What’s Your Response Time?

How do you get any work done when the phone keeps ringing and the email alert dings every few minutes?
When I’m in the middle of an Excel programming project, I need to concentrate, or I lose time and momentum. To help reduce the distractions I turn off the email alerts and unplug the phone, then [...]

Even Word Has a Calculator

Yesterday I mentioned the Windows Calculator and Google Calculator. Did you know that Word has a calculator too? To use it, you can add a button to a Word toolbar, then select numbers, and click the Calculator button, to see the total.
To add the button to a Word toolbar:

In Word, click the Tools menu, and [...]

Calculator at Your Fingertips

Most of the time I do my calculations in Excel, but occasionally I reach for a calculator instead — and it’s never where I left it. Fortunately, my keyboard has a button that launches the Windows calculator, so I can do quick calculations there.
The Calculator key is at the top of the keyboard, just above [...]

Find Office Files with Keywords

When you save a Microsoft Office file, you can store keywords to help you find that file later. For example, when you’re creating an estimate for a client’s Excel project:

In Excel, click on the File menu, and click on Properties
On the Summary tab, enter Estimate, Excel in the Keywords box, then click OK.

Later, you can use [...]

On-line Stop Watch

When working on projects that I’m billing on a per-hour basis, I use this on-line stop watch to record my time: http://www.online-stopwatch.com/
The site also has a count down feature, which you could use to limit yourself to 15 minutes of Internet browsing. When the bell rings, get back to work!

Energy Savings Calculator

Energy Star, a branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has free guides with energy saving tips for businesses. They even have a fancy Excel workbook to help you get started — Energy Star’s Cash Flow Opportunity (CFO) Calculator.

Tidy Up Your Charts

If you’ve created several reports in an Excel workbook, you might want to line them up and make them all the same size before printing. Instead of doing this manually, you can download and install Jon Peltier’s free Align Chart Dimensions utility. There are installation instructions on Jon’s site. 
After you install the add-in, you can select [...]

Create a New Document From the Desktop

To quickly create a new document, you can use a desktop shortcut:

Right-click on an empty area of the Windows desktop.
Click on New
Click on the program that you want to start

Note: This blog has moved to http://blog.contextures.com. Please check there for new posts.

Repair an Excel File

If you’re having problems with an Excel file, using the built in repair feature might fix the problem. This can help when data validation drop down arrows don’t appear, or there are other signs of corruption.

Close the file
In Excel, choose File►Open
Locate and select the file
Click the arrow at the right of the Open button
Click on [...]

Moving the Blog

I’ve been setting up this blog on my own domain, http://blog.contextures.com/, and now it’s ready. At the end of this week, no new posts will be made here, and everything will appear on the new site. This week the sites will be duplicated (except for this post), so you can read either one.
Please join me [...]