How to Add a Find Button to Your Access Database Form

I use MS Access (Windows version 2003 still) for managing my important lists such as my inventory list for my eBay store. I deal primarily in one-of-a-kind goods so I have, over time, over one thousand listings. This is a lot to keep track of.

How to Add a Find Button to Your Access Database Form

I needed a good way to search for and find items in various fields. You can use the "[control] + f" keyboard shortcut, or you can use the Edit | Find menu, to search, but Access defaults to match the whole field and you have to change it if you want something else. I usually don't want Match whole field. I usually want Match any part of field.

Keyboard Macro

How to Add a Find Button to Your Access Database Form

Some people like to use keyboard short cuts. I'm more of a mouse person if there is a one-click way to do something. If there is only a many click way that goes through menus, even using only two clicks such as Edit | Find, then I will usually resort to pressing [control] + f. But, this article is not about whether one method is better than another; this article is about offering another way to search using an Access database form.

How to Add a Find Button to Your Access Database Form

How to Add a Find Button to Your Access Database Form

So, I have developed a small button system that I use to find items in a particular field. I put the button to the right of the field that it works on. I can get to the find dialog box set up the way I want it with one click.

I add the button in form design by using the button tool. If you choose the Record Navigation | Find Record action (a logical choice), then the wizard gives you the following code (we will change the code later):

Screen.PreviousControl.SetFocus

DoCmd.DoMenuItem acFormBar, acEditMenu, 10,, acMenuVer70

The first line, Screen.PreviousControl.SetFocus is nice. It sets the focus of what field will be searched to the last field you touched. You could have one button for all searches this way, but you will have to first click on a field and then click on the button. That's two clicks and not every user may understand that is the way it works.

The second line, DoMenuItem, is specific to each version of Access and means, in this case, the tenth item in the Edit menu. You would have to change this for every version of Access.

If you choose the Record Navigation | Find Next action instead, the wizard gives you the following code:

Screen.PreviousControl.SetFocus

DoCmd.FindNext

The FindNext is better than the DoMenuItem because you do not have to change the code for each version of Access. The dialog box that comes up when you click the custom button in this article has a Find Next button, so you really don't need two buttons, Find and Find Next. Find by itself will do nicely.

The Access wizard coding is okay but you have no control of the parameters for the search. I dislike having to set the match box from match whole field to match any part of field after I forget and I have already searched using the whole field and cannot find what I know must be there.

I needed a way to search each field with one click, so I chose a button to do it.

I have multiple fields on which I want to be able to search. I did not want to write the same code over and over for each field. If I find a better way to code it, then I have to recode every instance of that old code. Having one procedure is much better.

My button sets the focus of the search to the one field to the left of the button and then it calls one procedure to invoke the find command. Every such button on the form sets the focus to the field at its left and calls the same, one function to perform the search.

Before I get to the code, I need to cover the concept that it matters where you put the procedure. If you have many buttons but only one form, then you can add the procedure in the code for the form itself. If you have more than one form, or if you wish to make the procedure more general in case you do need to use it later on in another form, then it is best to add this procedure to a module and not in your forms. I call my module General but you could add separate modules with one or more related procedures so you could easily import them into new databases as you need. This could be your FindRecord module. You find Modules in the main database window along with Tables, Queries, Forms, Reports, and Macros.

If you put your procedure in your form code, then the scope of your procedure is valid for that form only. If you have your procedure in form 1 and you need to call it in form 2, you will get an error because form 2 cannot find it. In that case, you would either have to add another procedure to form 2 and maintain two procedures, or better, put the procedure into a module so that both forms can find it and you only have to maintain one procedure.

Once you use a general module, your code references must also be general. You cannot use the Me shortcut for a field name as you can in a procedure within a form. When a procedure is within a form, the code interprets Me to refer to the form.

If you need to refer to a field name in a general module, you must use a general statement such as:

Forms.frmInventory.PurchaseTotal

or

Forms![frmInventory]![PurchaseTotal]

(You need to add brackets if the names contain spaces)

Here, PurchaseTotal is a field name in the frmInventory form in the Forms Access database collection. If this were in the frmInventory code, it would just be:

Me.PurchaseTotal

In our case, we will use the Me in the OnClick property in the form to set the focus to one specific field using the Me method and then call a procedure that has no need of referring to a field name, thus bypassing the Me problem.

Here's what to do to create a handy find button:

* Make a button using the button tool and its wizard.
* Set the button to display text and set that text to F.
* Name the button cmdFind + Field Name, so to find on a field called InvNum the name would be cmdFindInvNum.

After the wizard completes, edit the button:

* Set the font size to 6, a small but readable size.
* Set the tab stop to NO because users do not need to stop at the button if they are tabbing through the form.
* Set the Status Bar Text and the ControlTip Text to Find Record so that users can easily remind themselves what the button does when they hold their mouse pointers over your button.

