tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85736752007-11-27T19:10:18.526+10:00Spy Journal Excel TipsJethroBlogger254125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-91462587937111432012007-09-25T12:52:00.001+10:002007-09-25T12:54:21.715+10:00New WebsiteIts finally here. <a href="http://www.spyjournal.biz">SpyJournal v3.0</a> was launched this week.<br />These pages will remain for archival purposes. However please change your link for this site directly to <a href="http://www.spyjournal.biz">www.spyjournal.biz</a>. If you are reading via RSS please change your RSS Feed to <a href="http://www.spyjournal.biz/rss.xml">http://www.spyjournal.biz/rss.xml</a> for the whole site feed, or for a <a href="http://www.spyjournal.biz/syndication">custom RSS Feed</a> design your own.<br /><br />Excel readers can subscribe to the <a href="http://www.spyjournal.biz/taxonomy/term/16/0/feed">Excel specific tips feed </a> or <a href="mailto:tim@spyjournal.biz">email me</a> to be added to my email subscription list.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-48771172718240578822007-06-14T15:10:00.001+10:002007-06-14T15:14:46.861+10:00New Open XML file formats in Office 2007If you have installed Office 2007 then you should be aware of the new file formats - xml.<br />If you haven't installed yet, then thre is plenty to learn about what they are and why they are great!<br /><br /><a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/joanna_bichsel/default.aspx">Joanna Bischel</a> writes a great article about <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/joanna_bichsel/archive/2007/06/07/so-what-s-the-fuss-about-the-new-open-xml-file-formats.aspx">why the new xml formats are great</a> and goes through some features in very easy to understand language.<blockquote>First of all, Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 files now act as containers since they are actually compressed zip containers (just try changing the extension to a .zip and you'll know what I mean). To an end user, the file still looks like a single item but to the developer, the file is a package of parts, segmented in a logical tree structure, tied together by relationships which you can navigate through. No longer do you have the black box of a binary file from previous file formats. So knowing this, what are some of the benefits? </blockquote><br />Read the <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/joanna_bichsel/archive/2007/06/07/so-what-s-the-fuss-about-the-new-open-xml-file-formats.aspx">rest of the article on her MSDN blog site</a>.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-73523068444900043392007-06-11T10:26:00.000+10:002007-06-11T10:30:27.162+10:00Maximum Length of Macros<a href="http://exceltips.vitalnews.com/">Alan Wyatt</a> has some great Excel tips.<br /><br />I found this one the other day.<br />There actually is a <a href="http://exceltips.vitalnews.com/Pages/T1307_Maximum_Length_Limit_for_a_Macro.html">maximum length for a VBA macro</a>. Fortunately there are some solutions if you get this situation occurring. Read Alan's write up about it.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-50318085739247678152007-05-29T10:54:00.000+10:002007-05-29T10:58:53.330+10:00Undiscovered Excel Funtions and FeaturesMicrosoft has a web page on their site describing <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/843504">30 little known features and functions in Excel</a>.<br />Here's their blurb about it.<blockquote>This article describes some of the most powerful and useful features and functions in Microsoft Excel that remain undiscovered by users. For example, you may create a new macro to perform a calculation when an existing formula or function can perform the task. Or, you may create a new macro to perform a task when you can use an existing feature that performs the task.</blockquote>Some of the functions include:<br /><ul><br /><li><strong>Multiply text values by 1 to change text to numbers</strong><br />Sometimes when you import files from other sources, numeric values may appear to be numbers but behave like text values. To resolve this problem, convert these values into numbers. One method for doing this is to multiply these text values by 1.</li><br /><li><strong>View the arguments in a formula</strong><br />While you enter a formula in a cell, press CTRL+SHIFT+A to see the arguments in a formula. If you type =RATE, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+A, you can see all the arguments for that function--for example, =RATE(nper,pmt,pv,fv,type,guess). If you want more details, type =RATE, and then press CTRL+A to display the Function Wizard.