Contextures News 20150526

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.

1. Contextures Posts

In case you missed them, here are the articles that I posted recently:

• This short video shows 7 ways to count in Excel -  you can count numbers, all data, based on criteria + more

• For a humorous peek at what other people are saying about spreadsheets, read the latest collection of Excel tweets, on my Excel Theatre blog.

2. Reverse First and Last Names

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

3. Stick a Shape on a Chart

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

4. A Little History

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

5. Create an Excel Add-In

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

6. Clear the Errors

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

7. Writing Dashboard

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

8. Push to Excel

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

9. New Chart Types

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

10. Forgotten Projects

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

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