Figart Consulting

NIFTY TIP #5: Adding or Subtracting Amounts from Different Ranges

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:25:19 +0000

Problem: You need to add or subtract amounts from different ranges (SUMIF function).

Solution: Insert two SUMIF formulas and combine them into a single formula:

Insert the SUMIF formula to total the amounts based on the criterion 701 into cell E2.
Insert the SUMIF formula to total the amounts based on the criterion 300 into cell E3.
Select cell E2 and copy the formula from the Formula Bar, select the formula and press +C and click the Enter or Cancel symbol in the Formula Bar to exit Edit mode.
Select cell E5 and press +V.
Select cell E3 and copy the formula from the Formula Bar without the equals (=) sign by selecting the formula and pressing +C.
Select cell E5 and enter a minus(-) sign after the formula in the cell, and then press +V.

The combined formula is now:

=SUMIF(A:A,D2,B:B)-SUMIF(A:A,D3,B:B)

Nifty Tip #4: Organizing the Data Table for Proper Use of the VLOOKUP Formula

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:06:17 +0000

The VLOOKUP formula searches for the lookup criteria in the leftmost column of the data table. It is recommended that the whole sheet be used as the data table, so that the VLOOKUP will automatically look at column A as the leftmost column. Defining a Name for the sheet (to use it as the Table_array, the second argument in the VLOOKUP formula) will eliminate the need of updating the range reference in any VLOOKUP formula.

To define a Name for the sheet:

Select a cell and click Select All (the button a the top left corner of the intersection between rows and columns).

Press +A (In Excel 2003, press +A+A when selecting a cell in a region).

Press +F3, and in the Names workbook box, type the name for the data table.
Click OK.

Nifty Tip #3: CONCATENATE

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:22:26 +0000

A couple of the last Nifty Tips we’ve talked about were about splitting combined cells.

That’s great, and it’s often useful, but what if you want to combine the contents of a cell? Maybe you’re writing a letter or sending an invoice, and it would just be easier to have someone’s name be in one cell to export, or you want to add a salutation.

It’s easy!

The CONCATENATE formula allows one to combine text from multiple cells into a single cell. The CONCATENATE formula is in the Text category in the Insert Function dialog box.

To add a blank character between words, press Spacebar in the second and fourth argument box. The space between quotation marks adds a blank character between the separated texts. Notice in this case, a colon was added in the second argument, creating a colon and a space after “F1” before adding the contents of A2. Whatever is between the quotes, be it a space, text or characters, it will show up in the concatenation.

Nifty Tip #2: Combining the VLOOKUP and MATCH formulas

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:44:12 +0000

The VLOOKUP formula returns data from any column you choose in the data table. All you have to do is change the number of the column in the third argument, right?

Well, it sounds easy, but there is a little catch.

How can you determine the number of a column in a data table that contains numerous columns?
How can you easily change the number of the column in the third argument of the VLOOKUP formula?
How can you easily change the column number in multiple formulas in a worksheet from which complex reports are prepared or in a sheet that contains multiple VLOOKUP formulas?

Solution:

Insert the MATCH formula in the third argument of the VLOOKUP formula.

Step One: Define Two Names

Select Row 1, press +F3 (That’s the F3 function key at the top of your keyboard. It opens the Name Manager).
Type the name Row1 in the Names in workbook field, and click OK.
Select the data table by pressing +*. Then open the Name Manager again by pressing +F3, and enter Data in the Names in the workbook field, then click OK.

Step Two: Enter the Match Formula

Open an adjacent worksheet, and select cell A1
In cell A1, type 4/01/2001
In cell B1, enter the formula =MATCH(A1, Row1, 0) Hint: Be careful to enter the value 0 in the third argument to specify the search for an exact value.
Results of calculation: 7.

Step Three: Enter the Vlookup formula

Enter the account number 201 into the cell A2
Enter the formula =VLOOKUP(A2, Data, B1) in cell B2. In the third argument of the VLOOKUP formula, select a cell which contains the MATCH formula.
Calculation results: 7981.

