I’ve begun consulting organizations on using Airtable for tracking company information. Airtable provides an amazing platform for moving away from Spreadsheets (Excel or Google sheets) as a way of tracking company workflow and data. It is a rudimentary relational database system that looks and feels like a spreadsheet. As a stop-gap, proof-of-concept, or even the […]
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Excel VBA Google Distance Matrix API and Google Static Map Image API
This is a demo of a recent client project. Based on my Google Distance Calculator example (go here to view and download). Below is a video demo and downloadable example of the project. Technologies Used: Excel VBA, Google Maps Distance Matrix API, Google Maps Static Map API. My client needed a list of addresses to […]
Continue readingSolving line breaks and other unstructured data when importing CSV files
I’m going to provide a sample text file and a sample Excel VBA macro file for you to test. You can find the download below. Structured Data is Nice but Not Always Possible It would nice if every system had the ability to export data in more structured formats, like XML or json, rather than […]
Continue readingHow I check if optional parameters were passed to a c# method
I’ve read a few articles on this – specifically people asking how to check if an optional parameters has been passed to a C# method/function/class. I saw several responses where people suggested you don’t have to check – just set your default values or use overloading. The problem with both solutions is that they fail […]
Continue readingUpdated: Microsoft Excel VBA and Google Maps to calculate distances and time from multiple locations
Excel File download with VBA and Google Maps to calculate distance and duration between multiple destination addresses. Update 12/17/2019: Important! You must have a Google Matrix API Key and IT MUST BE CONNECTED TO AN API BILLING ACCOUNT! If your billing account is not active or connected to the API account, the tool WILL NOT […]
Continue readingGoogle Apps Workshop Slides and Video
Last week, Matthew Moran, gave a workshop as part of The Russell Fisher Business Collection at the Camarillo Library. The RF Business Collection is a grant that provides the library funds for hosting business workshops and informational seminars. Georg Winkler administers and books speakers for the event. He has also started getting them on video […]
Continue readingMPAA Content Security Audit Review Tool – free download
We just published the initial version (beta: ver. 0.5) of an MPAA Content Security Audit Review Tool built in Microsoft Excel. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has a Content Security Best Practices Common Guidelines document that our client needed us to follow to help them pass a digital security audit review. The audit […]
Continue readingNetwork Security Groups – Strategy, Naming, and for Individual Roles
This came up for a client recently, so we decided it was worth covering here on the blog. Also, it was supposed to be our first Tech Tuesday content but we had to get to a client early to ensure they passed a network security audit that was tied to a substantial amount of new business. […]
Continue readingConcept Over Process: A Formal Project Methodology – Part 3 of 3
AKA: How to build better technology solutions for your organization. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 RECAP & INTRODUCTION In part 1 I covered origins and impact. In part 2, I wrote about objectives, what to expect, and described the dangers of process-driven thinking. In part 3, we’re going to explain how to move […]
Continue readingConcept Over Process: A Formal Project Methodology – Part 2 of 3
AKA: How to build better technology solutions for your organization. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 RECAP & INTRODUCTION In my last article I discussed the origins, impact, and initial premise for Concept Over Process. Today, I want to cover what to expect as you learn more about COP, the objectives of COP, and […]
Continue readingConcept Over Process: A Formal Project Methodology – Part 1 of 3
AKA: How to build better technology solutions for your organization. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Back in 1994, I worked for a large insurance company. I was building a document assembly system (contract assembly) – one that would receive some notice in the tech world, eventually being written up in PC […]
Continue readingMicrosoft Access and Word VBA Document Assembly System Demo
Summary: This demonstrates a methodology and some of the associated technologies I’ve used to create complex and flexible contract generators, proposal generators, and other document assembly systems. Technologies: Microsoft Access (SQL Server*) Microsoft Word – Word Templates – Word Global Template w/AutoText Entries * SQL Server: For simplicity, this demonstration uses Microsoft Access as the […]
Continue readingMoving From Excel to MS Access & SQL Server for Cleaning Up, Extracting, & Reporting on Data
Summary In our own work with data analytics, in coaching financial & business analysts, and with data conversions, we often coach clients to learn and use Microsoft Access or SQL Server, rather than (or perhaps more accurately, in conjunction with) Microsoft Excel. In this article, we explore some of the reasons why. “I suppose it […]
Continue readingVBA to Extract All Excel Formulas in a Workbook
Summary Some visual-basic for applications code to extract all the formulas from every sheet in an Excel Workbook and save them in a text file. Background Avoiding a long explanation, we’ve been writing a reporting tool that combines a Microsoft Access front-end to a SQL Server database. It generates and updates some Excel reports/data visualizations […]
Continue readingSharing Microsoft Excel Data Using SQL Server or Microsoft Access
Summary Demonstrate how data can be cleaned up and shared across multiple users while allowing reports and visualization in well-known and common tools. Technologies Microsoft SQL Server (Express) Microsoft Access & The Access Runtime Microsoft Excel Add-on: Microsoft Power BI The need Provide a data aggregation and cleanup tool with customized and shared Excel reports. […]
Continue readingListing Excel Workbooks and Sheets from Microsoft Access using VBA
SUMMARY: Tutorial to show how to use Microsoft Access VBA to retrieve and display open Workbooks and their Worksheets. I create a lot of dashboards, reporting systems, and document automation projects built extensively using Visual-Basic for Applications. Often, the infrastructure looks like: Microsoft Access as a front-end application. SQL Server as the back-end data repository. […]
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