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Latest Tips & Tutorials

Make 1,200 dinosaurs in no time with Excel [formulas]

It seems spreadsheets & dinosaurs on a collision course. How else can you explain Jon’s XKCD Velociraptor problem solved with Excel and now this. Debby, alert reader of our blog sent me this email yesterday.

I need an algebraic formula to solve this in Excel

I have 5 heads, 5 bodies, 4 arm sets, 4 leg sets and 3 tails. I need to see if I can create 1000 dinosaurs from these, and if that’s too many AND I need the 5 digit groupings to prove it and create them.
basically Xa*Xb*Xc*Xd*Xe=1000 – I’m not supposed to go over 1200. […] And then I want the 5 digit combinations if possible – right now they are trying to do the combinations by hand – would be awesome if we could do it in Excel.

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January 29, 2016

Format charts quickly with chart styles & color themes [quick tip]

Here is a quick tip to reduce the time you spend on chart formatting – use chart styles & color themes.

Excel offers various pre-defined color schemes and chart styles. Using them is very simple.

Select your chart
Go to Chart Design ribbon
Click on the style or color scheme you want.
Your chart changes instantly.

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January 27, 2016

Transpose this address data [VBA homework]

Here is an interesting problem to keep you busy.

Transpose the address data in column A into the format indicated in C:G using either VBA, formulas or Power Query. Once done, post your answers in comments section.

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January 16, 2016

Don’t make your charts heavier than they should be – The weight of the world chart [case study]

Here is an interesting chart from Economist, ironically titled The weight of the world. Can you tell what is wrong with it?

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January 13, 2016

VLOOKUP FAQs - Frequently asked questions about Excel VLOOKUP formula

Chandoo.org Podcast Sessions

CP051: VLOOKUP FAQs – Most frequently asked questions about VLOOKUP – Answered

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

In the 51st session of Chandoo.org podcast, let’s discuss most frequently asked questions about VLOOKUP.

What is in this session?

In this podcast,

What is VLOOKUP?
What happens when VLOOKUP can’t find the value?
Should my list be sorted?
Is VLOOKUP slower than INDEX + MATCH?
What if my list has multiple matches?
How to fetch 2nd / 3rd matching item?
How to fetch all matching items?
How to fetch items matching multiple conditions?
How to speed up VLOOKUP?
Why doesn’t my VLOOKUP work?
What to do in case of errors?
Resources for you

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January 7, 2016

How can I help you in 2016? [Survey]

A very happy new year to you. May 2016 be your most awesome year yet.

This year too I plan to share tutorials, tips, podcasts & videos to make you awesome. I hope to focus on

Excel 2016 – exploring new features
Power BI – What is it, how does it make you awesome.
Write a sequel to The VLOOKUP Book.
Launch a new online course on Power BI & New Excel.
Run 2 more batches of 50 ways to analyze data program in Feb & July 2016.
Run another dashboard contest on Chandoo.org
Write about awesome ways to work with data – formulas, charts, tables, pivots etc.
Talk about many advanced and work specific Excel scenarios in the podcast

But wait, what do you want to learn more…?

While these are my plans, I want to make sure Chandoo.org helps you the best. So please take a minute and answer this one question survey.

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January 5, 2016

2016 Calendar, daily planner Excel templates [free downloads]

Here is a New year gift to all our readers – free 2016 Excel Calendar & daily planner Template.

This calendar 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 4, 2016

Best of Chandoo.org – 2015

2015 has been the busiest year since starting Chandoo.org.

Wow, that is 12 years of breaking previous records. Thank you.

In 2015, we published 124 posts (down 3% YoY), received 6,300+ comments (up 5%). Our forum too had busy year with 1000s of new members and 5,000+ new threads. Chandoo.org podcast continued to shine, we had 24 episodes this year and reached the 50 episode milestone. Our podcast episodes has been downloaded more than 900,000 so far since launch (in March 2014) with 600,000+ downloads this year alone!!!

Fun fact: People have spent 6.8 million minutes in 2015 listening to Chandoo.org podcast. (assuming only 50% of downloads materialized to listens)

We have trained more than 1,800 people thru my online classes – Excel School, VBA Classes & 50 ways to analyze data program.

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December 31, 2015