</li><br /></ul>Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-42399746420011065712007-05-25T11:02:00.000+10:002007-05-25T11:02:59.912+10:00Excel VBA Macro Shortcut KeysVBA Macro shortcut keys can be created when recording a Macro. It pays to make sure you use a combination NOT used by some other shortcut. Eg don't use CTRL + S.<br />I had a client who recorded two macros and used CTRL + S and CTRL + Z for them. I found them when I tried to save the file and undo an edit.<br /><br />Fortunately you can change them.<br />Go to Tools | Macro | Macros and select the Macro you want to change the shortcut key for. Click Options and a Dialog Box will appear allowing you to reset (or set) a shortcut key.<br /><br />Remember that this only works for the macro in the specific workbook that this Macro is recorded in.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-56529087316271509252007-05-23T21:16:00.000+10:002007-05-23T21:22:25.363+10:00Excel 2007 TipsI am using Excel 2007 quite a bit now, and starting to really experience the pain of switching between 2003 and 2007.<br />At least I am starting to get the hang of the ribbon.<br /><br />Charley Kyd writes about Excel2007 on <a href="http://www.exceluser.com/cmd.asp?af=497404">ExcelUser.com</a><blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;">What We'll Do About Excel 2007<br /></span>I'm not one of Excel 2007's biggest fans. Although the program offers many outstanding new features, it has a completely new user interface. <br />Microsoft designed the interface to make it easier for new and occasional users to discover Excel's features. They didn't design the interface to make frequent users more efficient.<br />In business, Excel users are much like factory workers. Our job is to quickly produce reports, analyses, and other forms of business insight. Unfortunately, Excel 2007 requires more mouse clicks and more mouse travel than does earlier versions. It's inherently less efficient. Therefore, even after you've learned the new interface well, you'll probably take longer to perform standard tasks in the new Excel.<br />Even so, there's no going back. Eventually, you'll need to adapt to Excel 2007, or to one of its successors. At ExcelUser, we also need to adapt.<br />Therefore, all future articles that describe hands-on use of Excel will be offered in two versions. One version will be for old Excel, the other for new Excel. Each such article will begin with a link to the other version. And slowly, we'll offer new-Excel versions of past articles written for old Excel.<br />Because Excel 2007 introduces new terminology, many of the new-Excel articles will reference The Excel 2007 User Interface. This article provides one location for defining those new terms.</blockquote>I will be taking similar approach here.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-56579181030115602202007-05-03T09:52:00.000+10:002007-05-03T09:54:47.269+10:00List of Macro Shortcuts in All Open Workbooks<a href="http://exceltips.vitalnews.com/">Allen Wyatts Excel Tips</a> has a beauty on extracting fromyour VBA the list of Macro Shortcut Keys in your VBA project.<blockquote>Summary: Need a list of macro shortcut keys? It's not as easy in Excel as in some other Office applications, such as Word. It can be done, however, with a little ingenuity, as described in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)<br /><br />If you develop a lot of macros, you may want to list all those macros along with the shortcut keys used to initiate them. Of course, coming up with the code to list the shortcut keys is the tricky part of this problem, as such an ability is not built into Excel directly. (You can do it in Word, but not in Excel. Go figure.)</blockquote><br /><a href="http://exceltips.vitalnews.com/Pages/T1295_List_of_Macro_Shortcuts_in_All_Open_Workbooks.html">Read the whole article and code on his site.</a>Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-89682627881612041372007-04-25T08:41:00.000+10:002007-04-25T08:53:17.912+10:00Excel 2003-2007 conversion projectHere is the email I am sending all my clients that we have written Excel tools for.<br /><blockquote>I want to ask about whether your IT department is looking at rolling out Office 2007 at all in the near future. When this happens there will be a LOT of work required to make existing excel tools work in that environment. The same will apply to all the work we have developed, and also potentially any other Excel files that you currently use.