Over the last couple of days, the Dallas area has experienced a record-breaking snowfall. 12.5 inches at the DFW airport!
Needless to say, everyone here is in complete snow panic mode.
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Snow Panic in Texas
February 12, 2010 3 comments »Integrating Xcelsius with Excel and Access
February 10, 2010 3 comments »Being the complete nerd that I am, I work with lots of different technologies. But in the end, I always strive to make those technologies work with Excel. One of those is Xcelsius. Xcelsius is a dashboarding application that takes data and spices it up into slick looking flash presentations.
Those of you who have already been asked to create reporting in Xcelsius may have found it a bit difficult to use. No VBA, no easy way to get connections and no pivot tables.
Well for the upcoming Xcelsius Developer's Workshop, I've come up with a technique where you can embed Xcelsius dashboards into Excel and Access applications.
This allows you to get all the flashy benefits of Xcelsius, but still give users a familiar environment where they can use PivotTables, VBA, MSQuery, etc.
It's too complicated to show with pictures, so I cooked up this video. Enjoy!
» Read more: Integrating Xcelsius with Excel and Access
Fun with Custom Lists
February 8, 2010 3 comments »I was fiddling around with Custom Lists the other day, when I noticed that Microsoft prevents me from deleting any of their built-in Custom Lists.
Don't believe me? Just pull up the Custom Lists dialog box and try to delete that lame Sun – Sat list. You can't do it. The Delete button is disabled like this:
» Read more: Fun with Custom Lists
Bacon-wrapped Grilled Kielbasa
February 7, 2010 4 comments »On this blog, Saturday is Bacon recipe day. So no Excel tips and tricks today. Today we learn about bacon.
Take a look at this shiny recipe for Bacon-wrapped Grilled Kielbasa. I like to sneak these into the movies, and pull them out when the lights go dim. I sit back and watch everyone wonder from where that lovely smell is emanating.
- 1 lb high-quality Kielbasa
- 1/2 lb thick-cut bacon
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 3 tbsp mustard
- Chili powder
- Fire
Cut the kielbasa into one-to-two-inch chunks.
Simmer in some water for a few minutes.
Remove from the water and wrap each one with half a slice of bacon.
Impale with moistened bamboo skewers and commence grilling.
Combine maple syrup, mustard, and chili powder in a bowl.
Once the bacon is crisp, brush the meat on all sides with the glaze and grill for a few additional minutes.
Excel Zoom Box Font Size Follow Up
February 4, 2010 1 comment »I recently posted about creating a Zoom Box in Excel . Alan writes in the comments:
"One of the features in Access that I really like is the ability to set a font size. Older people are sometime vision impaired, but you will learn about that in time. Is it possible to increase the font in the zoom box or set a font option?"
Anything for one of my 12 fans Alan. The steps are outlined below.
Avoiding Data Cut-Off in Excel
February 3, 2010 6 comments »It's been a busy week and I've been working hard. I think I'll reward myself by writing a blog post for people I've never met. Here we go.
Let's talk about getting Access Memo Fields into Excel.
Egg and Bacon Pie
January 31, 2010 2 comments »On this blog, Saturday is Bacon recipe day. So no Excel tips and tricks today. Today we learn about bacon.
Last week, Jeff Weir hinted at an "Aussie" recipe. Doing a little research, I found a site called KeeWeesCorner.
Apparently, Bacon and Egg Pie is traditional Aussie tucker.
Judging from the picture, it's mighty tasty looking. Although, too many pieces will probably cause problems Down Under.
Paste Special Skip Blanks
January 28, 2010 3 comments »Today, I want to show you how to use the Skip Blanks option in the Paste Special dialog box. You've all probably seen it there, but you've never used it.
Here it is in the expertly placed square box.
Clearing Access ImportError Tables
January 26, 2010 2 comments »If you move data from Excel to Access on a regular basis, you'll know that sometimes Access can't resolve the data being imported from Excel. In these cases Access automatically creates a new table called ImportErrors..
. » Read more: Clearing Access ImportError Tables
German Potato Salad
January 24, 2010 5 comments »On this blog, Saturday is Bacon recipe day. So no Excel tips and tricks today. Today we learn about bacon.
Today, we'll do a little comfort food. Mrs. Pig is fond of German Potato salad. She's from Buffalo New York where all the Polacks there love perogies, sausage and potato salad.
I've had it a few times and I must say that it's very tasty. I'm pretty sure it's the Bacon that makes it good.
