Database Management in Excel

Correct database heading locationWhen working with data in Excel it surprises me how many people don’t know how to setup a database (also known as a list or table) correctly. This can cause many problems when trying to sort, filter, subtotal, build pivot tables or utilising the table tool. I’ve seen first hand the devastating results of a user sorting only part of a database because the database wasn’t set up correctly and they didn’t know how to safely manage the data. Whether you enter the data directly into your database or you download the data from an external source I’m going to go through the design considerations that you need to apply when setting up your database. There are not many considerations however they are very important. Continue reading “Database Management in Excel”

Working with Dates in Excel

Working with dates in Excel
Working with dates in Excel

I’ve been a Microsoft Office Master Instructor for over 12 years now and I’ve seen some pretty silly things in Excel when it comes to working with dates. Most people don’t understand how dates are stored so they tend to do whatever it takes to get an answer to their problem. This result often leads to more work, heartache and pain further down the track or they simply just don’t get the right answer. In their eyes, ‘close enough is good enough’. Some of the Insidious, diabolical, mega formulas I’ve seen would leave mathematicians scratching their heads. Lets take a closer look at working with dates in Excel. Continue reading “Working with Dates in Excel”

SQL Esssentials – Level 2

Due to the success and feedback of our SQL Essentials course we have added another course to the public schedule – SQL Esssentials (Level 2). This course immediately continues on from the SQL Essentials course including some of these topics- Creating and Manipulating Tables, Using Views, Working with Stored Procedures, Using Transaction Processing, Using Cursors, Understanding Advanced SQL Features – more info

Microsoft Project Courses

Our previous Project 2010 courses was divided into two levels, Basic and Advanced. Although this has worked for us in the past we had a number of people telling us that they don’t use the resource and costing side of MS Project. This was normally due to a business requirement dealing with projects at a higher level than MS Project is capable of. For this very reason we have decided to break up the course into 2 halves. The first is dealing with tasking, linking, link relationships, task based reporting and the Gantt chart. So naturally we decided to call it: Project Essentials – Timeline and Tasks. The second course deals specifically with resources, overallocation of resources, costs and associated reporting. We’ve decided to call it: Project Advanced – Resource Management.

You can find more information on these courses here: Project Training Courses