<br /><br />I suggest that we start the work now. I suggest we make it code safe to work in 2003 and 2007 so that as you start to get a mixed environment to work with that it will continue to operate. I have a developer working for me now who is managing all my office 2003-2007 conversion projects.</blockquote><br /><br />If you have Excel tools that have any VBA in them chances are they will not convert to 2007 with out some effort.<br />Feel free to <a href="http://www.jethromanagement.biz/feedback">contact us to arrange a quote to analyse / convert your files</a>.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-25115240890357249802007-04-17T13:37:00.000+10:002007-04-17T13:38:17.085+10:00Excel 2007 and backward compatibilityBackward compatibility is important to anybody who writes Excel spreadsheets or uses VBA code. Backward compatibility means that features that are new in the new version will still work when run on the old version. This is not the case with Excel 2007, 2003, 2000, 97 or 95.<br /><br />Excel 2007 allows you to save in a 2003 format. However being able to save in a previous version does not make something backward compatible. It simply means you can save in a previous version. Note to do this you will lose functionality of new features not supported under the old application, as well as possibly creating errors and breakages. <br /><br />VBA Code differences<br />In each version change there have been changes to code, objects, interaction with these objects using VBA, libraries etc that have meant that VBA code written in the newer versions does not always work correctly or at all when run on the older versions. Often there are new arguments or options to functions that are introduced in new versions. These will cause errors if run in previous versions that don’t support those arguments or options. Using the Save As feature does not fix this.<br /><br />Some specific examples include.<br />Excel 2007 - the new colour themes are not using the same colour codes that Excel 2003 used. Write code in 2007 and expect it to run on 2003 - no way. At least this forward compatible.<br /><br />Use code in 2007 to open a CSV file and move the sheet into an existing Excel 2003 workbook. This will not work in Excel 2007. Excel 2007 opens the CSV file as a 2007 workbook with million rows. This cannot be moved into the 2003 workbook as the sheet is not compatible with this format. This is an example of a forward compatible issue<br /><br />Of course these things can be fixed, like we fixed all the problems with all the previous "upgrades". Painstakingly going through thousands of lines of code and debugging all the error traps, all the function arguments and parameters that may be only used in certain circumstances.<br /><br />For the average user who has recorded a macro to change some cells colours or open a CSV file (fairly common practices) these spreadsheets are NOT backward or forward compatible.<br /><br />Spreadsheet differences<br />There are also numerous issues with the Save As feature. If you have a 2007 spreadsheet that is larger than the 2003 allowed size this cannot get saved as 2003 properly. If you are using the new conditional formatting these get badly converted when Saved As 2003. Even basic things like range names and filters don’t work the same way and don’t convert back properly.<br /><br />In my opinion, treat Excel 2007 as a new application. Don’t use the compatibility feature unless you are able to test and retest everything you write on the old versions.<br />Assume that your users will open in 2003, or 2002 (XP) or even 2000, write your code accordingly and test, test, test for it.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-8217917543160092552007-03-23T14:59:00.000+10:002007-06-02T15:52:50.743+10:00Clear Excess Formatting in Excel FilesMicrosoft have a very interesting tool on their website.<blockquote>The <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=ECFD076C-B873-48CC-B842-DA999C848C82&displaylang=en">Excel Excess Formatting Cleaner Add-in</a> program removes all formatting that has been applied beyond the cell range that contains data, or beyond the cell range that is covered by shapes, in each worksheet in the workbook. This reduces the file size of a converted Lotus 1-2-3 file or of a file that has formatting applied beyond the data range.<br /><br />You can also use this add-in program to resolve various printing and viewing problems that are caused by extra formatting that is applied outside the last cell (as defined by the UsedRange property to determine which cells in the worksheet contain data).</blockquote>Once installed you can find the application in the File Menu under Close.