Practical Tips Search Results

How To: Increment numbers in formulas in Microsoft Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 692nd installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to increment numbers in formulas to get 2,2,2,2,4,4,4,4 or 1,1,1,1,3,3,3,3 or 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 or 11,22,33,44 using the ROWS, INT, MOD and COLUMNS functions.

How To: Identify the first occurrence of a value in a column in Microsoft Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 697th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to create a column of 1s and 0s (ones and zeroes) where 1 indicates the first occurrence and 0 indicates any remaining duplicates.

How To: Keep your laptop battery safe and secure with four tips from CNET

Millions of laptop batteries have been recalled because of the risk of FIRE. Get some tips from CNET to learn how to keep your laptop battery safe and secure. First, make sure your battery hasn't already been recalled. Second, don't leave the laptop constantly charging because it heats it up. One way to save your battery is to remove it completely when you plug in directly. Third, treat the battery as fragile. And finally, four, avoid buying knockoff batteries.

How To: Make a portable lap-sized beading studio for beading on the go

You know those long drives home in the car after you've spent a weekend at a cousin's house, or back from visiting Las Vegas? With more than a few hours at your disposal, what do you do to fill up the time? If you're an avid crafter and enjoy making jewelry, that you can turn those usually idle hours into productive crafting time by making this portable beading studio.

How To: Calculate Commission Based on Varying Rates in Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 673rd installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to use the SUMPRODUCT formula to calculate commission amounts based on varying commission rates based on cumulative sales totals for each month.

How To: Count with OR criteria in Microsoft Excel 2010

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 674th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn four different methods for counting OR criteria in Microsoft Excel 2010:

How To: Validate data with dynamic VLOOKUP functions in Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 675th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to do data validation using a custom logical formula with 2 VLOOKUP functions that will change when different products are entered. For example, if shirt product is entered, the data validation will let only values between $50 and...

How To: Create a defined name for a dynamic range in MS Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 676th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to create a Defined Name formula for a dynamic range (columns can vary) using the INDEX and MATCH functions. This formula works when there are no column headers (field names).

How To: Average the last three values for an entity in Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 677th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to average the last three scores eneterd for any Player using the functions: AVERAGE, IF, ROW, COUNTIF, MIN, LARGE.

How To: Sum values after a deadline in Microsoft Excel 2010

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 678th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to SUM only the values after a deadline using a dynamic range formula using INDEX Function. Also see a SUMPRODUCT function method.

How To: Add yearly totals from monthly data in MS Excel 2010

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 679th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to summarize yearly totals from monthly totals when there Year Criteria is entered as a serial date. See the SUMPRODUCT and SUMIFS functions. Learn about criteria and how to enter it into the SUMIFS functions.

How To: Ignore hidden rows with MS Excel's AGGREGATE function

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 662nd installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to add or average while ignoring values in hidden rows. In addition you can ignore both Hidden Rows and Error Value.

How To: Ignore nested subtotals with AGGREGATE in MS Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 664th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to make a calculation on a column of values that contain subtotals that you do not want to include in the calculations. The AGGREGATE function will ignore nested SUBTOTAL and AGGREGATE functions when making calculations.

How To: Ignore filtered values making calculations in MS Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 665th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to use the AGGREGATE function to make calculations on filtered data. The SUBTOTAL function only has 11 functions, whereas the AGGREGATE has 19 plus options to ignore errors, hidden rows and nested SUBTOTAL or AGGREGATE functions.

How To: Use the AGGREGATE function in Microsoft Excel 2010

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 669th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to use the AGGREGATE function in Microsoft Excel 2010 and later. This new function is better than SUBTOTAL function because 1) the options argument set to 18 will calculate Percentile and 2) AGGREGATE can handle arrays. See how th...

How To: Extract records with 1 criterion via Excel's AGGREGATE

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 670th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to use the AGGREGATE function to create a formula for extracting records with one criterion. This is a lookup problem where you want to return multiple records from one lookup value. This formula is not an array formula because it...

How To: Extract records with 2 criteria with Excel's AGGREGATE

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 671st installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to use the AGGREGATE function to create a formula for extracting records with two criteria. This is a lookup problem where you want to return multiple records from two lookup values. This formula is not an array formula because it...

How To: Extract the rows in a data set to 1 column in MS Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 650th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn see how to take all records from a data set and place them into one column using the INDEX, INT, ROWS and MOD functions.

How To: Use Boolean logic for AND & OR formulas in MS Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 652nd installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn see how to create Boolean Logic formulas for AND and OR Logical Formulas. See Logical Truth Tables for AND and OR. Also see how to create array formulas in two different ways: the SUMPRODUCT function (DON'T have to use Ctrl + Shift + ...