Size your button as small as you can and still be able to see the F. I use 0.1708 inches wide by 0.166 inches high with Arial text with my form grid spacing. Your size may vary. This is a good size because its height is the same as the height of my text and combo boxes so they all fit togther well in each line.

(After you create one button this way, you can copy and paste it for all of the rest of your buttons with all of these settings saved and set in the copy. All you have to do is to change the name of each button and add the OnClick Event Procedure below.)

Now you set the OnClick property to [Event Procedure]. You are setting the event procedure to act on one specific field. If the field name is ProductNumber, then write your event procedure as:

Me.ProductNumber.SetFocus

FindRecord

The first line, the SetFocus action determines which field your procedure will search and the Me.Productumber specifies just one field name. If you use Screen.PreviousControl.SetFocus, as the wizard recommends, for your first line, then you will search on whatever field you last touched with your mouse. This is nice, if that's what you want, but it is not what I want this button to do.

The second line, FindRecord, calls your custom procedure. (In Windows. after you add your custom FindRecord procedure, you can highlight FindRecord here in the form code and right click and select Definition to immediately go to the code.)

Then add your custom procedure to a module and save it:

Public Sub FindRecord()

DoCmd.GotoRecord,, acFirst

SendKeys "%ha%n", False

DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdFind

End Sub

The first command is optional so you can comment it out by adding a single quote mark in front of it if you don't want to use it.

The first command sets the record pointer to the first record to start the search. I did this because I thought it best to begin searching at the beginning, but it is not necessary for this procedure to work.

The second command sends key codes to set up the find dialog box. Here are some possible options from a Microsoft Knowledge Base web page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/120912: [out]

Select the Match box: %h

Match Any Part of Field: %ha

Match Start of Field: %hs

Search Only Current Field (cleared): %e

Match Case (selected>): %c

Search Fields as Formatted (selected): %o

Select the Search box: %r

Search Up: %ru

Search Down: %rd

Select the Find What box: %n

For example, SendKeys %h selects the Match box and SendKeys %ha selects the Match box and sets the Match box to match any part of the field. You don't have to do both; use a variation of the second statement. The same is true for SendKeys %r and SendKeys %ru or SendKeys %rd.

The particular combination in your procedure as written here sets the Match box to match any part of the field and it then selects the Find What box for the focus of your cursor. Thus, you are set to type in what you are searching for. Write your procedure with the settings that you want.

The second part of the SendKeys statement is an optional, boolean value specifying the wait mode. If it is set to False (default), control is returned to the procedure immediately after the keys are sent. If it is set to True, then keystrokes must be processed before control is returned to your procedure. Technically we do not need to specify it because we want False and the default is False; however, I like to specify it so it is clear to me six months from now that is what I wanted.

The % in front of each key value represents the Alt key in Windows, and I suppose it represents the Command key in Macs. In the code window, if you highlight SendKeys in the code and press the F1 function key; then a help screen will come up and explain general information about SendKeys. Don't look to Access help for the specific Find key codes shown above; Access help is general and not all inclusive.

The third command runs the Access Find action as set up by you. This is finally the command that does what you want.

I admit that this is a crude way to do things, but this is what Access gives us. The SendKeys way is better than the DoMenuItem way but it can have problems in a multi-user environment, as I have read but not experienced.

You can experiment with different combinations of key codes. You can send keystrokes on different lines or combine them into one line as I have done. I recommend placing them all in onelike as the example does. If you use the %n key code, then put it at the end because it sets the focus to the Find What box and it should come last.

Try this out on your Access forms and see if this is useful. I find it helpful because general users will not know to press [control] + f or to use the Edit | Find menu to find something. Both are too nerdy. If they do know about them, it is my experience that they will be tripped up occasionally by the default match whole field setting and not know how to get what they want. A lot depends on training and frequency of use. People who are well trained will do better than poorly trained users. People who search infrequently may not remember as well as frequent users.

If users see a button next to the field, and if you teach them that F means find, they will probably use use it since searching is so fundamental to using a database they will want a simple way to search.

I will show you how to add other useful form buttons to Access forms in other articles.

How to Add a Find Button to Your Access Database Form

Keyboard Macro

Controlling the Key Repeat Rate With an Enhanced Keyboard

With an enhanced keyboard each key can be assigned a macro that reproduces any sequence of characters or commands on a standard Computer keyboard. Many programs you use could be made more user-friendly with the addition of an enhanced keyboard. A configuration file containing a macro for each key is created and then downloaded into the enhanced keyboard.

Controlling the Key Repeat Rate With an Enhanced Keyboard

Controlling the Key Repeat Rate With an Enhanced Keyboard

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Controlling the Key Repeat Rate With an Enhanced Keyboard

Controlling the Key Repeat Rate With an Enhanced Keyboard

To repeat a key on a standard Computer keyboard the user simply holds down the key. We all use this ability in our word processor when we press and hold down an arrow key or the page up key. An enhanced keyboard improves upon this repeat ability.