Step Four: Combine the Formulas

In the formula bar (MATCH formula) of cell B1, select the formula without the = sign, press +c, and click the Cancel sign (from the left of the formula in the formula bar). Select cell B2, and in the formula bar, select the address B1.
Press +v and press Enter.
The final result, a nested formula is:

=VLOOKUP(A2, Data, MATCH(A1,Row1,0))

Figart Consulting’s Excel Nifty Tip #1.5

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:00:39 +0000

NIFTY TIP # 1.5: Splitting a Full Name into Two Separate Cells

Problem: You have inherited a mailing list with hundreds of names. You’ll need to be able to sort the list alphabetically and you notice that the individuals’ first and last names are together in the same cell. Your blood pressure rises as you think you might have to do a tedious cut and paste job on this silly list, and wonder if you have the time to do the job.

Solution:

No fear. You have the time, because you have this little Nifty Tip.

To retrieve the first name, use the LEFT and FIND functions as shown in the following formula:

=LEFT(A2,FIND(“ “,A2))

To retrieve the last name use the RIGHT, LEN and FIND functions as shown in the following formula:

=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2) –FIND(“ “,A2))

Huzzah. Your boss thinks you’re a genius and you’ve saved the day.

Figart Consulting’s Excel Nifty Tip #1

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:00:23 +0000

Figart Consulting will be offering a free series of Nifty Tips to help you solve common office problems without strangling your co-workers, clients or supervisors. Since so many of these issues involve Excel, the series will start there. If a solution is specific to a software version, we will make sure to make that clear in the post. If not, you can pretty much assume that this will work on any version released since ‘97.

NIFTY TIP #1: Splittng a full Address into Three Separate Cells*

Problem: You have inherited a mailing list that includes the City, State and ZIP all in the same column. Now, while the first thing you want to do is murder the person who set the spreadsheet up this way, don’t panic. Killing them is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about.

You can solve the problem so that you can use imports, export and Mail Merges, more easily without retyping the darn thing. What you need to do is to split the City, State and ZIP into three separate columns.

Solution: Use the LEFT, MID, RIGHT and FIND functions as shown in the following formulae:

To extract the City: =LEFT (A2,FIND (“,”,A2)-1)

To extract the State: =MID (A2,FIND(“,”,A2)+2,2)

To extract the ZIP code: =RIGHT(A2,5)

*Special Thanks to Peter J. Vinton, Jr., originator of the Excel Nifty Tips series.

Social Networking Over the Decades

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:16:11 +0000

Social networking is a relatively new buzzword. I say “relatively” because it’s been around long enough to generate a list as long as my arm of books on the subject. I’ve read ten books on the last month on the subject to broaden my perspective for the course I’m teaching in January about it and I’ve got another stack at my elbow. Many of them give perspectives I wouldn’t otherwise have had, but plenty elicit what I can only consider a DUH! response.

Believe it or not, Social Networking Isn’t New

I didn’t come across the expression “Social Networking” until about three years ago. But I’ve been doing it online for closer to fourteen years. It didn’t start with business or making professional contacts in mind at all. I had upgraded from an Apple IIe¹ to a PC and was given an old 14.4 modem as a gift. I’d heard of online banking and that was my primary motivation for getting online at all.

Now, I’m a science fiction geek, so when I discovered there were message boards for fandoms, I got really excited and dove right on in to a couple. That’s where my own social networking got started. I made a friend who had several fandom and interest overlaps with me. He owned an ISP back in the day. Through our conversations, it became clear to me that the Internet was going to be a very important tool in the years to come. So, I set about to learn. It started with simple HTML, but swiftly expanded to many other webdev technologies, ‘cause, well, I’m a geek.

Social Networking Boosts Your Career

Through this friend, I met some other people and wound up starting a webdev business with them. One of my partners became a very skilled graphic artist, another found he had a serious talent for sales and promotion and we all learned a lot from our business.

