Aeternus Singapore

How to trust an Excel VBA application?

CH Leong — Sun, 06 May 2012 06:12:14 +0000

A trust worthy person should be:
1. Honest & true.
2. The person is honest and true in many different situations.
3.The person is honest and true over a long period of time.

Trusting an Excel VBA application is like trusting a person. When you trust a person, you have an expectation that this person will the right thing. It’s somewhat a same situation with Excel VBA Applications. An Microsoft Excel app should also do the right thing with no errors. Trust takes time to build and it takes time to know someone well. To trust a new Excel VBA application, we need to invest time and effort to test it. To expect an Excel application to perform without a test of trust is simply asking for disasters.

Office 15, Word 15, Excel 15 & PowerPoint 15 screenshots.

CH Leong — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 04:49:29 +0000

It didn’t seem too long ago that Microsoft released Office 2010 (Office 14) upon us. Continuing the Windows 8 momentum we soon will hear about Office version 15! Here’s what going to happen. According to a Bloomberg report, Microsoft plans to finish up all work on Windows 8 by summer 2012 and release the new version of the operating system during October 2012. Within this year, we will see the first glimpses of Office 15 and probably could buy it off the shelves by early 2013.

Here is a few screenshots of Word 15 application. Notice Microsoft have a new obsession with “minimalism” in the interface design. It’s a stark comparison with an Excel 2010 screenshot.

The start menu. Notice it's alot less cluttered compared with an Excel 2010 interface.

The Word 15 UI has elements from the Windows 8 Metro interface design style.

Can you see the Ribbon? It's collapsed by default and seems hardly there.

Just as I was about to get used to Excel 2010. Now the game changed again!

5 steps to create meaning charts & infographics in Excel

CH Leong — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 06:02:46 +0000

Nathan Yau has given me alot to think about in his book “Visualize This” (book.flowingdata.com). I borrowed some ideas from him to create this long-styled infographic in Microsoft Excel.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:23:23 +0000

The IPhone experience has showed us that successful applications are beautiful, fast and interactive. Today, Microsoft is showing off it’s reinvention of the Windows operating system. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is the company’s latest and greatest system software that will unite mobile, desktops, cloud as one utopia dream.
I gave it a run and my first impression is: “It looks great”. The user interface is intuitive, responds quickly and is highly interactive. You can download it from Microsoft’s website: microsoft.com.

My learning curve lasted half an hour. By noon, I got a good hang of how this OS works. The START button have disappeared and this OS wants you to press the WINDOWS key to get to the new Start Menu. The idea is to pin all your favorite programs to the Start Menu.

For veteran Windows users these are the troubles to expect:
1. Control Panel is tough to get to.
2. You need to keep hitting the Windows key to get to the Start Menu. This key was useless previously.
3. All your programs are displayed in the App Menu. Right click on the bottom of the Start Menu to get there.

There are some nice surprises as I wandered and strolled around in this new space.

The weather app.

The map app.

Things to note:
Make sure you got 20gigs of free space on your C drive. This is something they don’t tell you before you start the download.

With this latest update, I predict everyone expects all applications to look great and work great. How should your PowerPoint slides and spreadsheet look like in this new age?

Big Data skills mean Big Jobs and Salaries?

admin — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:23:18 +0000

Try this in any jobs website like Monster.com. Search for any “data” related jobs and you find a huge number of openings even in tough times like these! In fact A quick search of other popular job posting sites shows a big demand for data analyst or anyone who can demonstrate other “big data” skills.
If you have been watching the technology forums, “The age of Big Data” is upon us. There are writings on the wall:

IDA recognizes Business Analytics as emerging sector to enhance Singapore’s competitiveness.

SAS Institute signed a strategic partnership with the four leading universities in Singapore, aiming to jointly develop the local business analytics industry.

Companies in many industries now understand that they need to make better sense of the massive data sets at their disposal. There is a demand for data analysts that understand math and statistics but also have a flare for “art.” They understand how to display or visualize that raw information so its value can be understood.

How would you fit in this age of big data? Excel proficiency is must and VBA programming becomes a prized skill along with sharp mind for logic

Project Management: Why you always don’t have time.

CH Leong — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:32:41 +0000

In every project we undertake, we are always held hostage by two contraints: “time” and “quality”. By “we”, I mean you the sponsor and me, a contractor. Some would add “money” as another constraint but to me that’s “time” in another form.