With an enhanced keyboard a macro, or a part of a macro, can be repeated as long as the user keeps holding the key down. In Example A the macro's central part will be repeated until the user stops releases the key. The macro will then conclude.

Example A:

[010=]123RE-456-PEAT789

As shown, when the user presses on key #10 (010= specifies key #10), "123" will be transmitted, then "456" will appear as long as the user keeps the key pressed. When the key is released "789" will be transmitted.

The repeat ability can be used with control and function keys as in Example B.

Example B:

010=RE-PGUP-PEAT

When the key #10 is pressed, the up cursor will be transmitted until the key is released.

In a previous article I discussed the ability to alter the rate at which characters are sent to the Computer. By adding a delay the repeat maximum flexibility can be added to the macro.

Example C:

010=RE-PGUPDELAY 400RDELAY-PEAT

When the key #10 is pressed the page up command is sent and the macro wait one second. If the key is not released in that second another page up command is sent. If the key is released the macro ends. The delay gives the user time to react to the results of the page up.

This example would also be especially useful with people who have muscle control problems. Many times they don't release a key before the repeat function kicks in. This macro would give them a second to release the key before the next page up would occur.

Visit http://www.pmkidder.com/enterpad to learn more about enhanced keyboards and their expanded capabilities.

Controlling the Key Repeat Rate With an Enhanced Keyboard

Two Simple Ways to Improve Typing Accuracy

Even seasoned touch typist spend a lot of time correcting typing errors. The backspace key is among the most used keys on the keyboard. When combined with other error correction it becomes obvious that anything that can get rid of errors in the first place is desirable.

Two Simple Ways to Improve Typing Accuracy

Two Simple Ways to Improve Typing Accuracy

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Two Simple Ways to Improve Typing Accuracy

Two Simple Ways to Improve Typing Accuracy

The use of AutoHotkey and an overlay keyboard will help eliminate typing errors. Taken together they have have several advanTAGes.
Text is entered correctly the first time. Less time spent correcting error. Increased productivity. Typists are more alert.

This is because typists spend a lot of their time entering the same information over and over. Things like names, adDresses, web sit URLs, email adDress are typed multiple times a day. With AutoHotkey with an overlay keyboard all repeated information is assigned to macros and quickly recalled with one key press.

AutoHotkey is an open source (i.e. free) program. With it users create macros to automate repetitive tasks with Windows software. This can include Ctrl and Alt control key combinations. They then assign the macro to a hotkey. Macros can be of unlimited length. A user can easily create over 100 macros with AutoHotkey.

The problem quickly becomes one of remembering which hotkey activates which macro. This is where an overlay keyboard comes to the rescue.

With an overlay keyboard each key can be configured to reproduce any sequence of characters and commands available on a standard Computer keyboard. The user creates a graphic overlay representing what each key does.

At first you might be tempted to configure each key to contain an AutoHotkey macro. However, the limited memory in an overlay keyboard can quickly become full defeating the usefulness of this approach.

Simply configuring each key to reproduce an AutoHotkey hotkey is the quick and obvious solution to remembering the hotkeys. A quality overlay keyboard will have over 100 keys which is more then enough for all but the most macro crazed person.

The main problem with this approach is that the hotkey combinations are still active on the keyboard. The typist can inadvertently activate a macro causing havoc.

A better approach is to create one large macro that is activated pressing on hotkey, say F10. The macro then waits for a three digit code and jumps to the corresponding piece of the macro. Then each key on the overlay keyboard is configured to send F10 followed by its code.

Two Simple Ways to Improve Typing Accuracy

Maximize Minimize Keyboard, Mouse (And Some Keyboard Shortcuts)

One of the most useful productivity enhanceMents I've impleMented in the last year has been a shift to use the keyboard as much as possible, and the mouse as little as possible. You might think, "Really? How does that provide a significant productivity enhanceMent? " Well, how long do you think you spend moving your right/left hand from the keyboard to the mouse each time you switch between them? Maybe a second? That's not very long, what's the big deal? It's only a big deal because you do it so many times. If you do that switch on average about once per minute for an eight-hour work day, that is 60 * 8 = 480 seconds = 8 minutes wasted just going back and forth. That is 40 minutes each week, and 40 * 48 weeks = 1920 minutes = 32 hours each year! I know this soundskind of ridiculous initially, but if you make a concerted effort to use the keyboard more, you will immediately start to notice how much Faster you can do things on the Computer, even over the period of just a few minutes.

It is definitely true that you can get really quick with a mouse, but you will never match the speed of someone who knows what they are doing with a keyboard. With a keyboard, a whole universe of shortcuts are available to you, and in many programs you can create your own. This includes all Microsoft Office programs, which most people use at least a small amount each day. I have included some of my favorites below, with an emphasis on those that I had to do some research to figure out.

