The History of Microsoft Access

The Story of Microsoft Access   According to Wikipedia, “Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of applications, included in the Professional and higher editions or sold […]

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Electrosonic

A New Microsoft Excel Client and Their Unique Need   We had a company call us with a request to document their Excel files. The person that wrote them, formulas and macros, left.   We documented two file consisting of over 20 sheets and 1,000 lines of VBA code by producing a 10 page PDF. […]

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How Small Businesses Use Microsoft Excel

How Small Businesses Use Microsoft Excel   For those that are familiar with business, the number one desktop productivity tool of choice is Microsoft Excel, it’s hard to imagine life without it. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet tool that is used in millions of large businesses across the world and provides tremendous value to small […]

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Solutions: Custom Commercial Microsoft Solutions

We Build Custom Commercial Microsoft Solutions For Our Clients   Excel Consultant explains the growing field of custom commercial applications, their numerous advantages, and our successes with their custom Microsoft development       Excel Consultant’s team of Microsoft custom solution experts is committing to helping our clients maximize their potential with this essential suite […]

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Measuring Your Success with Microsoft Power BI (Power Pivot)

Practical Problem Solving with Microsoft Power BI: Measuring Your Success   How well is your business doing? You can probably provide a general answer (“excellent,” “could be better,” “needs some help,” “growing quickly,” etc.) but how do you know? How do you measure success? Do the business tools you are using providing the answers in […]

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Optimizing Your Business Performance with Our Microsoft MVPs

Optimizing Your Business Performance with Our Team of Microsoft MVPs   Microsoft is just one of our clients to benefit from the Microsoft Most Valued Professional program and the Excel and Access MVPs on our staff over the past few decades.   What exactly is a Microsoft MVP and how can the accomplished Microsoft solution […]

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Introduction to Practical Problem-Solving with Microsoft Power BI

Introduction to Practical Problem-Solving with Microsoft Power BI   In this twenty-first century of business, we’ve come to expect that computerized technology will be the panacea for our problems. Well, the good news is that, in virtually every case, it is! Disorganized? There’s an Excel spreadsheet for that! Need information at your fingertips? There’s a […]

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How Businesses Become More Productive Using Microsoft Excel

How Businesses Become More Productive Using Microsoft Excel   Said another way, How Do Businesses “Excel Efficiently“   Fact: Did you know that 60% of the Excel 2013 templates that come within Microsoft Excel were done by our company. Yes, several of our Microsoft Excel MVP’s worked on our organization’s project for Microsoft. Some project! […]

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Integration and Automation with Microsoft’s VBA

Integration and Automation with Microsoft’s VBA   If you want to get the most out of your Microsoft desktop productivity tools, such as Excel, Access, and Microsoft’s Power BI you will need to maximize both integration and automation with Microsoft’s VBA. VBA is the glue that binds the various Microsoft Office applications, in addition to […]

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What You Might Not Know About Microsoft’s Vision

What You Might Not Know About Microsoft’s Vision It’s absolutely undeniable: Microsoft is a company of mammoth proportions. What You Might Not Know About Microsoft’s Vision is what Microsoft the powerhouse it is today. It’s a household name throughout the United States and even in the global marketplace. It is also how we at Excel […]

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The Story of Microsoft Excel

The Story of Excel Today, only talk of an electronic spreadsheet and Microsoft Excel quickly comes to mind. You wonder whatever happened to Lotus 123 and other products that once seemed to rival Microsoft Excel. In its current format, Microsoft Excel 2016 (Both Windows & the Mac), delivers a game changing relational database via Microsoft’s […]

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Our Team: Meet Stan B.

Name: Stan B. Position: Senior Access Consultant, Project Manager, Senior Access Trainer Bio: Excel Consultant is delighted to have Stan B. as a member of our team. While he is a multitalented Microsoft master, his prowess lies particularly in Access, the relational database management system. Those with the proper skills can use this powerful tool to […]

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Our Team: Meet Paul Delke

Name: Paul Delke Position: Senior Project Manager and Programmer (Irvine Office) Bio: Paul Delke has been a spreadsheet specialist for the past three decades. Since 1989, he has served as President of Automated PC Systems, Incorporated. As an independent consultant, he provides software solutions to major corporate clients using spreadsheets from Lotus and Excel. He joined […]

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Expand Your Excel Knowledge with VBA Express

