Articles

·         My Experts' Blog contributions on O'Reilly Media's Annoyances Central web site. Those contributions are original; you'll find reprints of some of my fixes from Excel Annoyances in the Daily Fix blog.

·         My article Top Ten Excel Annoyances on WindowsDevCenter.com. This article has been reprinted in Coastal Computer News Magazine Online and the Rochester Computer Society Inc. August 2005 newsletter.

·         A reader from the Netherlands wrote to ask about a possible error in the syntax of an INDEX formula. It turned out to be a difference in how one renders decimal values in English and other languages.

·         Here's an article that shows you how to use conditional formats to simulate stoplights for business intelligence dashboards in Excel.

·         If you use Excel 2003, you should definitely take advantage of data lists. Here's a quick tip on how to add a Total Row to your list and change its summary operation.

·         The first in a series: creating business intelligence dashboards using Xcelsius, part 1.

·         Scenarios help business presentations run smoothly, but if you close a workbook with a scenario applied, you'll lose your original worksheet data. Read this article to learn how to create scenarios and back up your data within your workbook.

Workbooks and Code

·         A copy of my Excel Presentation Kit (Beta 2), which enables you to record and replay workbook configurations, including PivotTable positions.

·         A workbook for tracking and commenting on microbrew beers from California, Oregon, Washington, Texas, and Alaska.

·         A routine that cuts off a cell's contents after a user-specified substring. This routine can be used to find the URL a visitor views without keeping any login or other information included in the URL (e.g., the URL http://www.techsoc.com/index.htm?userid=1033 could be truncated after the .htm substring, leaving just http://www.techsoc.com/index.htm)

·         And here's a similar routine. Instead of truncating a string, it keeps the characters after the substring you specify (e.g., you would keep everything to the right of ? in the URL http://www.techsoc.com/index.htm?userid=1033, leaving just userid=1033)

·         Here are the same two routines as functions, which you can call from a formula in your worksheet. The functions, CutAfter and CutBefore, expect two arguments: the address of the cell that contains the full string, and the address of the cell that contains the string you want to search for. To use the functions in a workbook formula, press Alt-F11 to display the Visual Basic Editor, choose File | Import File to display the Import File dialog box, click the file you want to import, and then click Open.

·         If you play 7-card stud online, you can use this Excel workbook to track all cards played during a hand.

Sites Maintained by Other Excel and Office Experts

• John Walkenbach's Spreadsheet Page

• Stephen Bullen's Excel Page

• David McRitchie's My Excel Pages

• Bill Jelen: Mr. Excel

• Stephanie Krieger, Office Document Goddess

• Office Zealot, your all-in-one Office blog resource

Excel Add-Ins and Utilities

• Excel Annoyances: downloads and references

• Excel Add-Ins on Microsoft Office Online

• Add-Ins.com: Excel Add-Ins

• http://www.office-excel.com/ - Excel Utilities for work automation and productivity improvement

• Microsoft Office System Solutions Directory

• Excel Add-In for SQL Analysis Services