Maximize Minimize Keyboard, Mouse (And Some Keyboard Shortcuts)

Maximize Minimize Keyboard, Mouse (And Some Keyboard Shortcuts)

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Maximize Minimize Keyboard, Mouse (And Some Keyboard Shortcuts)

Maximize Minimize Keyboard, Mouse (And Some Keyboard Shortcuts)

One aspect of using only the keyboard that bugged me for a while was not having the ability to scroll through a Microsoft Word docuMent without also moving the cursor. This is an action you would normally do with the middle scroll button on a mouse or by clicking the up and down arrows on the far right side of the window. But I found a Microsoft macro that you can implement to do the same thing, which happens to be a feature that most other modern text editors like Notepad ++. A macro is a bit of code that allows the user to specify automated behavior. In Word 2010 and 2007, you can access and add your Macros in the "Developer" Tab in the "Code" section, with the "Macros" button. That will bring up a menu, and you can specify the name of a new macros or edit a macro youalready have. When you specify the name of a new macros and create it, it will bring up a Visual studio type interface where you can type the macro into the macro function (between the Sub commands). For the scroll up command, use this macro:

Void ScrollUp ()
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.SmallScroll Up: = 1
End Sub

For the down command, use this macro:

Void ScrollDown ()
Down: ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.SmallScroll = 1
End Sub

You can then assign these macros keyboard shortcuts, so that you can scroll with your keyboard instead of your mouse! In Word 2010 and 2007, you access the keyboard shortcuts by selecting "File" at the top, "Options," "Customize Ribbon," then the "Customize"button at the bottom left next to the "Keyboard Shortcuts". When a new window pops up, find the "Macros" category at the bottom of the "Categories" listing. Then select the ScrollDown macro, and assign it the shortcut of Ctrl-Down. Then select the ScrollUp macro, and assign it the shortcut of Ctrl-Up. I set these macros to have keyboard shortcuts of Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Down because that is what most other modern text editors use for this feature by default, and it just works well. Now you're done! Just click close or OK until you're back to your document, and try your new shortcuts! If you need more detailed directions, see this website, which is where I found these macros.

I also found a macro for Microsoft Word thatallows you to paste text into Word documents without any formatting, which I assigned the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl-D using the same method (I never used the shortcut that Ctrl-D was previously assigned to):

Void NoFormatPaste ()
PasteSpecial DataType Selection.: = wdPasteText
End Sub

This is a very convenient shortcut that allows you to easily paste text from different programs into Word without worrying about crazy formatting messing things up, and allows you to bypass the long route going through "Paste Special" in Word. If you need more detailed directions, try this site.

Another important shortcut that you may already know about but don't use is the Menu button close to the lower right corner of your keyboard (though this is only applicable toWindows machines). This has the same functionality as the right-click button. However, this button has the advanTAGe of being on the keyboard instead of way over there on the mouse! If you don't have this button on your keyboard, Shift-F10 has the same functionality most of the time.

Some other cool keyboard shortcuts:

Ctrl-PageUp and Ctrl-PageDown to switch between tabs in browsers like Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome. This is one of my biggest time savers because I find the tabs I'm looking for so much Faster. Ctrl-W to quickly close tabs. Ctrl-Shift-T to re-open a tab exactly as it was after you closed it in Chrome. This is REALLY handy in Chrome, which does not make it easy to open previously closed tabs with the mouse. And whenyou think about it, it makes intuitive sense: Ctrl-T opens a new blank tab, so it makes sense that hitting SHIFT (which often makes other keyboard actions move backwards rather than forwards) brings up a window that was previously closed. You will often find that as you learn more shortcuts, they will feel increasingly intuitive, especially in the better made programs. Shift-Space to select a whole row in excel. After selecting the row, you can easily hit the menu button to insert or delete rows. Alt-space, and then M to move, N to minimize, X to maximize, S to size, and R to restore a window using only the keyboard. Spacebar to pause and un-pause (i.e. play) songs in Pandora. Ctrl-Plus (the plus on the numeric keypad on the far right side) to resize allcolumns in windows explorer to the perfect width.

I also highly recommend turning on and using keyboard shortcuts in Gmail. I resisted doing this for a long time because I was under the mistaken impression that activating them would lead to a lot of mistakes as I tried to compose emails. Now I can crank through my Gmail in far less time than it used to take me. It's easy to get started on this: just activate them in your Gmail settings, and then to look up what the shortcuts are, hit Shift-?. Unfortunately Google calendar is sorely lacking in keyboard shortcuts at this point in time.

Once you start learning all these keyboard shortcuts, you become more and more eager to learn new ones. It is very easy to find listings of shortcuts online for almostany program. I also like to save all the best keyboard shortcuts I find into a document like a Google Docs document. And if you want a particular keyboard shortcut, just try a search and the odds are good you will find someone who has come up with a solution.

I strongly recommend getting a high quality keyboard as well. You can get keyboards relatively cheaply these days, and you can get external keyboards that have soft keys like most laptops have. This makes it even more pleasant to use your keyboard, to the point where it can feel really good just tapping the keys. I also like gel Wristpads, but that's just a nice perk.