Thing is, at the core, I like writing and teaching best. I learned HTML primarily to create a website about how to draft sewing patterns! This was before easy blogging software was out there. I used those skills to create a website dedicated to a social cause, and was pretty much proto-blogging on it. Through that site, I met quite literally hundreds of people – all of whom had their own separate skills and interests.

These online friendships mean that we have our own mutual Baker Street Irregulars of go to for information. If need to know something about video editing, I have a friend in Portland, OR who is a filmmaker. If I need to know something about historical costuming, I have a friend in New Hampshire who can either answer my question or knows the person who does. If I need to know about astronomy, the Marine Corps or fencing, I have a friend in Maryland who can give me the straight dope on all three. If someone needs a clever solution to a tricky problem in a Microsoft application or how to promote a website, someone in my network will probably send them to me.

Notice that I have not once mentioned Facebook, Twitter or any of a dozen social networking websites available. The contacts I speak of were formed while many of the designers of these sites were still in school. This isn’t to denigrate Facebook et al. Quite the contrary. I use sites specifically designed for social networking every single day of my life, and this entry uses blogging software to publish it. I’m all for anything easy to use that speeds communication and connection, and some great tools are available.

Just don’t confuse the tool with the work! Online social networking has been around since ARPANET. The network is just bigger now.

¹Hey, in 1996, all I really needed was something to manage text and keep track of my checkbook. Don’t laugh too hard. Most people these days own far more computer than they actually need or really use.

Kindle for PC v. Mobipocket

admin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:49:20 +0000

Amazon has released the Kindle for the PC today. I downloaded a couple of the freebies they offer just to test it out.

It’s a reader. In the books I’ve downloaded, chapter headings are hyperlinked. You can change the size and width of the text to suit yourself and bookmark passages. Books can be sorted by title, author or most recent download and are displayed by cover art. The interface is simple. You download the book, and read the book. ’Nuff said.

I’ve been using mobile devices to read books since about 2004 or so. I started with Mobipocket. A friend of mine recommended it because they have software that syncs with Palm-based devices and Baen Free Library offered many titles in that format. (By the way, offering freebies did work. I wound up buying many more titles in series I liked). I use a Palm-based smartphone to this day and carry around a large library with me most of the time.

The Mobipocket software for the PC is a bit more robust. There are more display options and sort options, as well a way to create reading lists for syncing rather like the iTunes interface. However, the Mobipocket software is designed to sync to devices and not just as a reader, so these functions are more necessary.

These days, I really am more likely to read a book in electronic format than not. Even so, I can tell you that I’m extremely unlikely to buy a Kindle. Not because it’s a bad design. I’ve played with it. It’s a nice little device to read a book. But it’s more or less a single-use device that costs more than my Netbook. Call me the Alton Brown of technology, but I don’t buy many electronic single-taskers. There was no way I was going to buy a Kindle, nor the Kindle-formatted titles available. When I pay for electronic books, and I buy several titles a year, I’m much more likely to go to Fictionwise and get the Mobipocket versions. Then I could read them on my Palm or my PC. Now that I have a netbook, I’m more likely to be carrying my computer around with me, so having books on my Palm is less crucial to me.

I applaud Amazon for having the sense to realize that the money is in the information, and that the device may not be as important as all that.

Social Networking Over the Decades

Netbooks: Should I or Shouldn’t I?

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:03:46 +0000

People who are worried about the economy but need new computers are now turning their eyes to the newest offering in the portable computing arena, the humble netbook.

I’m not going to lie to you. Netbooks are cool. Anyone who is into compact cuteness (as I am) is sure to like them, but a computer is first and foremost a tool, or you might as well buy a three hundred dollar lump of plastic and be done with it, if you don’t consider what you want to do with it.

But don’t let the cheap price tag and easy portability seduce you without some careful thought. How do you use a computer? What needs does it serve?

