Author Archives: admin

Outlook 2016 Blue Bar Vanishes

Posted on by July 20, 2018
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A client recently told me how much she hated Outlook 2016 because it made new emails too hard to distinguish from older ones she had read. I was surprised since on my copy, this is not a problem. I found two settings that made a difference. Setting the Font Color for unread messages helps to make them stand out: On the View menu, select View Settings on the Current View group. Select Conditional Formatting Select which message types to change. Unread messages is what you want. Click the Font button and select a font/font color from the Font Menu. Click … Continue reading →

Floating Point Errors in Excel VBA

Posted on by December 1, 2017
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I recently had a project where I had to total dollar figures in two columns and compare that total to the reported total in a third. Easy, right? The VBA code was pretty simple: If Cells(ActiveCell.Row, 4).Value + Cells(ActiveCell.Row, 6).Value <> _      Cells(ActiveCell.Row, 8).Value Then         Cells(ActiveCell.Row, 10).Value = “Totals don’t match”         ‘(e.g. if D2 + F2 <> H2 Then J2 contains an error message) End If In a set of 70 rows, I kept getting two rows where the totals were equal, but reported as not equal. I tested the … Continue reading →

Dates, Macs and PCs

Posted on by October 13, 2017
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I had a question from a friend about dates today. She had 2 spreadsheets, both showing 1/1/2017 as a date. When she copied one to another, the dates were all wrong–they were off by 4 or more years. Here is an example of what her problem was: The problem is that 1900 is not a leap year, according to the standard rules: A normal year is defined as 365 days. (Plus a quarter day which is resolved by having a leap year and adding a day (Feb 29) every four years.) A year is a leap year if: it is divisible by 4. It is not … Continue reading →

The RAND Function

Posted on by September 25, 2017
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In a class, someone asked about a random number generator. I replied with information about previous iterations of the RAND() function built into Excel. In researching it, I realized that Excel has moved on. Hence this post. =RAND() in a cell will display a random number between 0 and 1. The function is volatile, meaning that each time you press Enter to edit a cell or press F9 to recalculate the workbook, the RAND() function displays a different random number. If you want the number between 0 and 100, use the formula: =RAND()*100. This will display the number, but it … Continue reading →

Fix Gene Names Turned into Dates Problem

Posted on by August 30, 2016
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I became aware of this issue in http://www.sciencemag.org/news/sifter/one-five-genetics-papers-contains-errors-thanks-microsoft-excel?utm_source=newsfromscience&utm_medium=facebook-text&utm_campaign=excel-6929. The following user-defined Function is a start. You can add to the Case statement to add whatever gene names you like, with the caveat that once Excel finds a match, it will jump out of the Case statement. Add this to your Personal Macro Workbook and save it. You can then find the function in the User Defined Functions category of the Function Wizard. Add the function to a separate column, reference the first cell with the problem, copy it down the column, then Copy | Paste | Values into the same column to … Continue reading →

View Documents Side-by-Side in Windows 10

Posted on by August 1, 2016
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Windows 10 makes it easy to view two documents side-by-side. Click into one of the docs, and press the Windows key + left arrow. The windows will slide to the left side, taking up exactly half of the screen. All other open applications will appear as thumbnails on the right.  Click once on the document you want to fill the right side of the screen. Both documents are now side-by-side. … Continue reading →

To Avoid Embarrassment, Create a Rule in Outlook to Delay Sending All Messages for 2 Minutes

Posted on by April 28, 2016
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We have all hit the Send button a little too soon, and then wished we could somehow retrieve the message. If you create a rule in Outlook that delays sending all email by 2 minutes, you can simply delete the message from your Outbox if you make a mistake.  Here’s how: File tab / Manage Rules and Alerts New Rule Start from a blank rule / Apply on messages I send Don’t select anything in the Select Conditions window.  When you hit OK, it will warn you that the rule will affect all messages, which is OK. In the Select … Continue reading →

Hiding Data on an Excel Spreadsheet

Posted on by April 16, 2015
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Suppose you need to hide a small section of data in Excel, but you still want to calculate with it. Highlight the cells, right-click, and select Format Cells. Click the Number tab, and select the Custom category on the left. Type three semicolons (;;;) in the Type: field, and click OK. The numbers are invisible, but you can still use them. … Continue reading →

Save an Excel Chart as a Template

Posted on by April 16, 2015
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To save a chart as a template: Create your chart, and then right click it. Select Save as Template… You’ll save a file with a CRTX extension in your default Microsoft Excel Templates folder. To create a new chart based on the template: Select the data you want to chart. Click the Insert tab / Recommended Charts, the All Charts tab, and the Templates folder. In the My Templates box, pick the one to apply, then click OK. Some elements, like the actual text in the legends and titles, won’t translate unless they’re part of the data selected. However, all … Continue reading →