Excel Consulting Archives - Page 3 of 4

Online Training For Clients

Do you do any online, real-time teaching or learning?

A client wanted to learn a bit more about Excel VBA, so we arranged a phone call for today. He sent me a couple of workbooks to use during the session.

The Free Session

I thought it might help if we could both see the same screen, so I set up my first training session on WiZiQ, where I have a free account. I had attended a training session there in 2008, and it went reasonably well. There’s a whiteboard for interaction, and you can upload files to use during the session. You can also record the session, for attendees to download later.

The session was set up as private, and I sent an invitation to my client. He had to register and log in, but said the process was quick and easy. If I upgraded to an Organization account, attendees would not have to register.

A Few Problems

It took us a couple of minutes to sort out the optional settings for audio and video. I enabled my audio and video, and could allow attendees to share theirs.

The uploaded Excel files didn’t work too well. Instead of sheet names, I could select “Page 1, Page 2, etc.” from a drop down list. Only a portion of the sheet showed, which was a problem. There was no way to see the VBE, as far as I could tell.

We gave up, and used the phone instead, with each of us having the same workbooks open on our desktops. That worked fine, as it has in the past.

Try Again

Later, I went back to WiZiQ, and found a Share Screen setting. I’ll set up a test for myself later, and see if that’s a better option. Then I can round up a guinea pig or two, and try an online session.

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I Have a Question

If you have an Excel blog, or have written an Excel book, or ever answered a question in an Excel newsgroup, you probably get questions in your email inbox.

Most of the emails can be answered by pointing the person to Google, or to the Microsoft newsgroups. A few questions are asked politely and clearly, and a short answer will suffice, so I answer those.

If people contact me about one of my pivot table books, I try to help them. They’ve invested in me, and I want to help them get the most from that investment.

Today, a reader asked about the Report Filters in one of the examples in my Beginning Pivot Tables book. He told me which book he had, mentioned the chapter and page number, and asked the question very clearly. Oh, and he spelled both my first and last names correctly!

Now that’s how you get help, as soon as possible. I’ll have to remember to do those things myself, if I ever run into problems with someone else’s material.

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Thinking About Excel

My friend, Heather Mak, asked if I’d like to be interviewed for her new online magazine, Five Takeaways. What key things should people know about Excel? What are its Five Takeaways?

The magazine’s first article was about American Chinese food, and the second article focused on a giant island of garbage that’s floating in the Pacific Ocean.

So, they’ve covered take-out and throw out. How does Excel fit into that pattern? I guess you can use Excel to figure things out.

Heather sent me a few questions to help me start thinking.

How exactly did you get into Excel? (were you there from day one?)
What exactly does a Microsoft MVP do?
Is there a typical description that you could give of a Microsoft MVP? It seems like an interesting niche!
What are some novel uses of Excel that you’ve seen?
Why do you think Excel is so great?
What are some commonly encountered problems that people most often ask your help for?
What would you say are the most basic/important formulas/functions of Excel that people should know?

I’ll give this some thought over the weekend, and see what I can come up with.

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Disaster Planning

Thirty years ago today, there was a huge explosion in Mississauga, when a train derailed, right in the middle of the city. I lived in Downsview, about 20 miles east, and felt the house shake, just before midnight, as though there had been a small earthquake.

The trains were carrying dangerous materials, including chlorine, so most of the city’s residents were evacuated – over 200,000 people. Amazingly, no one was seriously injured, or killed, and the evacuation went smoothly. The mayor somehow sprained her ankle, but kept going. She’s still the mayor, and going strong, at age 88.

Here’s a news video that shows some of the fire:

In 1982, I moved to Mississauga, and things have been peaceful since then. Then, in August 2008, a Downsview propane company exploded, less than a mile from the house I’d lived in during the Mississauga explosion. I guess I should plan to move in another 27 years or so!

In the meantime, perhaps some disaster planning would be prudent. If I had to evacuate, could I run this business from another location?

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Working From Home

I’ve been travelling to a client’s office this week, finishing up an Excel project. Hope to have the work done soon, before the snow and H1N1 pandemic hit. It’s better to be working from home under those conditions!

A short commute and reduced risk of infection are just two of the advantages of working from home. It’s also quieter, with fewer interruptions, and easier to focus.

When I started working from home, in 1985, my son was in kindergarten, so things definitely weren’t as quiet. And there were plenty of interruptions!

I didn’t do any internet based business back then, so completed client work had to be sent by courier, or hand delivered. Files weren’t too big, but still would have taken a long time to transfer on that dial up modem, even if clients were set up to receive them.

Clients sent drafts and edits to me by fax, and they were hard to decipher, some of the time. A phone call usually sorted things out, and sometimes a visit to the client was needed.

I never use the fax machine now, and rarely speak to clients on the phone. The modem is like a rocket ship, compared to the turtle that I started with, and most of my work is done by email.

Things sure have changed for my home based business, and I’ve never regretted my decision to work from home.

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Online Tool To Help Publish VBA Code

On the Contextures website, I’ve got many pages with sample VBA code for Excel. When I feel ambitious, I colour the code before I publish it, using green for the comments, and blue for the keywords.

For example, here’s some sample code from my Excel Comments Programming page.

Free Conversion Tool

However, formatting the code takes quite a bit of time and effort, so I don’t do it for all the pages.

With the zHTML conversion tool, it will be much easier to post nicely formatted VBA code. It’s available as a free download, or as a free online tool.

Paste in your VBA code, click a button, copy the HTML code, and paste it into your website or blog.

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How to Price Your Software

On my Contextures site you can download my free pivot table add-in, PivotPower. So far, I haven’t created an Excel product for sale, but a few of my Excel colleagues have.

One of the challenges is in setting a price for the software. How do you decide what to charge?

To help you through the process, you can download a free pdf file of the book Don’t Just Roll the Dice, by Neil Davidson, of Red Gate Software. If you prefer a physical copy of the book, you can buy it on Amazon.