a month, are easy to find. A nice eraser, for those paper-based mistakes Hand cream and nail clippers, because good grooming is important The rest of it, I should toss out, or at least move toContinue reading What’s in Your Desk Drawer? I started on a Mac, where the mouse had one big button. Later, I moved to a PC, with a two button mouse. For the past few years I've used a mouse with two buttons and a scroll wheel. At first, I completely ignored the scroll wheel, and found it faster to drag the scroll bar, than to move the scroll wheel. Now I use the wheel occasionally, but more often in Firefox or Word, than in Excel. Use the Scroll Wheel With OutlinesAlexJ, who shared his technique to hide Excel rows with outlining a few days ago, also uses the scroll wheel to show and hide outline levels. Point to a cell within the outlined range Press the Shift key, then roll the scroll wheel down, to hide the outline levels for that cell. Or, press the Shift key, then roll the scroll wheel up, to showContinue reading Excel Scroll Wheel Shortcuts After I create formulas in Excel, sometimes I want to lock in the results of those formulas, so I use the Paste Values command. For example, I might use the RAND function to create a set of random numbers. After creating them, I don't want them to change every time the sheet calculates. Here's how I'd use the Ribbon commands to replace formulas with values. Select the cells that contain the formulas On the Ribbon's Home tab, click the Copy command On the Ribbon's Home tab, click the lower half of the Paste command, to open the list of options Click Paste ValuesThe steps are similar in earlier versions of Excel, but the commands are on the Standard toolbar, and the arrow is to the right of the Paste button. Use a Shortcut MenuAn even quicker way to paste values is by using a mouse shortcut: Continue reading Paste Values Shortcut For Excel  |
|
|
Copyright © 2012 Contextures Blog - All Rights Reserved |
||
Recent Comments