Finding Duplicates in Excel 2007

On the December 27, 2006 episode of Call for Help, I show off some new features in Excel 2007.

A common problem in Excel is how to find the unique values from a range. In the show, you will see three methods that have been around in various versions of Excel:
Advanced Filter
COUNTIF function
Pivot Table

I also show off two new features from Excel 2007 that allow you to either mark duplicates or remove duplicates. Each feature requires just a few mouse clicks.

Read more here.

When Will You Upgrade to Excel 2007?

I've posted a fun poll about when you will upgrade to Excel 2007. It will take just seconds to weigh in with your opinion. The poll is here.

Create Tiny Charts with SparkMaker

In the Christmas edition of Call for Help, I show off a new add-in that will let you create SparkLines for Excel.

SparkLines are tiny, word-sized charts that will convey a trendline. The SparkMaker add-in comes in a free version that creates sparklines, and a pro version that creates SparkLines, SparkBars, SparkPies, and more.

Read more here.

Vote for your Favorite Chart

The entries are in from the Nov/Dec Challenge of the Month. Vote for your favorite chart at http://www.mrexcel.com/pc15.php. Three winners will receive a copy of a new book to be published in 2007: Charts & Graphs for Excel 2007.

After Rumsfeld resigntation, diet coke returns to the CC

I travel to Toronto every month to shoot a couple of episodes of Call for Help. A favorite place for lunch for the crew is a little grill in the Harborfront Community Center across the street from Rogers Media.

Over the summer, I noticed that the folks had a cooler full of canned soda, but not a single diet coke. No diet pepsi. Nothing diet. Turns out, it was a protest. The manager felt that Donald Rumsfeld was profiting from the sale of artificial sweetener, so there would he refused to carry diet soda.

I was up in Toronto yesterday shooting Call for Help. I ran over to the CC for lunch and was glad to see that the Diet Coke and all of the other diet soda had returned. Since Donald Rumsfeld had resigned, the protest was over and diet soda is again offered for sale. Whether you were for or against Rumsfeld, I think we can all agree that having Diet Coke back in the cooler is a good thing.

Five New Tips for Excel

When I go out to do an entertaining Excel Power Seminar, I usually end up learning a few new tricks from someone in the audience. In today's episode of Call for Help, I show off some tricks that are not in Learn Excel from MrExcel:

• Find the Difference Between Two Dates Using DATEDIF
• Sum the Visible Cells
• Shortcut Key to Redo Last Command
• Easier ways to do data entry
• Ctrl+Drag the Fill Handle to Extend 1 to 1, 2, 3...

Read more here.

Special Edition Using Excel 2007

It is always an exciting day when a new book arrives. I spent a good part of 2006 writing Special Edition Using Microsoft Excel 2007 for QUE. The first copies arrived from the printer today.

There are three huge books that get published about each version of Excel. Wiley publishes JWalk's Excel Bible. Microsoft Press published the Inside Out book. QUE publishes the Special Edition title. Each book tips in at 1000+ pages and covers every feature of the product.

I am thrilled that QUE trusted me to write Special Edition Using Excel 2007. This book is part of the series made famous by Woody Leonhard and Ed Bott. While keeping with the editorial guidelines that make the Special Edition books similar, I did manage to add my own flair to the book:

• All three books typically have a rehash of Excel help when it comes to Excel functions. I am not sure anyone has fun reading 300+ pages of dry function references. So - I made an effort to come up with a real-life use for the 356 functions in Excel. You could actually sit down with the function reference and learn new things that you can do with Excel.
• I started the book with 19 chapters about what is new in Excel 2007. While most books leave pivot tables until late in the book, my chapters on pivot tables are right up front, showing off the new pivot table features in Excel 2007.
• After the chapters of new material and the function reference, I cover all of the features that have been inExcel, but that you might not have used before.
• In Chapter 1, I produce a table showing all of the old features in Excel 2003 and where you can find them on the ribbon in Excel 2007. This is a must have reference for the first week that you are using Excel 2007.

Excel 2007 hits store shelves on January 30, 2007, but you can buy the book today from Amazon.com