I like this! It combines consumerism with investing (and, might help me find my misplaced keys).
Tile(TM) is a Bluetooth tracking device that enables you to track your lost items. What’s more, you can share the tracking data across multiple Bluetooth devices so you and your significant others can form a ‘search party.’ PLUS you can leverage the network of Tile users and devices to create a swarm of search agents (sounds cool and freaky, huh?)
You can pre-order on the vendor’s website. Units are expected to ship in Winter 2013.
A colleague presented me with interesting challenge: An attorney she was working with entered comments into a document as parenthetical phrases. That is to say, the comments were entered ‘inline’, within parentheses and not by using Word’s INSERT COMMENT feature. Having already actioned the comments, she was looking for a simple method to find and remove all the parenthetical text.
Is it possible to search for and delete an unknown string of text, given the first and last characters ?
Yes!
Advanced Find and Wildcards to the rescue.
So our goal: find an open and close parentheses, including all that stuff in the middle, and replace it with nothing (essentially, deleting it).
Using Advanced Find and wildcards to delete text.
Press CTRL + F to display the Navigation Pane.
Click the drop-down to the right of the search icon and select Advanced Find. The Find and Replace dialog appears.
If necessary, click the More button to display additional options.
Check the Use Wildcards check-box.
In the Find What area enter \(*\) Note: Usually, when conducting a wildcard search, the parenthesis is used to denote an expression. The backslash “\” is used to indicate when a search device (in this case, the parenthesis) is to be taken literally.
Click Find Next, then click Replace to delete selectively or Replace All to do so en masse.
Note when using wildcards the Find What text is case sensitive.
Additional Wildcards:
To find
Type
Example
Any character
?
s?t finds satand set
Any string of characters
*
s*d finds sadand started
The beginning of a word
<
<(inter) finds interestingand intercept, but not splintered
The end of a word
>
(in)> finds inand within, but not interesting
One of the specified characters
[ ]
w[io]n finds winand won
Any single character in this range
[-]
[r-u]ight finds right, sightand tight
One or more occurrences of the previous character or expression
Presenter View, a noble concept that never really caught on, is much improved in PowerPoint 2013.
Presenter View makes it easy for you to view your presentation and speaker notes on one one computer, while the audience views your presentation (notes free) on a different monitor or projection screen. Now, Presenter View is not only easier to use, it also offers some additional enhancements. The improved Presenter view includes a show taskbar option, next slide preview, slide thumbnails, and zoom!
To enable Presenter view
On the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon, in the Monitors group, check the Presenter View checkbox.
Here’s the hit list of what’s new:
Better dual monitor support and display
PowerPoint now ‘intelligently’ selects which monitor is your presenter monitor and which one is viewed by your audience.
Press ALT + F5 to simulate dual monitor display on one monitor
When practicing your presentation you no longer need two displays. Just press ALT + F5 to prepare a ‘dry-run’ of your presentation using just one monitor.
(click to zoom)
Presenter View Features
Timer: Rehearse your timings using pause and reset options .
Notes: View your speaker notes (your audience doesn’t see this material).
Next Slide: See the next slide before your audience does.
Presenter Controls:
Pen and Laser Pointers: Annotate your presentation with Pen, Highlighter and Arrow pointers
Show all Slides: View thumbnails of your presentation slides.
Black Screen: Blackout the audience’s view of your presentation.
More: Includes View Last Slide,End Presenter View, and End Show.
Timeline Slicers are a feature new to Excel 2013.
If your PivotTable contains dates, a Timeline Slicer affords you and your reviewers an easy method to filter and scale of the dates displayed..
(For detailed instructions on creating PivotTables review the 5 minute video tutorialPivotTables and Slicers )
Inserting the Timeline Slicer
Click hereto open the file PivotTable Advanced Functions.xls file.
Review the Sales sheet. This is the source of our PivotTable data.
Click the Summary Sheet. A PivotTable has already been inserted, with the dates of Weekly Sales displayed in Rows, and a Slicer for the Category field applied.
Select one of the cells containing data (e.g. A4).
On the Ribbon, on the PIVOTTABLE TOOLS: ANALYZE tab, in the Filters group, click Insert Timeline. The Insert Timelines dialog appears.