<br />This worked brilliantly for the files I tried it on with significant file size decrements of 25%-60%.<br />As far as I can see the only forseeable problem with this is that sheets that are preformatted to take pasted values (eg. via a macro) could lose their formatting.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-55434192570458507852007-03-14T22:26:00.000+10:002007-06-02T15:51:41.650+10:00Cheap Office 2007 for Australian Uni StudentsCopied from <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmayhew/archive/2007/02/27/it-s-not-cheating-special-promotion-for-uni-students.aspx">Nick Mayhew</a><br /><blockquote>It's Not Cheating - special promotion for uni students<br /><br />What is itsnotcheating.com.au?<br /><br />Approx. 1 million Australian students in 43 Australian universities will be able to purchase Office Ultimate 2007 online for AUD$75 outright or AUD$25 for one year (subscription) simply by providing their university email address for verification purposes.<br /><br />How long?<br /><br />The offer will run from Feb 26th – May 28th, we are also giving away a Vespa GT200, a Vista HP laptop, a Samsung mobile phone and one year FREE Sanity music downloads purely by submitting a blog on www.itsnotcheating.com.au<br /><br />What do you get in Office Ultimate 2007?<br /><br />· Microsoft Office Access 2007<br /><br />· Microsoft Office Excel 2007<br /><br />· Microsoft Office Groove 2007<br /><br />· Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007<br /><br />· Microsoft Office OneNote 2007<br /><br />· Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager<br /><br />· Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007<br /><br />· Microsoft Office Publisher 2007<br /><br />· Microsoft Office Word 2007<br /><br /> <br /><br />Ps. Tutors and alumnis can purchase too – as long as they have a university email address!</blockquote>Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-45547193218641432712007-02-13T15:24:00.000+10:002007-06-02T15:51:05.729+10:00VBA Declaration of VariablesIn VBA you are not required to declare a variable. This is bad programming practice but nevertheless is allowed. There is an option to force the declaration of variables and that is to use the <strong>Option Explicit </strong>command at the top of a module.<br /><br />However the next poor programming “feature” within VBA is that variable declarations can be made without assigning the type.<br />E.g. <strong>Dim testString</strong>. This will create a variable called testString as a type variant which is the default. It would be better to declare the variable as <strong>Dim testString As String</strong>. This actually forces the variable to be a string. This makes it easier to trap errors and reduces the memory used.<br /><br />However VBA also allows you to declare multiple variables on one line. E.g. <strong>Dim upper, lower As Single</strong>. Unfortunately as I found out today although the syntax for this is valid, only the very last variable in this line will be assigned as the variable type Single. All others will be given Variant (as the default). The way to get around this is to write the line as following; <strong>Dim upper As String, lower As String</strong>. <br />This then achieves the desired result of all variables declared with the correct type.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-32959462711929949012007-01-11T21:11:00.000+10:002007-06-02T15:49:56.245+10:00Excel charts,Doug Klippert has this great tip, a formula (that could be put into a User Defined Funciton (UDF), to convert the column number to its actual alpha representation.<br />The following formula extracts the Column letter:<br /><br />=SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(1,COLUMN(),4),"1","")<br /><br />Read the <a href="http://www.klippert.com/TCC/Blog/2006/12/display-row-column-headings.html">explanation and the rest of the story on his post</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.xcelsius.com/Products/Overview.html">Crystal Xcelsius</a> is a very funky charting add in that allows you to:<blockquote>Create interactive Excel dashboards, business presentations and visual calculators from ordinary spreadsheets – then integrate them into PowerPoint, Word, PDF and the Web.</blockquote> I am trialling this for a client and its is very cool how you can make on the fly "what if" changes to spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.excel-vba.com/">Excel-VBA.com</a> has a wealth of excellent topics and advice for excel and vba users. Some examples include, SUMPRODUCT, SUBTOTAL, the excel calculator, spreadsheet design, shortcuts and more. Well laid out also.