Some great research and some amazing findings about how and why we react the way we do.
Highly recommend.
Predictably Irrational
Monthly Archives: November 2014
Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost part of your life.
Michael Leboeuf
Excel 2013 – Start screen
When Excel 2013 opens it display its start window. Many users don’t use templates so it is frustrating. Pressing the Esc key takes you to the familiar grid.
To stop the Start screen displaying use Excel Options. Press in sequence Alt t o (not held down), at the bottom of the dialog untick the Start screen option and click OK.
See image below.
Students gain lasting self-confidence not by being protected from failure but by learning they can survive it.
Tony Wagner
A Useful Excel Range Naming Tip [VIDEO]
Here is the problem. You have a single column range. Each cell in the range needs to be given a unique range name. Doing this manually takes time, but there is a quick and easy method to do it.
Microsoft Excel and Access Integration
The premise behind this book is that Access is a powerful relational database and Excel is the world’s most widely used spreadsheet package. By using them together you can create some really powerful and useful applications.
Excel and Access work very well together. Access providing the database capabilities and Excel pivot table reporting and easy of use interface. Not many users are skilled in Access but they are capable in Excel.
Excel can provide the user friendly front end and Access the database back end.
This book takes you through how to take advantage of the best of both Excel and Access to create applications. It includes VBA example which can hep add that professional finish and customisation to a project.
It is aimed at intermediate to advanced users.
Formatting part of a cell
When you are editing a cell you may notice that most of the ribbon icons are greyed out, because you can’t use them. The formatting tools however are not greyed out.
You can select part of the text in a cell and format it differently to the rest of the cell.
See example below.
The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.
Mahatma Gandhi
What The Dog Saw
I’ve read and enjoyed most of Malcolm Gladwell’s books.
This compilation of articles is both interesting and eye opening in many areas.
He dispels many myths and also questions conventional wisdom.
Well worth the read.
The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
Plutarch (1st century A.D.)
Extracting the Column Letter in Excel
There can be times when identifying the current or a specific column letter reference is useful. Check out the comments for a shorter formula – thanks Batuque.
101 Ready-to-Use Excel Formulas
This book contains a good cross section of formulas that solve specific issues in Excel.
You can learn the mechanics of formula creation and how to use Excel’s most useful functions.
Real world examples are a good way to learn Excel functions.
It is a bit shorter than most Excel books, it has just over 200 pages.
Cell Link Shortcuts
If you want to follow a cell link or find cells that are linked to a cell you can use these two keyboard shortcuts.
To follow a link use
Ctrl + [
To find linked cells use
Ctrl + ]
To return after following a link, you can press F5 and then press Enter.
Forks Over Knives
I have seen the movie and wholeheartedly agree with the ideas behind it as I have read The China Study on which some of the movie is based.
This book explains the ideas behind a plant based diet and the many, many benefits.
There are lots of reason to go for a plant based diet. Health, ethics, the environment and social justice.
The less animal products you consume the better you and our world we be. Bill Clinton is a recent convert to a plant based diet.
I’ve been a vegan since 2005 and it was the best thing I did.
This book includes recipes.
Invention is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less materials you need.
Charles F Kettering (1876-1958)
Unhide all sheets in Excel
In Excel if you need to hide data or workings sheets you can hide multiple sheets in one action. Unfortunately Excel won’t let you unhide multiple sheets in one step (even in the latest version). To get around this limitation you can use a macro that unhides all the sheets.
Excel 2007 Charts
John Walkenbach is by far my favorite Excel author (I was honored to have his review on the back of my book!).
This book covers many charting tips and trick, plus advice on the best charts to use and also those to avoid.
Includes more advanced topics like interactive and dynamic charts. The later editions of the book that cover the newer versions are just as good.
Great ideas and advice highly recommend. Probably best to buy the later editions as Excel 2007 had a few issues with charts and macros.
To invent you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions
I agree with a lot of his ideals.
His examples are pertinent. Lots of great ideas for your business and practical ways to promote it effectively.
This was my first Guy Kawasaki book and it won’t be my last.
I enjoy his writing style and the content.
Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My only strength lies in my tenacity.
Louis Pasteur 1822–1895
The Brain that Changes Itself
An amazing book. The case histories are astonishing. The brain is so powerful.
The thing that struck me was there are many new cutting edge learning techniques being used very successfully but they are NOT being used in our educational institutions – why not?
An eye-opening and brain expanding book – use some of your plasticity and read it.
Flexible MIN and MAX
The MIN and MAX functions allow you to identify the lowest and highest values within a range. But what if you want to find the second, or third highest values? Well there are two companion functions that you can use to do just that.
Professional Excel Development 2nd edition
The second edition is the one to buy, it has many improvements over the first edition.
Probably the most advanced book written about Excel that I have seen. This book is not meant for beginners.
It has a host of best practices that are worth incorporating into your Excel files.
This book covers normal spreadsheet formatting and functions plus macros and data requirements as well as other more advanced topics that enable you to create stand alone Excel solutions.
I highly recommend this book for advanced users of Excel. Prepare to have your mind expanded.