How To: Create a frequency polygon line chart in MS Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 655th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn see how to create a statistical frequency polygon using a line chart. Also see how Excel mistakenly interprets number category label data as Number Series data.

How To: Calculate invoice due dates with EOMONTH in MS Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 657th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn see howto calculate Invoice Due Dates & Financial Statement Dates using the EOMONTH function including end of the month and beginning and ending dates for each quarter.

How To: Use the COUNT and COUNTA functions in Microsoft Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 658th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn see how to use the COUNT & COUNTA functions correctly. COUNT counts numbers. COUNTA counts non-empty cells.

How To: Make budget summary tables that add by month in Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 642nd installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to create a budget summary table that adds by month and payee. See the benefits and drawbacks of the SUMIFS & EOMONTH functions method or the PivotTable method. Also learn about the Excel Table feature for adding dynamic ranges.

How To: Find approximate matches in unsorted columns in Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 639th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to create a formula that will do an approximate match lookup with an unsorted lookup table that can be copied across multiple columns and do lookup from multiple columns.

How To: Save money on your phone bill & upgrade early for free

In this clip, learn how to make the right phone calls and press the right buttons to "trick" your phone company into giving you a free phone upgrade before you are due. You will also learn how to save money on you phone bill by using a few choice words on the telephone. This trick works for Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, so not matter who your carrier is you will be golden. This clip is hosted by an ex-employee from a cell phone company, so it is full of insider tips.

How To: Apply special formatting to past-due invoices in Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 631st installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to add conditional formatting to a transactional record when the date is 90 days past due using the TODAY function and mixed cell references in a logical TRUE-FALSE formula.

How To: Count dates falling within a given year in MS Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 632nd installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to create a formula using the SUMPRODUCT and YEAR function to count instances of the year 2009 or 2010 from a list of dates with different years.

How To: Highlight dates falling within a given year in Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 633rd installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to create conditional formatting that will highlight the dates within a given year using the Year Function and Mixed Cell References in a logical TRUE-FALSE formula.

How To: Compare text with text & numbers with numbers in Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 634th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to build logical formulas for counting with criteria or conditional formatting so that the comparison is between text and text or numbers and numbers. Text-to-number comparisons (e.g., 2003 to "2003") do not yield matches. Learn h...

How To: Recover a lost file in Blender 2.5's autosave feature

With this quick Blender 2.5 video tip, you'll see how to stave off frustration in the case of a crash or lost work by using Blender's autosave feature to recover your work. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial from the folks at CG Cookie. For more information, including step-by-step ins...

How To: Use Blender 2.5's external drag and drop feature

In this quick Blender 2.5 video tip, you'll see how to use the new external drag and drop functionality recently added to Blender. This feature enables you to drag and drop images and videos from your operating systems file browser into Blender. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial from...

How To: Place decals onto 3D models via empties in Blender 2.5

This Blender 2.5 quick video tip demonstrates how to easily place decals onto your model with empties. This technique provides you complete control over the location, rotation and scale of your decal without the need for UV maps. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial from the folks at CG...

How To: Smooth out 3D models with Blender's Edgesplit modifier

In this quick Blender 2.5 video tip, you'll see how to make a lowpoly model appear smoother than it actually is by using an Edgesplit modifier. This technique also resolves the issue with artifacts you commonly face when displaying a lowpoly model as smooth. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software ...

How To: Lock the viewing angle in Blender by viewport snapping

This quick Blender video tip demonstrates how to use viewport snapping to lock the viewing angle to any 45 degree increment. This feature is similar to the viewport navigation that is found in ZBrush. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial from the folks at CG Cookie. For more information...

How To: Layer background images in Blender 2.5

This quick Blender 2.5 video tip tutorial demonstrates how to use multiple background images. This feature is very useful and allows for layering images in the viewport and assigning separate images to specific viewing angles. Without the need for multiple viewports. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video ...

How To: Model a human hand in Blender 3D

This Blender 2.5 video tutorial offers a demonstration and overview of clean hand topology. The tutorial includes tips on how to structure your mesh, including clean topology, mesh flow and edgeloop density. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial from the folks at CG Cookie. For more info...

How To: Create insets with Blender's smooth & extrude tools

In this quick Blender 2.5 tip, you'll see how to easily create insets in your mesh. This technique uses the Extrude Individual Faces and Smooth tools. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial from the folks at CG Cookie. For more information, including step-by-step instructions, take a look!