Ways to Count + more Excel tips
May 26, 2015
See how to reverse last and first names, pin a shape to a chart point, learn some Solver history, and more, in this week's Excel news. Visit my Excel website for more tips, tutorials and videos, and check the index for past issues of this newsletter.
Note: For some products mentioned below, I earn a commission on sales. That helps support the free tutorials on my site.
In case you missed them, here are the articles that I posted recently:
Ben Kusmin uses find and replace, and a formula, to reverse first and last names in a column. If you're using Excel 2013, you could use the Flash Fill feature, to quickly reverse the names.
On my Contextures site, I show how you can reverse the names with a formula too. Level - Basic/Intermediate
Jon Peltier shares a simple trick for adding a shape to a point on a chart, and making it stick to that point, even when it moves. And if you work with Excel charts frequently, Jon has an excellent chart utility that will save you time. Level - Intermediate
If you use Solver in Excel, and/or are interested in Excel's history, listen to Chandoo's interview with Dan Fylstra, who created Solver Level - Intermediate
If you've ever wanted to build your own Excel add-in, to store some of your favourite macros, Chris Newman shows you the steps. Level - Intermediate/VBA
If you delete columns, or rows, or an entire worksheet, John Michaloudis shows how to clear the cells that might end up showing #REF! errors. Level - Basic
Previously, we saw how Matthew Eaton uses Excel to keep track of his daily writing. Now he has created a dashboard, to summarize his progress. If you don't like purple, you can use a different colour. Level - Intermediate
If you're working with data from a database, or another Excel file, Winston Snyder shows how to use VBA to push that data to Excel, and create a pivot table. Level - Advanced/VBA
Jorge Camoes shows the new chart types that will be in Excel 2016, and he wishes there were more additions, like small multiples. If you're not sure what that means, Wikipedia explains what small multiples are. I googled that "for a friend." Level - Basic
On the weekend, I was clearing out some old boxes in the basement, and found this long-forgotten needlepoint project. I probably started it 20 years ago, then tucked it away, to "finish later". There's just a bit of the white background to fill in, at the bottom left, so maybe I'll clean it up, and finally complete it.
It's fun to get started on projects, but sometimes it's tough to finish them. That goes for spreadsheets, and everything else!
NOTE: If you have any problems with the links in the email, you can see this newsletter on my website -- copy the link and paste it into your browser:
https://www.contextures.com/newsletter/excelnews2015/20150526ctx.html
That's it for this week! If you have any comments or questions, send me an email.
Debra Dalgleish
dsd@ contextures.com
P.S. You can choose the full Contextures news package (news and occasional special announcements), or basic news package (news only). Click either link to change your option.
Last updated: December 30, 2019 4:02 PM