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~tflynn/excelvba.html">Tommy Flynn's site has a number of Excel VBA examples</a> that you can copy and use including, hiding and unhiding sheets, input boxes, arrays and for next loops. Worth bookmarking.<br /><br />Talking of which check out my <a href="http://del.icio.us/jethrocon/excel">Excel tags</a>, <a href="http://del.icio.us/jethrocon/excel2007">Excel 2007 tags</a> and <a href="http://del.icio.us/jethrocon/vba">VBA tags</a> on <a href="http://del.icio.us/jethrocon">del.icio.us</a>Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1166008677820348382006-12-13T20:58:00.000+10:002006-12-13T21:17:58.070+10:00Linking Cells to Chart TitlesWhen you create a chart in Excel you have the option to type in the Chart title and X and Y Axis titles. Once you have created these, you can select them, then click in the formula bar, delete the text you previously entered, and then either type or select a cell reference. This will allow you to dynamically change the chart and axis titles based on what is in the linked cells.<br /><br />This is very useful if you have a chart that is used for several different data sets, and using a drop down box or similar to select the data set. This can also be used to change the title of the chart at the same time using this technique.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1164172263895886302006-11-22T15:08:00.000+10:002006-11-22T15:11:03.913+10:00Office 2007 feature checker - Excel, Word and PowerpointMicrosoft have released feature checkers for the new version of Office for Excel, Word and Powerpoint.<br />These tools enable you to lookup the Office 2003 feature (menu options) and locate in the new ribbon where these are hiding.<br /><a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA101491511033.aspx?pid=CH100648241033">Excel</a><br /><a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx">Word</a><br /><a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA101490761033.aspx?pid=CH100668131033">PowerPoint</a>Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1162471516703850922006-11-02T22:38:00.000+10:002006-11-02T22:45:16.716+10:00Microcharts<a href="http://www.bonavistasystems.com/index.html">BonaVista Systems</a> have a very useful addin and its not too expensive either.<blockquote><a href="http://www.bonavistasystems.com/Products_SparkLiner_Overview.html"><br />MicroCharts</a>, winner of the BI Network's 2006 Data Visualization Competition, enhances Excel with powerful, compact visualizations such as <a href="http://www.bonavistasystems.com/ChartGallery%20Column%20Charts.html">sparklines, bullet graphs and other in-cell charts</a>. With a basic desktop versions costing as low as $49, it's an absolute must have for <a href="http://www.bonavistasystems.com/Products_SparkLiner_Overview.html">financial analysts</a>,<a href="http://www.bonavistasystems.com/Products_SparkLiner_ExcelUser.html">Excel users</a>,<a href="http://www.bonavistasystems.com/Products_SparkLinerforMicrosoftBI.html">Microsoft BI users</a></blockquote><br />I have downloaded and installed the trial and created some useful looking little charts. I definitely recommend the tutorials as they are not intuitve, but once you figure them out they are pretty easy to customise.<br /><br />The picture displays some of these micro charts that I have created.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.spyjournal.biz/exceltips/images/microcharts.jpg" />Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1160954943190617432006-10-16T09:27:00.000+10:002006-10-16T09:29:03.206+10:00Delicious BookmarksI am using delicious heavily now for bookmarking.<br /><br />If you want to subscribe to my <a href="http://del.icio.us/rss/jethrocon/excel">Excel RSS feed then use this link</a>.<br /><br />Here are the <a href="http://del.icio.us/jethrocon/excel">Excel links directly</a>.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1159579862442665022006-09-30T11:07:00.000+10:002006-09-30T11:31:02.456+10:00Excel SparkchartsCharley Kyd from ExcelUser.com does some pretty amazing stuff with charts and dashboard reporting.<br /><br />Charley writes books and newsletters and these are great resources.<br /><br />Here is an excerpt fropm his latest newsletter about Sparkcharts<br /><blockquote>I've just posted an article about a new Excel add-in that every business user of Excel should take a close look at. It's an amazing product, and I want to tell you more about it here.<br /><br />The product is SparkMaker Basic. It provides a selection of Excel spreadsheet functions that return sparkcharts rather than numbers. <br /><br />So what's a sparkchart, and why are the functions so amazing?