If you’re a parent, have you had that all-important conversation with your children? Or, do you hope that your spouse will have that talk with them, because you’re not sure of the best way to approach it?
Don’t worry, Zach Rosenberg shows how to broach this sensitive topic, in his blog post, “An Open Letter to My Son About Microsoft Excel”.
You can click here to read this heart-warming article, and see Zach’s artwork, and the Excel game that he recommends.
And I loved this line, of course, “I’ve got a book on pivot tables that we can start reading together before bed.”
P.S. There are more Excel games on my Contextures site.
Contextures Posts
Here’s what I posted last week:
- Use grouping to show or hide specific columns in an Excel table or pivot table. See the details when you need them, and hide them to save space.
- If possible, fix any errors in your source data, but if you can’t, you can change a pivot table’s settings, to hide any errors, based on that data.
- Avoid problems when pasting data into a filtered list – if you’re not careful, you can overwrite data in the hidden rows.
- Finally, for a humorous peek at what other people are saying about Excel, read this week’s collection of Excel tweets, on my Excel Theatre blog.
Other Excel Articles
Here are a few of the Excel articles that I read last week, that you might find useful:
- Doug Jenkins has added 3 new functions to his collection of Sort functions, and you can download his file, and see all the code. It’s always interesting to see how someone built their project!
- Bill Jelen (Mr. Excel) and Mike Girvin (ExcelIsFun) look at different ways to mark completed records with conditional formatting. What’s your favourite method for doing that?
- Erin describes the spreadsheet she uses to keep track of her finances, including a pile of student loans. Read the comments too, to see how other recent graduates are using Excel. [file is no longer available]
- John Arendt uses formulas to automate stocking a random dungeon in the game Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve never played the game, but maybe it’s something that you enjoy.
- Mynda Treacy explains how you can save time by using chart templates, with all your favourite colours, and other settings, stored in them. That can save you lots of time, if you regularly build Excel charts!
- On The Smarter One blog, sjkistler shows how to select a random sample from items in an Excel list. Is this something you you need to do at work?
Hmmm…two “Random” posts – could that be a coincidence?
Excel Resources
Here are some upcoming events, courses and new books, related to Excel.
- Registration is open for the Amsterdam Excel Summit. The one-day event runs on May 14, 2014, and features sessions by several Excel MVPs, such as Bill Jelen (Mr. Excel), Ken Puls and Charles Williams. All the sessions are in English, and the limit is 100 participants, so sign up now, if you’re interested.
- The European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group – EuSpRIG –has announced the preliminary program for Eursprig 2014. This event will be held in Delft (Netherlands) on July 3, 2104. Read more about it on Patrick O’Beirne’s blog.
Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants, by Neale Blackwood
448 pages, published April 14, 2014
Learn about the functions that work together to automate many of the processes involved in Management Reporting. See how to take advantage of the many new features of Excel 2007 and 2010. Find out how to build validation structures into your spreadsheet reports.
What Did You Read or Write?
If you read or wrote any other interesting Excel articles recently, that you’d like to share, please add a comment below, or send me an email. Please include a brief description, and a link to the article.
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