Shantanu's Blog

Unfortunately, many Excel users sometimes start experiencing startup problems with their Excel: File not found errors, compile errors, GPF's, Excel refusing to load etc.
In such a case, you may try opening Excel without any addins or hidden workbooks.

1) Use the Automation switch to start Excel without loading addins or workbooks from the XLSTART folder:

Click Start, Run,
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /Automation

Quotes mandatory, Note you may have to change the path. If your error disappears, either an add-in or a (hidden) workbook that is loaded upon Excel's start bothers you.

2) Open Excel in Safe mode

Start, Run,
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /Safe

The safe switch ensures Excel starts without opening any addins or using your menu customisations. If this works, chances are that your toolbar customisation file is corrupt. Locate all files with extension .xlb and rename the extension(s) to something like .old
Now try and start Excel again.

Maximum key length is 500 bytes!

• There can only be one AUTO_INCREMENT column and it must be defined as a key.
  
• A single column can be part of multiple keys.
  
• Use fulltext index to avoid 500 bytes limitation of keys.
  
• a UNIQUE index that does not allow NULL is functionally equivalent to a PRIMARY KEY.
  
• A key made up of more than one column is a composite key.
  
• The keyword INDEX may be used instead of KEY.
  
• You can name an index by including the name just before the column list.
  
• For a PRIMARY KEY, you don't specify a name because its name is always PRIMARY. Therefore there can be only one primary key per table. Primary key values never change and is selected to be the key of first importance.
  

Do You Know Chris Pirillo? You Should ... :: AO: "People have to understand that every blogger is a PR agency. I've been saying this for at least a year. You have to treat the conversation as if it were with a major media organization."

The New Marcom Game: "The World Wide Web's strange new economy is where Adam Smith and Karl Marx finally meet. For Smith the Internet provides a 'simple system of natural liberty [that] establishes itself of its own accord,' and for Marx it finally puts the means of production in the hands of the workers. In other words, it achieves the irony of capital-free capitalism: enterprise so free that it requires almost zero capital to start and run a new business."

Frequently Asked Questions About Microsoft Excel: "To increase a range of values (prices, for example) by 5 percent, enter 1.05 into any blank cell. Select the cell and choose Edit, Copy. Then select the range of values and choose Edit, Paste Special. Choose the Multiply option and click OK. Then delete the cell that contains the 1.05."

Excel Tip:
You can use Ctrl+Alt+Tab in excel to add left-indentation to a cell. And if you have enough fingers, Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Tab unindents.
More shortcuts here...

Excel shortcuts chart

Select the cells and then run this macro:

Sub CommentThem()
Dim cell As Range
On Error Resume Next
Selection.ClearComments
On Error GoTo 0
For Each cell In Intersect(Selection, ActiveSheet.UsedRange)
If cell.Formula <> "" Then
cell.AddComment
cell.Comment.Visible = False
On Error Resume Next 'fails on invalid formula
cell.Comment.Text Text:=" Address: " & cell.Address(0, 0) & Chr(10) & _
" Value: " & cell.Value & Chr(10) & _
" Format: " & cell.NumberFormat & Chr(10) & _
" Formula: " & cell.Formula
On Error GoTo 0
End If
Next cell

End Sub


1) Start excel
2) Open the file that contains the formulas.
3) From Tools choose Macros - Visual Basic Editor.
4) Double click on "ThisWorkbook" and paste the macro.
5) From File choose "Close and return to excel"
6) Select the cells containing formulas.
7) Choose Tools - Macro - Macros.
8) Run the "comment them" Macro.
9) You will see a red rectange next to each cell.
10) Pass your mouse on any cell.
11) You will see the current formula in the yellow comment box.
12) If you want a static comment box, Right click on the cell and choose "Show Comment".
13) Resize the box if it overlaps on other comment boxes.

SAJAX - Simple Ajax Toolkit by ModernMethod - XMLHTTPRequest Toolkit for PHP: "Sajax is an open source tool to make programming websites using the Ajax framework — also known as XMLHTTPRequest or remote scripting — as easy as possible. Sajax makes it easy to call PHP, Perl or Python functions from your webpages via JavaScript without performing a browser refresh."

adaptive path » What is AJAX?: "Instead of loading a webpage, at the start of the session, the browser loads an Ajax engine — written in JavaScript and usually tucked away in a hidden frame. This engine is responsible for both rendering the interface the user sees and communicating with the server on the user’s behalf. The Ajax engine allows the user’s interaction with the application to happen asynchronously — independent of communication with the server. So the user is never staring at a blank browser window and an hourglass icon, waiting around for the server to do something."

Fast Company Now: "Every generation thinks the way their generation did things is better, she said, and it's ignorant not to want to adapt with the times. Of course I know that, I replied; it wasn't that I was arguing against progress - I guess what I was really arguing for was nostalgia: It's not that our way was better, but there seems to be a purity lost."

Consulting - Beyond the Bunny Slippers: Wrap-up: "There's an old Woody Allen quote that says that '90% of life is just showing up.' After years of watching many consultants come and go, I can tell you that it's easy to remain competitive when so many consultants can't even muster for that 90%.
You can be the most technically skilled, creative, artistic, wonderful consultant that ever lived, but if you don't answer e-mails, return phone calls, or show up for meetings, soon you will have no customers. They will find a less talented, but more conscientious person to do their work."