<br /><br />The answer begins with Edward Tufte. He's Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Statistics, and Computer Science at Yale University. He's spent much of his professional life finding and explaining ways to present data more clearly. <br /><br />Several years ago, Tufte invented the idea of 'sparklines', which are word-sized line charts. Then, less than two years ago, Bissantz introduced SparkMaker Pro for Microsoft Office. This product included many features and priced it at $200. <br /><br />Last week, the company introduced the $60 SparkMaker Basic, which includes only Excel functions. From an Excel user's point of view, SparkMaker Basic has the best of Pro's features, for one-third of the price.<br /><br />Because Bissantz includes a variety of chart types in addition to lines, their product generates sparkcharts, not merely sparklines.<br /><br />For many people in business, however, a sparkchart is an idea that makes no sense at all. Many people in business create charts that fill a computer screen, or a printed page. What possible use is a chart about the size of one of the words in this sentence?<br /><br />When you think about it, however, you probably could use word-sized charts in most of your Excel reports:<br /><br />In addition to showing Month and YTD results, you could include tiny charts that show how each line item has trended over the past year.<br /> <br />When you have any data in rows or columns, you could use sparkcharts to quickly display patterns in those numbers.<br /> <br />You could show the relative measures of performance for each item in a table in a report.<br /> <br />You could set up a traffic light or an exception indicator that helps to explain why the exception has appeared.<br /> <br />Etc. <br />Considering the little amount of spreadsheet real estate they take up, the little effort they require to learn and use, and their low cost, sparkcharts offer an impressive return on investment.</blockquote><br /><br />Right now, the primary product is the Excel dashboard book. But he has several more books in the works. You can learn more about the <a href="http://www.exceluser.com/cmd.asp?af=497404">dashboard book</a> on his site.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1159578164139649532006-09-30T10:47:00.000+10:002006-09-30T11:02:44.150+10:00Excel and SharepointI have been working a lot with Sharepoint lately. Sharepoint is Microsoft's intranet application. It is a content management system, though compared with some of the open source ones (like <a href="http://www.drupal.org">Drupal</a>) there is a lot to be desired from that perspective. However it does integrate well with most of the Microsoft products as a team collaboration tool. OneNote, Visio, Word and Powerpoint all work well with it.<br />I have attached a Word doc - from Microsoft - which is a Sharepoint guide.<a href="http://www.spyjournal.biz/exceltips/pdf/SharePointGuide.doc">SharePointGuide.doc</a><br /><br />However I have been trying to help some customers shift their network file structures into Sharepoint for better team collaboration, searchability and content management. What I have discovered is that Excel files that have been linked cannot be used in Sharepoint. Here is what some others have to say about that.<br /><br /><a href="http://joeloleson.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B05AD15E2DE730DD!347.entry">Joel Oleson</a><br /><a href="http://groups.google.com.au/group/microsoft.public.excel.links/browse_thread/thread/ba11ec0de9d2b75f/ff266343b5bd136f%23ff266343b5bd136f">Google Excel Group discussion</a><br /><br /><br />I have found some limited use for reports and other display / basic editing of files. And certainly from a repository perspective Sharepoint is fine with Excel files.<br /><br />But dont try and link files and use SharePoint!Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1157983101892868102006-09-11T23:47:00.000+10:002006-09-11T23:58:22.106+10:00XML and Office 12There's a lot starting to be written about the new Office 12 or Office 2007 and the Open XML Formats for file structures.<br />Basically there is a completely different approach to file types.<br />(For the technical minded they have changed from a binary to an XML format.)<br /><br />For everybody else think of a Zip File - now think of that as a container and inside that container are a number of other files - each one is an element of the main file. There is formatting, header, authoring information etc. There is the text and data, there are images and embedded objects. Each of these can be manipulated and edited from outside the application it is normally viewed in.