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July 28th, 2010

Creating a Time-Lapse Calculator with Excel

A quick way to perform movie-making calculations.

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June 28th, 2007

Random Number Generator for Excel

A quick little project.

I just happened to visit a Web site that used another Web site to generate random numbers for contest giveaways. To me, an Excel user, that seemed like a silly place to go to get a random number when you could easily generate one on the fly within Excel.

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March 28th, 2007

Printing an Excel Function Reference Sheet

A how-to for Excel users.

My Visual QuickStart Guide books for Excel — from the edition for Excel 95 for Windows through the edition for Excel X for Macintosh — have always included an Excel function reference. In an effort to make pages available for other content, however, we’ve cut that appendix from

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February 23rd, 2007

Excel Alignment Tips

For perfectionists.

One of the things that always bothered me about Excel was the way it handled right alignment in cells with certain types of number formatting applied.

The Problem

For example, in the following illustration you’ll see that some cells containing values have currency formatting and other cells containing values have comma formatting

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January 12th, 2007

Excel 2003 VQS Correction of the Day

Another very minor correction to my Excel 2003 VQS for Windows book.

As I continue to revise the book for Excel 2007 on Windows Vista, I continue to find tiny errors in the existing book.

Today’s error is on page 118, in the caption for Figure 38. The caption states that gridlines have been

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January 2nd, 2007

Excel 2003 VQS Figure Correction

Well, it only took me 3 years to notice this.

Sheesh. It always happens. I find errors in books I’m revising, after thousands of people have bought the book and consulted it, sometimes for years.

Well, that’s part of what my Book Support sites are about: to provide corrections and clarifications to the books.

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December 13th, 2006

Creating Spreadsheets and Charts in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide is Off to the Printer

(I just write ‘em — I don’t name ‘em.)

The revision to my Excel 2007 Visual QuickStart Guide was shipped to the printer this week. My editor expects the book to be in stores by year-end.

The book is a raw beginners guide to Excel. This version covers Excel 2007, which will be widely

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September 20th, 2006

New Excel Book in Progress

After two months off from writing, I begin work on an Excel book revision.

I dove into a revision of my Creating Spreadsheets and Charts in Excel: Visual QuickProject Guide book today. I actually got the first chapter — all 16 pages of it — done.

If you’re not familiar with the VQJ (as

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September 6th, 2005

Excel 2003/2004 QuickStart Sample Files

Sample Files from the Book.

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October 6th, 2004

Excel 2003/2004 QuickProject Sample Files

Sample Files from the Book.

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