Do you re-use some of your documents over and over again, making slight changes just before you print, fax, or email it each time? For example, do you send the same basic letter to each new customer, but edit the letter each time so that it refers to the specific product purchased by that customer?
How about pointing at key words or phrases in your documents and simply right-click the mouse to switch to some other word or phrase?
How to Add Pop-up Lists to Your Word Documents

Word fields tips:
To make it easier to see the fields embedded in a document, set Field Codes to be shaded Always. To do this, choose Tools|Options|View|FieldCodes|Always.

To navigate from field to field with the keyboard press F11. To navigate backward from field to field, press Shift+F11.

Markl's Thoughts: Shipping Software: "I would argue that Microsoft used to know how to ship software, but the world has changed... The companies that 'know how to ship software' are the ones to watch. They have embraced the network, deeply understand the concept of 'software as a service', and know how to deliver incredible value to their customers efficiently and quickly."

Does Microsoft really know how to ship the software?
Does it know how to name a product?
I recently read an entry on Joho the Blog about "Read view" that will be helpful for viewing the word document.
On further investigation I found that "Read view" is supported only by Word 2003. I had to open word to check the version. It was Office XP! How many versions of Word has microsoft "shipped" in the last 5 years? Which one is the latest? What does the number next to "word" mean? If a fairly regular user like me can't figure it all out, how does the end user going to know and learn all the advance features?

Google's added a new feature to its news page that allows you to customize the layout. Check out the page at http://news.google.com/ , over on the right. Also check out the excellent "News Alerts" service.

Fast Company Now: "Solutions to tough challenges start with powerful questions. Powerful questions have the ability to shake people out of stale ways of thinking and critically reflect on faulty assumptions. Wise leaders know this. And as a result, they don't give people answers. Rather, they challenge them to reflect on evocative questions so that they can find the best answers on their own."

Typing a large amount of data into cells can be tiring, especially if it includes a series of dates. Type the day (serial number only) into cell A1 and add the following formula to insert the month and year into cell B1:

=DATE (YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH(TODAY()), A1)

Type a full number in the cell and change it to a date by using the following formula:

=DATEVALUE(LEFT(A1,2)&"/"&MID(A1,3,2)&"/"&RIGHT(A1,2))

For example, type 122203, the result is 12/22/03.

Is there a function that returns the name of the worksheet?
The following formula displays the workbook's full path along with the worksheet name:

=CELL("filename")

For example, this formula might return something like:
C:\Windows\Desktop\[Budget.xls]Sheet2
Returning only the sheet name requires a more complex formula:

=MID(CELL("filename"), FIND("]",CELL("filename"))+1, LEN(CELL("filename"))-FIND("]", CELL("filename")))

Tip1
How to convert Text to number?

If you have a set of numbers that are really text, you can quickly convert those numbers into a number format. To do so:
1. Activate any empty cell or group of empty cells if you have more than one number to convert.
2. Go to the standard toolbar and hit Edit -> Copy.
3. Select the range of numbers that need to be converted.
4. Go back to the standard toolbar and hit Edit -> Paste Specal -> Add -> OK.

Tip2
How to add rounded corners and shadow to an Excel chart?
1. Right click near the edge of a chart and select Format Chart Area...
2. On the Patterns tab, place a checkmark in the boxes next to Shadow and Round Corners.

Tip3
How do I remove Characters from Left or Right Side of Variable Length String?

If you always know the length of a string, it's easy to remove characters from it. Example: If you have a string that is 10 characters in the cell A1 and you want to remove 1 character from the Left side, simply return the right 9 characters:

=Right(a1, 9)

This doesn't work for a variable length string, or one which you don't know beforehand it's length. In this case you can use the formula (Length - N) to designate how many characters to extract:

=Right(a1, Len(a1) - 1)

Where 1 is the number of characters to remove from the left side of the string. This will return the string minus the left most character.
To remove characters from the right side of a string, replace Right with Left.

Meetup.com's just passed 100,000 meetings!
Not only that, they're evolving tools for organizer, building a services-based business model, and tweaking the back end a bit, says Myles Weissleder, Communications VP.
Oh, and they've added RSS feeds for local events...mapped to zip codes.

http://meetup.com

NYPL Digital Gallery: "NYPL Digital Gallery provides access to over 275,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more."

Yahoo! Directory RSS Feeds: "The Yahoo! Directory is now offering the following feeds in RSS format. The feeds are free of charge to individuals and nonprofit organizations for non-commercial use. "

Four years ago, a wealthy options trader named Jimmy Wales set out to build a massive online encyclopedia ambitious in purpose and unique in design. This encyclopedia would be freely available to anyone. And it would be created not by paid experts and editors, but by whoever wanted to contribute. With software called Wiki - which allows anybody with Web access to go to a site and edit, delete, or add to what's there - Wales and his volunteer crew would construct a repository of knowledge to rival the ancient library of Alexandria.

Wikipedia represents a belief in the supremacy of reason and the goodness of others.

Con­sidering how easy it is to make changes on Wiki­pedia, you'd imagine these ne'er-do-wells could potentially overwhelm the site. But they haven't - at least not yet - because defenses against them are built into the structure. Add Wiki software and some helping hands and you get something self-repairing and almost alive. A different production model creates a product that's fluid, fast, fixable, and free.

It turns out that Wikipedia has an innate capacity to heal itself. As a result, woefully outnumbered vandals often give up and leave. (To paraphrase Linus Torvalds, given enough eyeballs, all thugs are callow.) What's more, making changes is so simple that who prevails often comes down to who cares more. And hardcore Wikipedians care. A lot.


http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/wiki.html