<br /><br />So think of opening the text element from a word doc in a text pad, editing it, and then reopening the word doc with all your formatting applied and the text edits are all there. Very handy if you need to use a computer without Office 2007 on it.<br /><br />Think about editing the header information and changing your company details or logo. Then think of applying these changes to all the word docs on your system - without having to open one of them! Thats the sort of benefits you can expect to see from this new format.<br /><br />Of course the application can create and edit backward compatabile versions, and can even be set to default to those versions.<br />Viewers will be available from Microsoft for free that will enable those without Office 2007 to open and view documents.<br /><br />For a primer in starting to read about how the Open XML format works start with these web resources<br /><a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2005/09/29/475340.aspx">Brian Jones Blog</a><br /><a href="http://openxmldeveloper.org/archive/2006/08/31/599.aspx">MSDN Articles on Open XML and Related Topics</a><br /><a href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338205.aspx">MSDN - Introducing the Office (2007) Open XML File Formats</a>Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1156267004324356102006-08-23T03:13:00.000+10:002006-08-23T03:16:44.340+10:00InfoPath exampleOK I promised some InfoPath info. It was a lot more difficult than I thought. I did some searching and came up with a bunch of fairly useful resources<br />The following is very much in a note form as I played with these resources<br /><br />I would recommend downloading the documents suggested if you are remotely interested in this.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.eggheadcafe.com/">Egghead</a> <a href="http://www.eggheadcafe.com/aspnet_answers/">Folder listing</a><br /> <br /><a href="http://www.only4gurus.com/v3/index.asp">Only for gurus</a><br /> <br />Here is an <a href="http://blogs.oracle.com/matt/2006/04/30">example of tech geek speak that doesn’t even make sense to a newbie</a>.<br />Does this mean you have to be an oracle expert first? Sure hope not. I don’t even know what a BPEL is!<br /><br />Download this document!<br /><a href="http://www.only4gurus.com/v3/download.asp?resource=3621">Lab 1 is just for gurus also</a><br />I think I need to find something more basic!<br /><br />Aha - Lab 2 in this document - step by step - good stuff - and no weird server geek speak.<br /> <br />This is good. (Note: Office 2003 and Info Path 2003 used for this lab)<br />I learnt how to create a basic form and it worked.<br />Note: I had to skip the bit about connecting to the Contosa database as it didn’t exist on my install.<br />I saved the form and emailed it to myself.<br />Then I completed the form and saved it.<br />I did a second one also.<br /><br />Here is a simple <a href="http://www.knowledge-management.com/news/v4n10/infopathfaq.html">top 10 FAQ type web page for InfoPath</a><br /><br />That’s some basic InfoPath stuff.<br /><br />I can really see how useful this would be for accountants. Especially if you have recalcitrant employees that getting expense claim reports from is next to impossible, or maybe for completing leave requests or some other basic form: petty cash for example.<br />However you need an IT degree (almost) to install and setup the Info Path servers. I can't wait to try the new versions (office 2007 and the 2007 servers)Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1156266304014558272006-08-23T03:03:00.000+10:002006-08-23T03:05:04.030+10:00Office 2007 XML and InfopathI have been doing some research on Office 2003 XML and Info path along with the coming upgrade to Office 2007 and SharePoint server 2007.<br /> <br />Here is the link to Bill Gate's keynote speech titled <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2006/03-21OfficeDevCon.asp">"Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman & Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation<br />Microsoft Office System Developers Conference 2006: "It's More Than You Think"</a> Redmond, Washington March 21, 2006" <br /> <br />There is a lot of useful information in there from the point of view of getting started understanding just what some of the changes coming in Office 2007 will entail, and why.