Microsoft Experts At Excel Consultant, our team of expert instructors, programmers, and advisers is passionate about helping individuals and businesses harness the power of Microsoft technology. Many people merely skim the surface of what programs like Excel can accomplish, never realizing how useful they could truly be. Our cutting-edge consultants have devoted themselves to learning everything […]

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Our Team: Meet Dennis Taylor

Name: Dennis Taylor Position: Senior Excel Trainer (PC and Mac Cross-Platform Expertise) Bio: Simply put, Dennis Taylor is an Excel expert. He has worked extensively with Microsoft products (especially spreadsheet programs) since the mid-1990s. He’s traveled the United States and Canada giving seminars to help his students unlock the full potential of Excel (so far, […]

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Free Excel Help – Data Types

What you enter in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheets is read by the program as general data, text, or numeric data. But there are limitations to each, and you obviously have to suit your own needs and preferences while using Microsoft Excel. The cell data type can be interpreted by Microsoft in different ways: numeric, general […]

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Free Excel Help – Named Ranges Vlookups

For those new to Microsoft Excel the Excel VLOOKUP can initially be difficult to understand, yet it is so useful that it is a requirement for anyone that wants to be an Excel consultant or financial analyst must master it. As you probably already know, Microsoft Excel is a powerful spreadsheet application that contains numerous […]

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Free Excel Help – Slicers

Dealing with massive amounts of data on your Microsoft Excel 2010 worksheets can be really messy. Particularly when you want to select some values for financial analysis and skip other entries, the job can be really frustrating. In a long spreadsheet, one with hundreds of thousands of rows, where the entries to be skipped from […]

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Free Excel Help – Macros

Tired of repeating the same manual operations while managing data? It is very understandable. Repeating the very same action again and again, day in and day out, can be very frustrating not to mention expensive.  Excel spreadsheets can be managed effectively, repeating tasks and getting frustrated can be successfully prevented in Microsoft Excel using Macros. […]

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Free Excel Help – If Statements

Microsoft Excel If functions are very useful in the flexibility and decision making aspects of your spreadsheets. It helps in generating and in testing if the data or the state of your spreadsheet is true or false. The function will carry out an action if the condition or state of your spreadsheet is true or […]

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Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables

Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables are used in the user’s spreadsheet to present quantitative data in an easy and user-friendly manner to allow the user to quickly analyze large amounts of data. To manipulate data in an Excel PivotTable it must have data that is capable of being able to be categorized or grouped. To create […]

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Free Excel Help – Pivot Tables Data

In Microsoft Excel, Pivot Tables are interactive tables allowing the user to summarize and group numbers of data in a tabular concise format for easy analysis and reporting. Excel Pivot Tables aim is to count, total and sort the data, thus, this table is also available in Microsoft Access. It was originally called Pivot Tables […]

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Free Excel Help – XIRR Function

The Microsoft Excel XIRR function is a modified version of the IRR function, wherein one can also calculate internal rate of return even if the cash flow does not happen regularly. The Excel IRR function is only for calculating internal rate of return when there is a periodic flow of cash, and thus the XIRR […]

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Free Excel Help – Dates Functions

In this free Excel help article we’ll look at some of the Microsoft Excel’s Date functions. The format of the date used in our article is mm/dd/yyy but this of course can be changed in Microsoft Excel. TODAY – This is a function that does not take in any arguments.  Used in a cell as […]

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Free Excel Help – DVAR Function

The DVAR function is one of several database functions available in MS Excel. If you are not an Excel consultant, but rather a business users, you might be wondering how a Microsoft function in Excel is being called a database function when Microsoft Excel is only a worksheet and not an actual database, such as […]

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Free Excel Help – DSTDEV Function

The DSTDEV function is one of the database functions in Microsoft Excel. You might be asking yourself how a function in Excel is being called a database function when Excel is only a spreadsheet and not a database, such as Microsoft Access. We’ll see that in a moment. As the name suggests DSTDEV or Database […]

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Free Excel Help – DPRODUCT Function

The DPRODUCT function is one of several database functions in Microsoft Excel. You might be wondering how a function in Excel is being called a database function when Excel is only a spreadsheet. We’ll see that in a moment. As the name suggests DPRODUCT or Database Product multiplies numeric field values in a column. This […]

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Free Excel Help – DGET Function (Part 1)

