Maria’s Guides

An Excel solution.

A while back, someone I know here in Wickenburg called me with an Excel question. He needed to calculate the date of the Wednesday least 90 days from an entered date.

So, for example, if he entered 2/14/2009 in a worksheet cell, he didn’t want 5/15/2009 (a Friday), which was 90 days later. He wanted 5/20/2009, which is the Wednesday at least 90 days after the date he entered.

The solution was to use nested IF statements to evaluate whether the day of the week 90 days after the entered date is a Wednesday. If it is, it uses that date. if it isn’t, it does the same evaluation for 91 days after the entered date. And then 92 days. And so on.

The spreadsheet I came up with can be downloaded here. This screenshot shows what it looks like. It has a lot of other stuff in it that I used to test the formula. Notes in the worksheet explain. I saved it just to share it here. You might find it useful if you have a similar need.

Just watch those parentheses.

Information from Microsoft AutoUpdate.

The Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.3 Update contains several changes that improve security, stability, reliability, and performance. Additionally, this update includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of a computer’s memory by using malicious code.

This is a critical update and is highly recommended for all Office 2008 users.

For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958267

Information from Microsoft’s Web site.

The Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.2 Update contains several changes that improve stability and performance. In addition, this update includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of a computer’s memory by using malicious code.

You can learn more at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956344.

Note: This update is huge: over 100 MB. If you’re updating on a laptop, make sure you have a good Internet connection and your power cable attached.

Information from Microsoft’s updater.

This update contains several improvements to enhance stability and performance.

For detailed information about this update, visit
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=119963.

Note that this is a huge update: 150+ megabytes! Be sure you have a fast connection and enough time to complete the download before beginning the update.

Information from Microsoft AutoUpdate.

This update to Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac is part of Microsoft’s ongoing effort to provide the latest product updates to customers. To receive future Microsoft product updates, you must install this update.

For additional assistance, or to obtain a downloadable version of this update, visit http://www.microsoft.com/mac.

Buy my Excel 2007 books at 50% off retail price.

Flying M Productions has a limited number of copies of Microsoft Office Excel 2007 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide and Creating Spreadsheets and Charts with Microsoft Office Excel 2007 for WIndows: Visual QuickProject Guide for sale at $10.99 and $8.49 respectively — that’s 50% off retail price. This offer is good for books shipped to U.S. address only. (Sorry, but they’re not willing to deal with overseas shipping because of the extensive customs paperwork involved.)

To order a book, click the appropriate Buy Now button below. All payment is via PayPal, which accepts payment via all major credit cards or bank account transfer. Books are shipped out within 48 hours of order receipt.

When Flying M Productions runs out of copies, this offer will end, so don’t delay if you want to take advantage of it.