<br /> <br />The hardest part I have found so far is where to start the research. There is so much out there already at a technical level that presupposes a level of understanding and skills that a newbie just does not have. As this is an area I am a relative newbie I am going to try and deliver some of the information that I discover in an easy 1-2-3 sort of format - introducing XML, and how it can be used to alter how you do business now, and increase your productivity.<br /> <br />Here are some <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/FX010857921033.aspx">good starting places for Office 2003 (Microsoft 11) and Info Path</a><br /> <br />Coming soon, I will present a step by step of creating an XML schema in a excel file, and then creating an info path form that uses that schema.Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1156264812914475822006-08-23T01:50:00.000+10:002006-08-23T02:40:13.183+10:00Recent Excel Reading<a href="http://www.blog.methodsinexcel.co.uk/">Methods in Excel</a> <a href="http://www.blog.methodsinexcel.co.uk/2006/08/14/list-box-resizing-problems/">Resizing list boxes</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.exceluser.com/explore/links_mvps.htm">Key Excel MVP Websites</a><br />Missing <a href="http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xldynamic.com%2F&ei=cyfrROTEOKOEpgLth9WrDA&sig2=xEFeCN2rzXllir1vLpyHhg">Bob Phillips xlDynamic website</a>- who does some work for me - and he is great!Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1154649351592611752006-08-04T09:41:00.000+10:002006-08-04T12:03:11.823+10:00Round up of Recent Excel NewsFirst apologies for a small hiatus here - mostly due to travelling away recently and on dialup. I hope to rectify this shortly with some great new tips and also some info and reviews on Office 2007.<br />In the meantime here are some links to what others are aying and doing in the Excelverse.<br /><br />Doug Klippert from <a href="http://www.klippert.com/">Unofficial Microsoft Office Stuff</a> <a href="http://www.klippert.com/TCC/Blog/2006/07/still-more-functions.html">links</a> to <a href="http://www.klippert.com/TCC/Blog/2006/07/â€http://xcell05.free.fr/â€">Laurent Longres Addin</a> that you can download for free. It has 65 functions in it including:<br />CHBASE - converts a value from a base into another base.<br />EASTERDATE - date of Easter Sunday for a given year<br />FORMULATEXT - returns the formula of a cell<br />MMAX - returns the N highest numbers of a range or an array<br />NBTEXT - converts a positive number into spelled-out text (supports 13 languages)<br />UNIQUEVALUES - returns the unique items of a range or an array<br /><br /><a href="http://www.klippert.com/TCC/Blog/2006/07/charting-tools.html">Heres his link</a> to <a href="http://www.edferrero.com/">Ed Ferrero</a> has a number of sample Excel charts and tools. One he calls a Wind Rose. Unfortunately the charting page on Ed's site is broken. However there is a bunch of other resources there you may find useful including some VBA code.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.klippert.com/TCC/Blog/2006/08/dynamic-tabs.html">Change tab names automatically</a><br />A wee bit of code to assist with sheet tab automatic name changes.<br /><br />From <a href="http://j-walkblog.com/">J-Walk</a> - a <a href="http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/the_office_2007_icons_are_here/">link</a> to where <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/default.aspx">Jensen Harris</a> has a look at the new Office 2007 icons.<br /><a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/07/26/678606.aspx">The Office 2007 Icons Are Here!</a>Jethrotag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8573675.post-1152588726039587402006-07-11T13:26:00.000+10:002006-07-11T13:32:06.136+10:00Restricting Scrolling in an Excel WorksheetDoug Klippert fom Unofficial Microsoft Office Stuff writes a really useful post about <a href="http://www.klippert.com/TCC/Blog/2006/07/scroll-restrictions.html">how to use the scroll property to restrict scrolling in a worksheet</a> without using protection.<br /><blockquote>You can protect a spreadsheet so that data is shielded from inadvertent entries.<br />There is another way to set up a scroll area that does not involve protection.<br />Open the Control Toolbox (right-click any existing tool bar) and click on the Properties icon.<br /><br />In the Scroll Area text box, type the scroll area range, or type the defined Name for the range.<br />To cancel the Scroll Area restricted range, clear the Scroll Area text box.</blockquote><br />Pictures and how to find it in Excel 2007 <a href="http://www.klippert.com/TCC/Blog/2006/07/scroll-restrictions.html">can be found in his site</a>.Jethro