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Add comment November 13th, 2006
Posts filed under 'excel'
Excel as a database, Part 2
Neopoleon : Excel as a database
“As a developer, you’ve probably, at some unfortunate point in your life (possibly several points, actually), been handed an Excel file that has been crammed full of “data” by someone in marketing and told to “do something with it.”"
1 comment November 8th, 2006
A tale of Excel
“Bill Gates was amazingly technical. He understood Variants, and COM objects, and IDispatch and why Automation is different than vtables and why this might lead to dual interfaces. He worried about date functions. He didn’t meddle in software if he trusted the people who were working on it, but you couldn’t bullshit him for a minute because he was a programmer. A real, actual, programmer.”
Joel Spolsky writes a very interesting essay on software development, management and, of course, Excel.
Add comment November 8th, 2006
Why you shouldn’t use Office Automation
A short note from the author:
Considerations for server-side Automation of Office
“Microsoft does not currently recommend, and does not support, Automation of Microsoft Office applications from any unattended, non-interactive client application or component (including ASP, DCOM, and NT Services), because Office may exhibit unstable behavior and/or deadlock when run in this environment.
If you are building a solution that runs in a server-side context, you should attempt wherever possible to use components that have been made safe for unattended execution, or find alternatives that allow at least a part of the code to run client-side. If you choose to use an Office application from a server-side solution, you will find that it lacks many of the necessary capabilities to run successfully, and you will be taking risks with the stability of your overall solution.”
Further incentives on quitting Office Automation would be useless.
Add comment November 8th, 2006
5 reasons why Excel 2007 is better. Or not.
5 reasons why Excel 2007 smokes the web2.0 competition… and why it may not matter is an interesting peak into the improvements Excel 2007 is supposed to bring in December. ZuluInSiliconValley points out
- Conditional Formatting
- More rows
- Previewing
- Ribbon and menu bars
- Charting
vs
- Sharing
- Search
Add comment November 8th, 2006
Excel as a database
“Why do people keep putting data in spreadsheets that obviously belongs in a database? Oddly enough, part of the reason came to me in a fairly unlikely place, reading to my kids before bed. We had just plopped on the couch to read a book when my kindergartener made me back up and read the cover of the book, pointing out to me the author and the illustrator. That was an enlightening moment; from a very early age we start learning the structure of documents. Title, author, and date of publication, page number, etc, etc is reinforced at every grade level.”
This article points out one major mistake that most users do when using spreadsheets: mistaking them for a database.
Add comment October 31st, 2006
Happy Face
Contextures.com shows how you can display different images based on an cell value input. Via DashBoardSpy
Add comment October 31st, 2006
Remove the macro security warning
Excel has the ability to put code in three places. If the code is in a standard module the key to stopping the dialog is to remove the entire module(s), not simply delete the code in it. To do this:
- Open the VBE (Alt+F11)
- In the project explorer look for the name of the workbook. Below this you should see a folder called …
Read the rest at Nick Hodge
Add comment October 25th, 2006
VBA Code Decompiler and Compactor
This utility Decompiles and Compacts VBA code saved by Excel or Word, reducing the file size and the compilation conflict probability between different Office versions while also cleaning compilation garbage accumulated during the project phase that frequently generates errors and slows loading.
Useful for developers before file delivery and also for end users who experience problems when loading 3rd party VBA projects, because this utility can clean these projects without unprotecting the VBA project, from the closed file on disk and opened in an application environment free of the influence of add-ins, COM add-ins, and others pre-installed projects.
from ORLANDO’s VBA and EXCEL SITE
Add comment October 25th, 2006
Top 10 Signs That You Purchased a Bad Spreadsheet
10. A sticker on the box reads, “Now Supports DOS 1.2″
9. It is part of a software suite called “Office Schmoffice.”
8. User testimonials on the box are written in Arabic.
7. The help file consists of three words: “Don’t ask me.”
6. The Setup diskette reads, “Disk 1 of 1″.
5. The Setup routine displays “Another Sucker” as the default user name.
4. The user manual is scribbled on the back of an old envelope.
3. The technical support phone number is 555-1212.
2. The only way to get a hard copy of your work is to photograph the screen.
1. When you press F9, a message box tells you to dig out your calculator.
Add comment October 25th, 2006