Here is a cool count-down timer application made in VBA to remind you about our VBAClasses registration closing time!
I know it is blindingly awesome. So I will give you a few seconds before reading further.
….
Back already? Great.
I was thinking of ways to tell you that you have got less than 3 days to join our VBA Class. Then it struck me, why not make an Excel workbook to tell you how much time you have got? So I did just that.
Here is a video demo of how the VBA application works (watch on YouTube):
Download the VBA Classes Count-down Timer Workbook:
Click here to download the workbook. Please enable macros to see it.
PS: You must drag and drop this file in to Excel 2007 or above to see it.
How does the Count-down Timer Work?
First, I must tell you about its limitations:
- This workbook assumes that your computer is located at the hotspot (or city) you have chosen.
- The current time is fetched from your computer’s local time using NOW() formula.
Now, the basic construction of this workbook can be broken down to 3 parts:
- Hotspot / City Selection
- Countdown Timer
- Formatting
Hotspot / City Selection:
- I took an outline map of world and put it in an empty sheet. On top of this I have added 9 hotspots by drawing nine circles.
- I have named these hotspots spot1, spot2…,spot9
- As you can guess, each of these spots correspond to one time zone, from PST to Australian Time.
- I have assigned macros to each of them. The macros would just modify a cell named valSpot with the name of the spot on which I clicked.
- Based on the clicked spot, I fetched the corresponding closing time from a table like this:
- Then, I calculated the time left by subtracting current time from closing time.
- A similar logic is used for City selection.
Countdown timer:
- I have inserted a check box and linked it to a cell named showTimer
- I have also assigned a macro startTimer to the checkbox.
- The startTimer macro would call a different macro named – countDownTime()
- In this, I wrote a while loop that would check if the showTimer is true and ask Excel to update the currentTime once every second
- The code can be examined from the downloaded file.
Formatting:
I am leaving this to your imagination.
Bottom line: Join our VBA Classes
Of course, the whole point of this is very simple.
If you want to learn VBA, then please join our VBA classes. We will be closing registrations in 3 more days. After that we will be busy for next few months teaching VBA to those of you who joined us.
Click here to join our VBA Classes.
PS: When you join our VBA Class, you get to learn how this timer app is constructed in a detailed 40 minute lesson. That is just one of the many lessons in our class. So, join us already.
11 Responses to “Fix Incorrect Percentages with this Paste-Special Trick”
I've just taught yesterday to a colleague of mine how to convert amounts in local currency into another by pasting special the ROE.
great thing to know !!!
Chandoo - this is such a great trick and helps save time. If you don't use this shortcut, you have to take can create a formula where =(ref cell /100), copy that all the way down, covert it to a percentage and then copy/paste values to the original column. This does it all much faster. Nice job!
I was just asking peers yesterday if anyone know if an easy way to do this, I've been editing each cell and adding a % manually vs setting the cell to Percentage for months and just finally reached my wits end. What perfect timing! Thanks, great tip!
If it's just appearance you care about, another alternative is to use this custom number format:
0"%"
By adding the percent sign in quotes, it gets treated as text and won't do what you warned about here: "You can not just format the cells to % format either, excel shows 23 as 2300% then."
Dear Jon S. You are the reason I love the internet. 3 year old comments making my life easier.
Thank you.
Here is a quicker protocol.
Enter 10000% into the extra cell, copy this cell, select the range you need to convert to percentages, and use paste special > divide. Since the Paste > All option is selected, it not only divides by 10000% (i.e. 100), it also applies the % format to the cells being pasted on.
@Martin: That is another very good use of Divide / Multiply operations.
@Tony, @Jody: Thank you 🙂
@Jon S: Good one...
@Jon... now why didnt I think of that.. Excellent
Thank You so much. it is really helped me.
Big help...Thanks
Thanks. That really saved me a lot of time!
Is Show Formulas is turned on in the Formula Ribbon, it will stay in decimal form until that is turned off. Drove me batty for an hour until I just figured it out.