You might recall in an earlier free Excel help article we wrote where we discussed about the Microsoft Excel VLOOKUP function how we explained fetching data from one worksheet into another.  In this article we’ll look at another function that fetches data, the DGET function. The DGET function is one of the several database functions […]

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Free Excel Help – IRR Function

The Microsoft Office Suite has a wide range of software that is essential for any business to run properly and one such application in the suite is Microsoft Excel. Excel is the dominant spreadsheet application and business tool that almost every firm uses nowadays. Because of its easy to use features and host of functions […]

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Free Excel Help – CountBlank Function

Microsoft Excel is one of the global leaders when it comes to financial computing and analyzing data. This iconic piece of software, ever since it got released from Microsoft, has been a firm favorite among all the major business organizations in the world for their day to day computing purposes. Excel has got a massive […]

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Free Excel Help – AVERAGE Function

Microsoft Excel is one of the leading analytical tools available in the market, and is the most used spreadsheet application in the world, being widely used by financial and analytical firms as well as students for calculating and analyzing data. Excel is known for its simple nature and high affectivity. Because of its easy to […]

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Free Excel Help ISERROR Function

  If you are an experienced Excel consultant you know what this free Excel help article covers. If you are a small business owner looking for help on this topic, it means that you might have not come across this before. So exactly what is the problem and what does this article cover? A cell […]

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Free Excel Help – Subtotal Function

Among the functions that are featured in Microsoft Excel, the SUBTOTAL function is probably the most versatile. This function can be used for different purposes unlike the other Excel functions which can only do one thing. The SUBTOTAL function in Microsoft Excel is employed to get the subtotal of a given array of cells. The […]

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Free Excel Help – SUMSQ Function

Microsoft Excel features built-in functions that have the ability to perform calculations. These mathematical functions are useful especially to Excel consultants. You can perform different mathematical operations with the use of these Excel’s functions. While there lots of functions in Excel, this free Excel help article will provide a detailed discussion of the SUMSQ function. […]

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Free Excel Help – TAN Function

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet that is used by business to manage data. By default, when you create a new Excel workbook the workbook will contain three worksheets. Sheet is a shortened name for a worksheet or spreadsheet in Excel. A worksheet is comprised of a grid or table composed of columns and rows making […]

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Free Excel Help – TANH Function

  Microsoft Excel is a software program used to develop, create and organize data using the spreadsheet or worksheet interface. Excel users and businesses often use it to deal with calculating, organizing, graphing and formatting data. Microsoft Excel has basic features, which are used for organizing data and for data management. Excel is also used […]

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Free Excel Help – TRUNC Function

If you work in business you should know what Microsoft Excel is. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application produced by the Microsoft Corporation. It allows businesses and its users to calculate, format and organize data using formulas and functions. Excel is part of the Office Suite, thus, it is compatible with other software applications in […]

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Free Excel Help – Data Consolidation

For our example let us consider several Microsoft Excel worksheets say for the various months from January till December containing sales data spread across an array of cells ranging from B5 to E16. Now suppose we wish to do a sum function just on only the data for the months of January and February, i.e. […]

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Free Excel Help – Advanced Functions

The Microsoft Excel function we’ll learn in this Excel help article is the RANDBETWEEN function. So what does the RANDBETWEEN function do? RANDBETWEEN generates random numbers between a range of numbers. This Excel function is very useful if you want to generate numeric data in a spreadsheet for testing purposes.  The syntax of the function […]

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Free Excel Help – SQRTPI Function

Microsoft Excel has lots of useful functions for Excel consultants to use, especially the mathematical functions which can be used by students and even the professional in their respective fields as well. These functions allow the Excel programmers to perform from simple to complex mathematical calculations. Also, they automate the calculation process for the users. […]

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Free Excel Help – SQRT Function

Basic Description of the SQRT Function in Microsoft Excel The SQRT function in Microsoft Excel computes the positive square root of a given numeric value. The formula of the SQRTR function is: =SQRT (number) In this formula, the number argument is the number in which you want to calculate the square root of. This argument […]

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Free Excel Help – SINH Function

In mathematics, there are the so-called hyperbolic functions which are almost similar to the trigonometric functions. One of these functions is the hyperbolic sine. Hyperbolic functions are mostly used in solving mathematical problems or equations, specifically, trigonometric problems. They are most often used by students in engineering, mathematics and science or even the experts. Not […]

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Free Excel Help – SIN Function

