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Latest Tips & Tutorials

Bar chart with lower & upper bounds [tutorial]

Bar & Column charts are very useful for comparison. Here is a little trick that can enhance them even more.

Lets say you are looking at sales of various products in a column chart. And you want to know how sales of a given product compare with a lower bound (last year sales) and an upper bound (competition benchmark). By adding these boundary markers, your chart instantly becomes even more meaningful.

Lets learn how to create a column chart with lower & upper bounds in this tutorial.

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January 8, 2014

Top 10 things I learned using Excel for a decade

Sometime during the 2nd half of 2013, I finished 10 years of Excel usage. In the last 10 years, I completed my studies, got my first job, married, had kids, visited 15 different countries, quit my job to start a business, bought first car, first house, made dozens of new friends, read 100s of books, wrote a book and learned 1000s of new things. And all along, Excel stayed a true companion. Right from MBA entrance exam preparation in 2003 to making my summer internship project reports in 2005 to planning my wedding expenses in 2007 to getting a promotion in 2009 to planning my kids feeding schedule in 2010 to running a successful business in 2014, Excel helped me in every step.

So today, I want to tell you the top 10 things I learned using Excel in last decade. Grab a hot cup of coffee, buckle your belts and get ready for time travel.

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January 6, 2014

Free 2014 Calendar, daily planner templates [download]

Here is a New year gift to all our readers – free 2014 Excel Calendar & daily planner Template.

This calender has,

One page full calendar with notes, in 4 different color schemes
Daily event planner & tracker
1 Mini calendar
Monthly calendar (prints to 12 pages)
Works for any year, just change year in Full tab.

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January 2, 2014

People & Websites that helped me in 2013 [thank you message]

2103 has been the most awesome year since starting Chandoo.org.

This year, more than 10 million people have visited Chandoo.org and took steps to become awesome. Every day of 2013 felt blessed, inspired and wholesome, thanks to your support, love and kindness. Thanks to my travels (USA & Malaysia), I could meet hundreds of our readers face to face and get to know them better.

Many many thanks to you for your support in 2013.

Apart from you, my reader, there are many others who helped me in the year 2013. This message is my way of thanking them.

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December 30, 2013

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2014 [Holiday Gift Inside]

Hello awesome readers of Chandoo.org,

I wish you a merry Christmas & very happy New Year 2014. May your holidays be filled with joy and warmth. And your new year with lots of hope, fun, strength and awesomeness.

I also want to tell you how thankful & fortunate I feel to have your support in this year. Your desire to learn Excel & become awesome at your work motivates me everyday to learn & share. 2013 is a memorable year in my life because of you. Thank you.

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December 23, 2013

Sporadic Totals in Excel

If this Excel problem is a Bollywood (Indian movie) plot, it would go like this:

Situation: Your boss gave you a worksheet. It has a lot of number chunks. And you need to calculate the sum of each chunk. Quickly!

Twist #1: The villain (your boss, who else) has abducted your spouse. For every extra hour you spend on the problem, your boss will make your spouse go thru one of the boring 97 slide strategy presentations. And his laptop is full of those strategy presentations.

Twist #2: The F1 key on your keyboard is missing.

Twist #3: The coffee machine in your floor is broken again.

Twist #4: And just when you are pressing CTRL+S, the movie steers in to an item song.

—-

Fortunately, no one abducted your spouse. And hopefully the coffee machine is working. But the Excel problem remains unsolved.

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December 18, 2013