Another strong advanTAGe of knowing how to do everything with the keyboard is that using laptops becomes much morepleasant. You can get pretty good at using the track-pads on laptops, but they are still pretty inefficient.

Overall, it is going to take you some time to learn keyboard shortcuts, but the time savings in the long run far outweighs this small initial investment.

Maximize Minimize Keyboard, Mouse (And Some Keyboard Shortcuts)

WoW Addon Macro-Pros And Cons

Classes in World of Warcraft have a lot of abilities. That makes it pretty hard to play in class efficiently because you have to press a lot of buttons. That, in turn, means that you waste precious seconds going from one part of the keyboard to the other. So how do you play Faster when you have to hit a lot of buttons? You combine more abilities into one single button with a macro WoW addon.

WoW Addon Macro-Pros And Cons

WoW Addon Macro-Pros And Cons

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WoW Addon Macro-Pros And Cons

WoW Addon Macro-Pros And Cons

Macros can be used for a very large variety of tasks. You can add a sequence of spells into a single macro. These will then fire in the order you have set, each time you tap the macro button. You can even have several abilities fire one after the other by just pressing the button once macro . There are even more complex macros thatallow you to cast both beneficial and harmful spells depending on what you have targeted.

It's ironic though, macro will make things a lot easier for a player, but they are generally hard to make. This is because people think that you need some special type of language to one. The type of commands used in a macro are very straight forward. For example, if you want to target a player and alive, you simply add [help, nodead] in your command line. That being said:

Here are the Pros to why you should use a macro WoW addon.

WoW Addon Macro-Pros And Cons

How to Search in Excel

Not all of us are experts on MS Excel. Though the interface is quite friendly to the users, most of us are not that proficient in the application especially those who rarely use Computers to type in data which consist of numbers. Excel is a great tool for computations and in order to fully learn its capabilities, we need to know about its features and functions. One of which is by learning how to search in Excel.

How to Search in Excel

How to Search in Excel

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How to Search in Excel

How to Search in Excel

If you would like to find data in Excel, it is almost like in Word. You hit CTRL + F on your keyboard and then you type in the words, text, or characters that you would like the application to find. Then, it will bring you to the cell in which the data can be found.

However, there are some cases that can be a little complicated such as when you aresearching for data with asterisks, question marks and tildes. All of these characters have special meanings in the said application. Hence, if you try to search in Excel using CTRL + F and typing in * ~ or?, you will not get what you are actually searching for. For instance, if you enter the asterisk on the Find what box, you will automatically select the next cell where you once have been. It is time for you to make aMends by inserting tilde before the character that you are looking for. For example, if you want to locate asterisk, you enter "~ *" without the quotes. For tilde and question mark, you input "~ ~ ~" and "?" respectively.

Now, what if you have numerous spreadsheets already and you wish to search a number or string "just the way you do it using CTRL + F? You can eliminate thetedium of the Job by using a single command that will allow you to search easily and quickly in Excel. You can even edit your sheets but be careful because it may be a little dangerous to your file if you do not follow cautiously.

Let us say that you have three sheets and you want Excel to search for a particular string in all of them. First you go to the bottom of the Window and right click on one of the tabs for the sheets. Then a shortcut Menu will appear. Click on Select All Sheets. This is now known as Group mode. Now, call in the Excel search function dialog box by pressing CTRL + F on your keyboard. Enter the string that you are looking for and press enter. If the string you typed is present, Excel will find it for you.

How to Search in Excel

How to Create a Dynamic Calendar Without Using Excel Macros

We were planning for our 2009 course schedules excel excel calendar template when this idea flashes across my head. I started asking myself: Why not plan my schedule in Excel? If I could also list down all the public holidays in one section of the worksheet and the calendar can actually displayed them in red, wouldn't that be great? I started to google for such an excel calendar and found many. Most of them are free. They were not really impressive because they have to be generated either through a macro/vba. I feel that it will not go well with most excel users because they would have to understand how to activate the macro or installing another program on their Computers. If it is created manually without using any program, it is going to be time consumingbecause by we need to identify the 1st of every month manually first and then doing manual summation to the rest of the days of the month. Furthermore, we have to know when to stop the calendar from going beyond the legitimate 28, 30 or 31 days.

As I continue to search through the list, I stumble on this perpetual calendar from John Walkenbach and was amazed by the way it was created. It is a perpetual excel calendar which displays the 12 months of any year. It uses only excel formulas, which means that you do not need to know anything about macros and it can be run across different versions of Excel including Excel 2007. And right here, we are going to show you how it is done.

How to Create a Dynamic Calendar Without Using Excel Macros

How to Create a Dynamic Calendar Without Using Excel Macros

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How to Create a Dynamic Calendar Without Using Excel Macros

How to Create a Dynamic Calendar Without Using Excel Macros

Set up a cell which can be used for the year (e.g. C3)

Enter the following formulacell C5 "= DATE (C3 .1 .1)" where C3 refers to the year of the calendar.