Any project from developing a piece of software to building a house, takes some amount of time (yes, you know that). But from my observations too many times sponsors do themselves in when they have some assumptions that lead to a wrong idea of time:
* “It’s a simple task so a contractor can do this quickly”. Well if it’s that simple why you hired him in the first place?
* “The contractor can proceed immediately with implementation”. A outside contractor needs time to understand what your ideas and he needs time to form his own ideas to help you.
* “I don’t have very clear ideas about this project, but you must finish this within x weeks“. Sounds funny but I have heard this before.

The relationships between the scope of the project, time, and cost should balance. If there’s not enough time or budget, the project is doomed. (No kidding.) So in addition to good advice like “eat your vegetables” here a few more you can think about on your next project:

* You get what you give. Clear information begets good ideas. Do not hide details from your contractor. Give as much relevant information as you can from the start.
* Everything thing has a time cost. If you can’t afford the time, see what’s important to you and do those first.
* A successful project comes from the combined strengths of sponsor and contractor not the weaknesses.
* The best clients pick from a wide pool of contractors.
* Likewise, the best contractors pick from a wide pool of clients.

The strengths of Excel vs Access

CH Leong — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:44:27 +0000

As development consultants, we often get the question: “Should we do this project in Access or Excel?”. We can certainly see that is this is valid question to ponder in many business oriented projects that have database and reporting needs.

Let’s take a look at the strengths of each software:
Access is a very capable database software. It can handle millions of transactional records in split seconds. What’s more, the database can be easily shared among 256 users in a networked-drive. For more specific needs, you can write VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) applications to process this huge amount of data and make them accessible to an entire department or a small company.

Excel on the other hand is a spreadsheet software. It is an excellent way to store business data and perform calculations right on your screen.Excel information is organised as “sheets” much like a large piece of paper. Users will find it easy to learn and use Excel in daily business. In fact it is the de-facto business software for most analysts. But you will discover that it is difficult (but not impossible) to share this information beyond your desktop.

So how do we make an intelligent choice?
Both softwares can store large amounts of data but you’ll find that Excel is much better at calculating and presenting this information to users compared to Access. Before you decide between Access or Excel, you should think about what benefits do you want:
1. A database-oriented application for storing and processing records
OR
2. A document-oriented application to store and present information to users.

In most business-reporting requirements, Excel is a good development choice because it has strong record storage and processing abilities, while at the same time information is easily displayed in a flexible grid manner.

What is an Independent Contractor?

CH Leong — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:11:06 +0000

Having worked as an independent contractor for Excel VBA development for a number of years, I would like to share some useful expereinces for people who drop by my site and prospective clients. Firstly, I define an independent contractor as someone who who offers their time and skill over a limited engagement in exchange for compensation.

There are a number of good reasons you would want to hire someone from the outside to develop your Excel spreadsheets. Mainly to do with reducing overall costs and risks.

Reducing Costs

An independent contractor is hired only for the duration of a project and his engagement will end once the project finishes. Cost wise, you are only paying for his expertise for a limited duration. For small and mid sized projects, this is a very cost effective compared to hiring someone into your employment.

Reducing Risks

When you hire an independent contractor for a project, a well written service contract governs the rules of interaction with contractor and a view to acheive a certain set of visible end objectives. This service contract should have convenient termination clauses that allows both parties to terminate the project in a fair and amicable manner.

For Excel dashboards and powerpoint slide designs. Beautiful, imaginative, futuristic interfaces from Corning Glass.

CH Leong — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:59:25 +0000

This video from Corning Glass shows some cool concept technologies. Take a look at the beautiful and interactive computer interface designs. I can see some good ideas for dashboard designs and PowerPoint slides.

Some screen shots here:

I could use this as interesting shapes in my powerpoint slides.

Seems to work well in PowerPoint:

I took the idea and composed it on a PowerPoint slide.

Google officially announces 10 billion app downloads in Excel

CH Leong — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 07:17:52 +0000

As an Android fan, I am happy to learn that the Android Market has surpassed 10 billion downloads. I found this pretty looking 3D column chart.

I have never been convinced that 3D charts are good enough for serious business use. But this chart made me think again. The exponential growth trend jumped at me. Critical milestones were highlighted in rounded textboxes which were freindly to my eyes. I’m not interested in the specifics but I got the strong message that Android is growing strongly from the chart.

I recreated this chart in Excel using a 3D column chart type.

Use the following Excel 3D Rotation settings and with the right colours, this chart can be done quite easily.

To learn more about how to create beautiful charts like these in Microsoft Excel, check out this workshop: Beautiful Excel Charts