The SUMPRODUCT function is one of the hardest ones to understand in Excel, but it's also pretty useful. This blog gives clear examples of how to use SUMPRODUCT for conditional sums, weighted averages and the like.

Tags:
Excel > Excel functions

How to get Excel to speak to you in a female voice, or slower/faster!

Posted by Andy Brown on 13 August 2013

A previous blog showed how to get Excel to speak to you; this one shows how to change the voice in which it does it!

Tags:
Excel > General

How to get Excel to speak to you - reading out the contents of cells

Posted by Andy Brown on 12 August 2013

Deep within its bowels Excel contains a feature allowing it to read out the contents of cells (you can also get your VBA macros to talk to users). This blog goes to those deep places hidden within Excel!

Tags:
Excel > General

Want to wind up your neighbour? Try this annoying Excel VBA code!

Posted by Andy Brown on 18 September 2024

If you have a colleague who trusts you, you could always betray this trust by sending them a workbook which misbehaves: it won't close and you can't leave it!

Tags:
VBA macros > Events Writing VBA > Other

SSIS: Executing SQL statement for each file

Posted by Andy Brown on 05 April 2013

How to store the name of each file in a folder in a SQL Server table using an Integration Services package.

Tags:
SSIS > Files and folders SSIS > Variables, expressions

Problem with using VBA to create chart labels

Posted by Andy Brown on 04 April 2013

If your chart has more than a thousand data labels, this blog explains why you may experience problems.

Tags:
Excel > Charts VBA macros > Working with charts Writing VBA > Other

Prevent Reporting Services from caching data

Posted by Andy Brown on 01 October 2012

By default SSRS will create files with extension .rdl.data to cache data. This blog gives two and a half ways to ensure you're always seeing the latest data in a report.

Tags:
SSRS > General

Use SQL, parameters and bookmarks to create a grid of clickable links

Posted by Andy Brown on 06 August 2012

To make report navigation easier, you can create a 2-dimensional matrix of clickable links at the top of a report. This blog shows you how!

Tags:
SSRS > Matrices SQL > Stored procedures T-SQL > Other

Make an SSRS matrix dynamic, like a pivot table

Posted by Andy Brown on 06 August 2012

Create a matrix whose row, column and data fields are all selectable from dropdown lists.

Tags:
SSRS > Matrices

Using a Parameter to set the Data Source for a Report

Posted by Andy Brown on 06 August 2012

A single report in Reporting Services can serve many masters. This blog shows how to allow a user to choose which data a report should display, using a dropdown parameter.

Tags:
SSRS > Parameters SSRS > Linking to data

Reporting Services - report and group variables

Posted by Andy Brown on 21 June 2012

If you're not sure when - or whether - you should be using report or group variables in SSRS, read this blog to find out how to speed up your reports and solve other problems.