Set the formula to present the first of the month. You can use the date formula. In our case, we can enter the formula as = DATE (YEAR (C5), MONTH (C5) .1) ". C5 refers to January 1, 2009

Identify the day of the week for the 1st of the month. Use the weekday formula to identify the day of the week for the first of the motnh WEEKDAY (DATE (YEAR (C5), MONTH (C5) .1)

The weekday formula presents the week with Sun as the 1st day of the week and Sat as the 7th or the last day of the week.

Minus one from the weekday formula, we will get Monday as 1 and sun as zero. January 1, 2009 is a Thursday which coincides with the number 4. The Sunday before January 1, 09 is actually December 28, 08 which is 4 days before January 1, 09. When we convertthe number we have in the previous step to negative, it will coincide with this date. The formula is =-(WEEKDAY (DATE (YEAR ($ C $ 5), MONTH ($ C $ 5) .1)) -1).

The Sun on the top right hand corner is 4 days earlier than January 1, 2009. Monday should be 3 days earlier and Your 2 days earlier. Therefore, in this step, we need to make the number increase over the week starting with -4. To do this, you need to make use of array formula which must be entered with curly brackets (special case here). All the days in the month/week must be selected and the formula must be entered by pressing the keyboard 3 keys (Ctrl + Shift + Enter) together.

Using curly brackets 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and selecting the 7 cells across the week, Excel will understand that we want to add 0 to 1 to Sun, Mon, Tue, 2 toetc. The picture below will allow you to understand how the numbers could be changed with one formula.

In the second row/week of the month, the value should continue from the last value in the previous row. Since there are 7 days in a week, we know that the first value in the second row should be 7 more than the cell above it. We can add another array using semi colon (;) to indicate that we want the number to increase as the row increases. It should be presented within curly brackets and multiply by 7-0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6 * 7. We should not add any number to the first row. Then the second row should add 7 to the number and add 14 to the third row and so on.

The formulais

= DATE (YEAR (C5), MONTH (C5) .1)

-(WEEKDAY (DATE (YEAR (C5), MONTH (C5) .1)) -1)

+ 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5 * 7

+ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.7 -1

To convert the results into real dates above, we can add the date January 1, 2009 into the box. In this case, the first number will become December 28, 08, December 29, 08, etc. And 32 will become February 1, 2009. We can put in the date using the date formula, Date (2009, 1.1). And to display the day of the month only, we can format the cell with using the custom format "d".

To omit the Dec 08 Feb 09 dates and dates, we can compare the month of the date with the month used in the first day of the month, etc. If they are different, it means that the dates shown in the active cell belongs either to the previous month or the following month. We can put a blank (denoted byopen and close inverted comma) into the cells (all the cells). If the month of 2 dates are the same, continue to perform the calculation given in the previous step. We ends up with the following formula:

= IF (MONTH (DATE (YEAR (C5), MONTH (C5) .1)) MONTH (DATE (YEAR (C5), MONTH (C5) .1)-(WEEKDAY (DATE (YEAR (C5), MONTH (C5) .1)) -1) + 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5 * 7 + 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.7 -1)

"",

DATE (YEAR (C5), MONTH (C5) .1)-(WEEKDAY (DATE (YEAR (C5), MONTH (C5) .1)) -1) + 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5 * 7 + 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 -1) and completes the creation of the excel calendar template.

How to Create a Dynamic Calendar Without Using Excel Macros

Starcraft Vs Starcraft 2 1-What's Different?

Starcraft, Starcraft 2 or 1.5?

Starcraft Vs Starcraft 2 1-What's Different?

Starcraft Vs Starcraft 2 1-What's Different?

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Starcraft Vs Starcraft 2 1-What's Different?

Starcraft Vs Starcraft 2 1-What's Different?

There's been a lot of weary forum users making the claim that Starcraft Starcraft 2 is really just 1.5. This will be the topic of this article. I'll start out by listing all the new changes for Starcraft 2 and Battle.net 2.0.

Changes:

Terran:

Units Removed

Removed Vulture
Removed Firebat
Removed Goliath
Removed Wraith
Removed Medic
Removed Science Vessel
Removed Valkyrie

That's a pretty hefty chunk of units from the Terran arsenal that have been removed. Mind you this is still beta so this is all subject to change.

Units Added

Banshee
Hellion
Marauder
Reaper
Medivac
Raven
Thor
Viking

UnitsKept

SCV
Marine
Siege Tank
Ghost
Bcs

That means that 62% of the the Terran units are brand new.

Terran Macro Mechanics

The Terran has a unique macro mechanic that is used after upgrading the Command Center to an Orbital Command center. What it does is collect 30 minerals every load, but takes about 3 times longer than an SCV to load. Basically that would mean it independently collects about twice as Fast as an SCV does.

The downside to using the MULE however is that a player must sacrifice the usage of a scanner sweep; both abilities take your Orbital Command's Energy. This has been the cause of some lost games. Terran players must be careful not to get greedy.