Using Microsoft Excel, you can easily create a new spreadsheet. However, you have to be familiar with the different functions and formulas of Excel to make it useful. One of the available functions in Microsoft Excel is the SIN function. Not often used by Excel consultants, but still of importance, so we will cover it […]

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Free Excel Help – SIGN Function

Microsoft Excel features numerous built-in functions for the average Excel consultant to use. This Excel help article will discuss just one of the functions of Microsoft Excel which is called the SIGN function. In order for you to learn the usage of this function easily, you will also be provided with a simple procedure on […]

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Free Excel Help – Remove Duplicates

There may be several occasions when you don’t want duplicate records in your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. For instance you are preparing a list of employees in your company for the annual bonus payments and you certainly do not want an employee’s name occurring twice. In this article we’ll look at how duplicates can be detected […]

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Free Excel Help – ROMAN Function

Microsoft Excel is the most widely used spreadsheet application in the world, it is written by Microsoft for both the Mac OS X and for Windows. It is typically used to manipulate and display numerical data. In Microsoft Office, Excel is used to manipulate data via various tools for analysis and organization, enabling the user […]

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Free Excel Help – RANDBETWEEN Function

Microsoft Excel is a powerful spreadsheet application featuring formulas used for organizing, calculating and formatting data. It’s usually bundled by Microsoft in their Office Suite, which is compatible with other Microsoft Office applications such as Word and Outlook. Excel is used in almost every business, by almost every Excel consultant, in almost every part of […]

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Free Excel Help – RAND Function

Microsoft Excel is a powerful spreadsheet application featuring formulas used for organizing, calculating and formatting data. It’s usually bundled by Microsoft in the Office Suite which is compatible with other Microsoft applications. In 1982, the earliest software program released was called the Multiplan, which has the same features as with Excel. With Excel an Excel […]

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Free Excel Help – RADIANS Function

When talking about programs that can be used for calculations the number one option is Microsoft Excel. This program is used by companies engaged in huge computations such as finance companies, architectural companies, engineering companies and a lot more. The program provides different mathematical functions for it to accommodate different mathematical problems. In this free […]

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Free Excel Help – PI Function

Pi is a constant used in mathematics whose value is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. This mathematical constant is approximately equivalent to 3.14159 in the normal decimal positional notation. There are lots of formulas in engineering, science and mathematics which involve Pi. Because of this, Pi is one of […]

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Free Excel Help – POWER Function

The Basics of the POWER Function in Microsoft Excel The POWER functions in Microsoft Excel computes a given numerical value raise to a supplied exponent or power. The formula of the POWER function is: POWER (number, power) In this formula, the power and number arguments are number values. These arguments can be entered in the […]

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Free Excel Help – MULTINOMIAL Function

Many people find it difficult to solve multinomial problems or equations. It’s really hard to do manually especially when you are working with large multinomial factorial equations in mathematics. Luckily, Microsoft Excel features a useful function to address that problem. This Excel function is called the MULTINOMIAL function. To begin with, try to read this […]

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Free Excel Help – ODD Function

The Excel’s ODD function rounds an entered number value to the nearest odd number away from zero. The function rounds up a positive number and it rounds down a negative number. The syntax of the Excel’s ODD function is: =ODD(number value) In this formula, the number argument is the numeric value that needs to be […]

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Free Excel Help – Nested IF Statements

We’ll  look at the nested ifs and how to enhance if formula using the “AND” and “OR” conditions. So what is a nested if? Nested if or Nested ifs (if there are more than two used in a nested fashion) is when you can use more than one or more if formula within another if […]

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Free Excel Help – String Functions

In an earlier free Excel help article we explained how you could use basic formatting of text to extract data from a cell, particularly when we import text and data from other files such as .csv files. In this article we’ll delve a bit deeper and study them more closely. Assuming we imported names of […]

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Free Excel Help – Index and Match Functions

For this free Excel help article, for our example let us assume we have a table of sales data for a year for 6 salespersons in a company. Now let us see how using match we can pull out sales data from this table when a month and a salesperson’s name is provided. The format […]

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Free Excel Help – Prevent Duplicates

In this free Excel help article we’ll discuss the various methods that will ensure that you do not have duplicate entries in your Excel spreadsheet. The method we are going to use is Data Validation where we can use a custom formula to prevent duplicates from being entered into the spreadsheet. Assume that we have […]

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