Check Weekly Sales and click OK. The Weekly SalesTimeline Slicer appears.
Weekly Sales Timeline Slicer
Working with Timeline Slicers
CLICK or CLICK+ DRAG on the timescale to filter timeline.
To change the scale, click the Level drop-down, at right, and select Years, Quarters, Months, or Days.
To quickly format, select a style from the Timeline Styles on the TIMELINE TOOLS: OPTIONS tab of the Ribbon.
Here’s a quick PowerPoint tip: Add Sections to your Presentations.
Slide Sections (click to enlarge)
Some Benefits of working with Sections:
Print just the slides in a given section (click File, Print, and then, in the Settings area, select Section).
CLICK + DRAG to easily change the order of your slides.
CLICK + DRAG section headers to reorder slides
To Create Slide Sections
On the Ribbon, on the View tab, select either Normal view or Sorter view.
RIGHT + CLICK between two slides thumbnails. In Normal view these thumbnails appear on the navigation pane.
Select Add Section.
The section header is added and titled ‘Unnamed Section’. If there is no previous section header a ‘Default Section’ is also inserted at the beginning of the presentation.
To Modify Sections (e.g., Rename, Remove, Collapse, etc.) :
RIGHT + CLICK on a section header, or
Click the Sections button located on the Home Tab, in the Slides group.
So you’ve mastered the FILTER tool (aka, ‘Filter-in-place’). Are you ready to step up to ADVANCED FILTERS?
Although the Filter-in-place tool is easy to use, it does not handle multiple column INCLUSIVE criteria very well.
Using the ADVANCED FILTER you can:
Copy filtered records to another part of the spreadsheet, leaving the original database undisturbed.
Generate a BOOLEAN OR (aka, inclusive) condition across multiple fields.
What does that that last part mean? Let’s take the following scenario.
The last time Russia played host to the Winter Games was in 1994. In preparing for the 2014 Olympics , you are tasked to create of separate list that includes:
ALL RUSSIAN MEDAL WINNERS (any year), and
1994 GOLD MEDALISTS, in the WINTER OLYMPICS, of any nationality.
An Olympic feat (pun intended)? Not for ADVANCED FILTER!
(cue the Olympic music)
Performing the ADVANCED FILTER requires a little preparation. You will need to prepare a CRITERIA RANGE to ask the question, and an OUTPUT RANGE to display the result. These ranges must be be in a separate area of the same worksheet preferably to the right of the original.
Click here to download the 2014 Olympic Data file, then execute the instructions below.
Preparing the Criteria and Output Ranges
Select and copy the column headings in cells A1:G1.
Paste the headings, starting in cell J1 and again in cell J6.
In cell L2 type ‘RUS’
On the following row, in the appropriate cells, type ‘1994‘ ( J3), ‘Gold‘ (O3) and ‘Winter‘ (P3).
Preparing the Criteria and Output ranges (click to zoom)
Performing the Advanced Filter
Place cursor on one of the cells from the original database (e.g. B4).
On the the Data tab of the Ribbon, in the Sort and Filter group, click Advanced. The Advanced Filter dialog will appear.
For Action select Copy to another location.
Review the List Range. If necessary correct the reference to include the source data.
In the Criteria Range field type or select cells J1:P3.
In the Copy To field, type or select the Output Range header, cells J6:P6.
Click OK.
Voilà! The records that satisfy these criteria are copied to the Output range, and you get a virtual laurel wreath!
Closing Ceremony Notes:
Our criteria range included the headings and two additional rows. Each OR (inclusive) condition is entered on a separate row. Although our criteria uses data from 4 columns, there are only two separate, inclusive criteria; (1) RUSSIAN OR (2) GOLD MEDALIST in YEAR 1994. Were additional inclusive criteria necessary (e.g., Gender) the criteria range in Step 5 would need to be increased, accordingly.
The copied data is not linked to the original. Edits to the original source data do not affect the copied output. Should you edit the source data you need only re-run the Advance Filter to synchronize data.
Do not put anything below the Output Range headers that you intend to keep; Excel erases all the rows beneath prior creating the output.
Ask Quincy 