Now we'll take a look at theProtoss.

Changes:

Protoss:

Units Removed

Removed Dragoon
Removed Arbiter (debatable)
Removed CorsAir
Removed Dark Archon
Removed Reaver
Removed Shuttle

There weren't as many units removed from the Protoss arsenal, let's take a look at the units added though.

Units Added

Colossus
Immortal
Mothership
Phoenix
Void Ray
Warp Prism
Sentry

Not bad, only one less unit than the Terran side.

Units Kept

Probe
Zealot
Dark Templar
High Templar
Carrier
Observer
Archon

54% of the Protoss units are brand new. The Mothership is almost exactly like the Arbiter however so there is room for debate there.

Protoss Macro Mechanics

The Protoss have an ability called Chronos that is available directly from the Nexus. It costs 25 energy, and speed up any building production by 30% for a period of time. This is an extremely powerful macro mechanic because it can be used to build Fast probes in the early game, it can be used to get a very early game harassing Zealot, or it can be used to get some very Fast upgrades.

The only downside to the Protoss macro mechanic is what you don't use it on. If you decide to pump out a heavy amount of units, your economy will most likely fall behind your competition's economy. It could put you in a position to make a push but if the push fails you'll probably be in trouble.

Now my personal favorite: theZerg.

Changes:

Zerg:

Units Removed

Removed Guardian
Removed Lurker (This has been causing some controversy)
Removed Scourge
Removed Defiler
Removed Queen
Removed Devourer

Not bad ... not bad. I may catch some flak for adding the Queen to this list, but I think it's pretty apparent that Starcraft 2 's Queen isn't even close to the original.

Units Added

Roach (woot!)
Queen
Baneling
Changeling
Infestor
Corrupter
Overseer
Brood Lord
Infested Terran

Zerg got the most new units. The Infestor is kind of like the Defiler, and is certainly meant to be it's replaceMent. Right now I question the viability of it however.

UnitsKept

Drone
Zerglings
Hydralisk
Overlord *-No longer has detection capabilities. This was replaced by the Overseer.
Ultralisk
Broodling
56% of the Zerg units are brand new.

Zerg Macro Mechanics

If you compared the new Zerg macro mechanic to the other Macro mechanics, I think you'd find that there's less room for debate on which Queen option is the most effective. The Queen has three macro abilities: Spawn Creep Tumor, which extends the radius in a creep spiral outward from the tumor. This can be used to connect bases or perhaps for scouting. One of the most important upsides to this is creep allows vision, and faster moveMent for your units.

The other ability is to restore to health units or a building'shealth. This can be used on defensive structures. I think the downside to this though is that any mediocre skilled player will attack the Queen relatively quickly. And to save the best for last, the Queen also has spawn larvae. For 25 energy (like her other abilities), the Queen larva injects into your hatcheries and after a period of time, the hatchery will spit out 4 extra larva. This can be quite devastating early game, and the only reason I can see players using the other options is if the game gets past early game. This is by far the most effective option for your war camp. More units = more power, more economy, or whatever you want.

Updated Mechanics

Some of the largest changes in Starcraft 2 do not come with the new units. They come in the form of newmechanics. Starcraft 2 is now an actual 3-diMensional game. What this means is the Terrain levels are for more than just looks now. Units like the Reaper and Colossus can actually go over higher level terrain.

Now this might not seem like much, but this changes enTirely the effect of ramps in the game. In Starcraft 1, you absolutely had to go through static defenses to assault based barring drops and Nydus canals. This made the ramp an extremely powerful (and sometimes irritating) map feature. Economy harass can now be accomplished much earlier in the game should your opponent decides to mass photon cannons outside his ramp.

Another new gameplay mechanic that Starcraft 2 has added is in the form of destructible rocks. These are generally back-doors into your opponents base,and if they aren't Watchful you could have a 1-way ticket straight to their main. Or they to yours. These new mechanics have seriously hindered the effect of turtle, which means you wall up in your base (generally a Terran favoured with siege tanks). I consider this a very good thing, because turtle is a very bad strategy in the fact that it allows your opponents free reign over the enTire map. You may be able to hold them off for a few minutes, but they'll eventually get enough minerals, gas, and units to pummel any sort of defenses you may be able to build on one base.

Maynarding

The economy in Starcraft 1 is generally very confusing. It's an almost organic system that scales a-proportionally to how many workers you have gathering. While the law of diminishing returnswas very much in effect (each worker past a certain point was less effective than the previous) [especially due to the bad pathing in Starcraft 1], it did allow a viable strategy called Maynarding. Maynarding is credited to a certain player of the same name, where while building an expansion, you could make all the extra workers you needed for the expansion, effectively saturating the minerals as soon as the expansion was built.

