If you are keeping records in an Excel spreadsheet that contains a column for dates and another column for some figure that can be added up, such as sales, you can easily use a formula to add values between two dates. The formula uses the equation, which basically adds up a range of cells based on a certain set (or sets) of criteria. In this case we will use two dates as the … [Read more...]
Generate Random Character String
You may find yourself faced with a need to generate random character strings for various reasons. Recently I needed to help a company set up email accounts for all of their employees on a new server. I was given the email address usernames but needed to create the passwords for each account. I didn't want to be lazy and assign everyone the same password, or even an easily … [Read more...]
Protect a Worksheet Except for Individual Cells
If you have ever used Excel to gather information from people in a pre-defined form setup, you know it can be frustrating when the responses contain added rows, columns, comments out of sight, etc. The purpose of taking the time to set up a form is so that you can get your data in a consistent format/layout. It's actually pretty easy to protect your worksheet from people who … [Read more...]
Too Many Different Cell Formats in Excel
If you have ever received the "too many different cell formats" error message in Excel, stop what you're doing, take a look around your workbook and ask yourself "are all these cell formats really useful?" After you answer the inevitable "no", smack yourself in the back of the head for creating such a mess! Just kidding, don't actually smack yourself, but apologize to your … [Read more...]
Transition To Excel 2007
I've gotten a few requests for a way to help transition to Excel 2007 from earlier versions of Excel. As anyone who first tries using Excel 2007 will notice, the traditional File, Edit, View, etc. menus are no longer available. Instead there is a ribbon, which acts like the old menus. To help Excel 2007 newbies make the transition, I've designed a quick reference … [Read more...]