PMT function and Amortization Schedules

In this example, we are going to walk through how to do a PMT function and then create an amortization schedule to make sure that the we did the PMT function correctly. The PMT function is used by everyone - personally and professionally.  For example. if you want to figure out what your car payment or your mortgage payment is going to be - you use PMT.

Click here to continue 

Visualize! Use Conditional Formatting's Icon Sets

Today with all the online presentations be it YouTube, Webinars or just an in-house presentation, visual impact has become a lot more important. People only used to just be concerned about colors and images when making PowerPoint slides but in today's environment  you need to consider it for spreadsheets as well.

Conditional formatting is a great feature in itself but today I wanted to focus on  icon sets as some people are not familiar with them or how they work. I am skipping the basics of the icon sets because if you select cells and apply an icon set, the  display is based upon percentages which I personally don't care for. Instead we are going to skip to the more advanced section where everything is a bit more black and white (so to speak)

Since everyone knows my love of lattes and chai, we will use a product line of coffees and teas. We want to emphasize the product lines that are are under budget in terms of their  unit sales. Which spreadsheet would you want to look at? Which has immediate impact? Which quickly identifies the problem products?

Hopefully, you guessed the bottom spreadsheet! To see how to do this, click on this link. and make sure to grab a cup of coffee before you start!

Workbooks - Protection and Encryption

How to password protect and encrypt an Excel workbook

How many passwords do you have? The answer is probably too many. 

Unfortunately, that is the way things are going and you probably need to start considering password protecting  some of your Excel files too. Be careful though - there is no HelpDesk to call if you forget the password!

Below is a guest post from Joe Helstrom on protecting a workbook.

To ensure that unauthorized users do not access a workbook, a workbook can be password protected. Without the password, users cannot access the worksheets within the workbook. It is an effective control as long as the password is limited only to those users with authorized access, is properly safeguarded and is not shared with anyone else. A password is not very effective if it’s on a sticky note attached to your computer monitor.  However, I am sure that none of you do that.

Click here to see the steps needed to password your Excel workbook.

Use Data Validation to check for Duplicate Entries

If you are setting up a spreadsheet for someone else to enter data this is a neat trick. You can use the Data Validation and the CountIF feature to check for duplicate entries and then not allow the user to enter the duplicate data.

To read more, please  click here.

VBA - Ebooks

Want to Learn VBA?

I've had a couple of people asking about VBA lately and wanted to tell you about a site that contacted me. They are a UK site called Best STL and they do training.  They are currently offering 2 excellent Ebooks on VBA for free.
Check them out when you have a chance.  I am hoping to get a CPE course on VBA out sometime next year but in the meantime you might find this information very helpful.

http://www.microsofttraining.net/vba-training-manuals.php