In Starcraft 2, worker pathing and pathing in general is very much improved. Workers don't fly around trying to find an available mineral patches. In fact, they'll patiently wait the few milliseconds it takes for another worker to finish mining. What this means though, is there is nearly a cap on how many workers for base is effective. It's generally thoughtto be 2 workers to patch in Starcraft 2. This is a great thing, but it does severely hinder the benefits of Maynarding. While those workers you were making in Starcraft 1 would still help your economy while you waited for your expansion, the benefit is severely reduced in Starcraft 2. What this effectively means is that every expansion takes much longer to actually saturate to be efficient. This also means that losing an expansion early on is devastating because you won't earn back the cost quickly.

Unit selection cap, and building multiple select

Another widely debated topic amongst hardcore fans is the new unit selection cap. Starcraft had a cap of 12 units that could be selected at once due to old user-interface problems. The new game though, Starcraft 2, allows for up to255 units to be selected at once. This changes the gameplay so much! Instead of 1a2a3a (Hotkey, attack, etc.) it's click and drag mouse, a. I actually really like this new mechanic, as it doesn't take 150 APM to simply base assault. I think it allows for more strategy as a newer player, and welcome it.

Pro players may find a distaste for it, because they may assume it lowers the skill cap between pro players and mediocre players. I somewhat disagree, because just sending all your units into an attack can be a very bad thing as well; it can cause you to lose your enTire army if you don't pay attention. Pros will still use hotkey groups and try to attack from multiple places at once.

Building Multiple select is another thing that may be seen as lowering the overall skillceiling of the game. It's yet another thing I disagree with. MBS lets you select multiple gateways, hatcheries, or any other production buildings at once. What I think this really means is less hotkeys to worry about. Macro certainly has been made easier (especially with the new rally attack), but it isn't something I find has lowered the skill ceiling. If a player makes 400 Zerglings, but your opponent has a good mix of colossus, zealots, or carriers, the player with the Zerglings army will be destroyed in barring Nydus canal (at a similar unit cap). And the fact still remains that you should never let your opponent make 200 of anything!

You can produce units in a more efficient manner, but the strategy is still there. If a player forgets to use the previously Mentionedmacro mechanics, he/she will also be at a very strong disadvanTAGe.

Conclusion

I think the game is deserving of the title Starcraft 2. Many of the originals bad interface chokepoints have been fixed, thus making it a bit easier for players new to the series to jump in. Blizzard however also kept E-sports to very important priority, and has maintained a level of multi-tasking that certainly is not easy to master. "I think we'll be seeing plenty of exciting games from lots of Starcraft pros like Flash, Jaedong, Bisu, etc. should they choose to switch over. This game is new, gorgeous, has excellent music, and certainly has a competitive edge to it. There are more-hard-counters than the original, so the way the strategies need to be implemented are different.

Starcraft Vs Starcraft 2 1-What's Different?

WoW Rogue Macro - A Few Useful Rogue Macros

The Rogue is a very difficult class to play. They usually have a lot of DPS but aren't very resilient. You must also use Stealth as often as possible to gain access to powerful abilities and also avoid being hit. Since those are a lot of buttons to push, it's always a good idea to have a good WoW Rogue macro by your side.

Fighting with a Rogue is more like an exact science. You have to use the right ability exactly when is needed. If you stun your opponent and not have enough Energy to do damage to him, you will lose. So you have to know what to use and when depending on the situation.

That means that you have to know a great deal of strategies. As you think about what you need to do, you must also pay a little attention to what buttons you need to push. That can be difficult for many people. That's why it is very important to use a good WoW Rogue macro.

By using macros, you will be able to do a lot more things by just pushing one button. That will make it easier on you and give you more time to come up with the required tactical solutions, rather than focusing on making the right key combinations for a skill or spell.

Here is a very good example of such a WoW Rogue macro:

#showtooltip [mod] 0 16; 17
/equipslot 17 0 16

This macro will enable you to switch your off hand weapons without having to open your bags or use the mouse to click on the weapon icon. You can do it in battle with the touch of a button. For the macro to work, simply store the secondary off-hand weapon in the 16th slot of your bag, which is the lower right corner of the main Backpack.

The next WoW Rogue macro is very useful because of what I was saying above about Stealth. It is very important to escape an opponent and use Vanish to avoid being defeated. Here is a macro for just that:

#showicon Vanish
/cast Cloak of Shadows
/cast Vanish

This macro will cast Cloak of Shadows first and then Vanish. Very useful to escape adds or a stronger opponent. CoS will purge you of any damage over time spells so they won't break the Vanish spell. Note that CoS will not work against physical DoTs like Rend or Gouge.

Any well made macro is a useful one. It will help you make room on your quick bars and also help you access abilities Faster and easier. But for this to really work, you need to make sure that you have a good source of macros. Out-dated or flawed ones will only waste your time. If you pick the right WoW Rogue macro, you will gain a lot.

WoW Rogue Macro - A Few Useful Rogue Macros

WoW Rogue Macro - A Few Useful Rogue Macros

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WoW Rogue Macro - A Few Useful Rogue Macros