Netbooks on the market as of this writing tend to come with about 1-2GB of RAM, a small keyboard, a hard drive of over 100 GB (160 seems to be standard), and a battery that can last 3-4 hours on average and a price tag of between 300 and 400 USD.

You’re not going to be doing any hard-core gaming on this machine, friends, but I’m assuming if you’re looking for an ultraportable for the latest LAN party, you’ve already sussed out the specs on a much sexier machine and you’re up for the $1000+ price tag. If you’re doing video editing, same/same. You’re doing work that requires power, and you’re going to have to pay for it. But you know that.

This machine is for routine computing – email, web browsing, writing, and spreadsheets. I actually run Office 2007 on mine with no problems whatsoever. While I had intended when I bought it to be a stopgap for a dying laptop, I’m finding that as I use my little AspireOne[1], I’m more and more in love with it. I can write just as well on this as I can on my laptop, it fits in my purse and I can run all the software I need to do my work, except the Adobe suite. But since the bulk of what I do is write, I can do 90% of my work right from this little netbook. The longer battery life is a real pleasure, and I really do that most cliché of writing activities – write from a coffee shop.

They don’t have CD or DVD drives, but can handle downloaded movies okay. I’ve watched movies streamed from Netflix on my netbook, as well as iTunes downloads of televisions shows.

The 160GB hard drive is plenty large both for my working files and my music/audiobook collection. I don’t own many videos, and the ones I do are on an external hard drive. If you really want an extensive media collection that’s portable, you probably want a larger laptop, anyway.

The netbook is what some people are calling “good enough computing”. Just because we can own terabytes of material, do we need it? Yes, as our media is increasingly digitized, we probably will[2], but do we need it on every machine? The netbook is meant for portability. If you’re considering one, consider how much you travel. I can pretty much count on going up and down the East Coast three to four times a year. This netbook is a much more travel-friendly machine than my laptop was. Weighing in at a kilogram, this baby slips into my purse just fine, and can still deliver on all the computing power that a writer really needs.[3]

But what about spreadsheets or presentations?

If your netbook has a video out (and all the models I looked at in most of your box computer stores did), you’re golden for presentations. Just remember one should always test a presentation on the machine one will use before giving it!

As far as spreadsheets are concerned, I regularly teach advanced classes in Excel and none of these very complex and highly-linked spreadsheets have ever taxed my little machine when I review exercises for class.

The one thing that might frustrate some people with a netbook is the keyboard. It’s small. After some time typing on my netbook, I find that a regular keyboard seems enormous! I adjusted fairly quickly, but I also have little hands. If you have big pianist hands, you might find it a bit of a challenge. I highly encourage you not to buy a netbook before spending some time playing with one in a store. The quirks of keyboards and touchpads can drive one crazy, so it’s best to experiment with several models before committing.

The takeaway here is that a netbook is good for what it does. It handles the net quite well, and you’re all good with most office-type applications. Resource-intensive applications involving graphics and movie editing require more power. It’s cheap, it’s portable and makes for a good working machine. Just don’t expect to play World of Warcraft on it, ‘kay?

[1] At $299, it came with the cheapest price tag in Staples, which is why I got it. There was little spec differentiation.

[2] The answer to, “Will I need more RAM or a bigger hard drive?” is almost always “Yes!”

[3] I often say that I could do my job on a smartphone, but I certainly wouldn’t want to.

Office 2007

admin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:00:29 +0000

I know Office 2007 isn’t particularly new, but I also know there’s often a lag in converting up to the new bit of software. At least, I’m teaching 2007 a lot less than I figured I would be by now!

But, in the event that people start needing a cheat sheet for Word, Excel or PowerPoint 2007, I made one. It tends to be the ribbon interface that confuses people, so this particular cheat sheet has and image of each activated ribbon, and some common keyboard shortcuts on the obverse. Just click on the link to download a printable PDF.

Word 2007 Cheat Sheet

Excel 2007 Cheat Sheet

Power Point 2007 Cheat Sheet

Just a little something that can be useful in your productivity!