Export iPhone contacts to Excel using this free template
Recently my iPhone 4 crashed. It is 3.5 years old. And just like any other 3 year old, it started acting weird & crazy one night. The next morning it went silent. It won’t go beyond the Apple logo whenever I start it. Since I couldn’t wait for the phone to start, I took out the SIM card (the phone is unlocked, if you are wondering) and placed it in my old Nokia phone. But alas, none of my contacts are on the SIM. They are in “cloud”.
After a day of answering phone calls from everyone including my mom as “Chandoo here”, I’ve decided to get my contacts back. So I logged in to iCloud to download a backup. And the backup was a .VCF file.
Since I wanted to have all my contact numbers in a spreadsheet, I did what any Excel nerd would do. I built a template that can convert VCF data to Excel worksheet.
Can you calculate the sales commission? [homework]
Imagine you run a cute little pastry in Rome (Italy). To boost the sales you have a 2 person sales team. Caterina & Antonio. Caterina is the manager & Antonio, her assistant. Apart from basic salary, they will also receive sales commission. This comes from a portion of net profit allocated to “incentive pool”. The […]
Open & Save files faster in Excel 2013 [quick tip]
Excel 2013, the newest version of Excel as of writing this has many great features like data modeling, improved pivot tables, power view, flash fill etc. But one thing that I find very annoying is the Open & Save experience. Any time we open a file or save a workbook (which happens alot everyday), we must navigate the painful backstage screen to select our favorite folders. You see, Excel 2013 supports cloud saving. So that means, by default it will show your Office 365 or OneDrive or SkyDrive or whatever fancy new name Microsoft has for these things. But I am not so much in to clouding. Heck, I see a passing cloud in the sky and I almost run inside my house. So what to do?
Simple. We can turn off these features.
Looking up when data won’t play nice – few more alternatives
Recently, we discussed about the case of unwieldy data and how we lookup what we want using formulas like SUMIFS. Today, let us learn few more ways to solve the same problem.
Suitable structure spawns simple solutions
Poorly structured is the 2nd biggest problem of analysts. The first one is not enough coffee. That is why there is a dictum in the data analytics world.
Structure is everything
So, we can easily solve our lookup problem, if our data were to magically re-arranged in 2 column fashion – Data & Value.
CP025: Sexy on spreadsheet, Ugly on Printout
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In the 25th session of Chandoo.org podcast, let’s learn how to avoid SSUP syndrome.
What is in this session?
Most of us suffer from Sexy on the Spreadsheet, Ugly on Printout syndrome. I used to suffer from it too. This happens because we spend all our attention creating that perfect workbook, report or model. And then, we forget about making the proper print settings.
In this podcast, let’s understand how to create awesome workbooks that look great and print great.
In this podcast, you will learn,
- Frozen & Cars, where my free time goes
- Primer on print settings
- Width & height of printouts
- Page breaks
- Row & column repetitions on every page
- Size & orientation of paper
- Dealing with unprintables
- Proofing your print settings
- Printing whats not on screen
- Closing thoughts
Ready to use Excel Dashboard Templates – Official Trailer
Hello folks,
Its almost ready. Our ready to use Excel dashboard templates are coming to a spreadsheet near you on November 13th.
Here is a teaser preview of the dashboards. Our own official trailer, rated A for awesome.
Watch it below:
http://youtu.be/2-TvjpEKf-o
(see it on our YouTube Channel, alternative link)
Excel Dashboard Templates – What are they?
As the name suggests, these a set of workbooks where you can key in your data, set up how you want the looks & bam, a beautiful, insightful, fun, easy to use dashboard pops right out. All in few minutes.
Here is how these templates can help you:
- Design awesome dashboards in minutes, not months: Don’t waste hours trying to figure out formulas, chart settings and layouts. Instead focus on what your users want, how your business works and use those insights to tell the ‘Excel Dashboard Template’ what you want. Save time and look awesome.
- Accommodate change elegantly: People change. Businesses change. What your boss wanted last month is no longer what she wants today. So when someone asks you, “hmm, can you show me YTD data instead of last 13 months”, or “Can I see top 10 KPIs instead of all”, you just smile and tap a few clicks and bingo, the new dashboard will be ready. These templates are designed to handle change (data, requirements, design preferences and insights).
- Customize everything: Unlike a template set in stone, these are designed to let you customize almost every little aspect of the output, calculations and behavior.
- Beautiful & Informative: These templates are designed with a delicate balance of beauty & insight. Everything is seamlessly designed, perfectly aligned and precisely calculated so that you & your boss can focus on the insights & decisions. Time tested and well honored visualization principles & guidelines are observed thru-out the reports.
- Built for starters, built for pros: Whether you are just starting with Excel or a seasoned pro, you can find the templates right up your alley. For advanced users, we have many customizations to whet your appetite. Want to build a custom calculation or include another type of sorting, you can do it by tinkering with ‘calculations’ sheet.
Looking up when the data won’t co-operate (case study)
Occasionally we deal with data that is so uncooperative that we might as well give up and go back to calculators & ledger books.
Recently I found myself in such a situation and learned something new.
Introducing … data that won’t play nice
Drum roll please. Here is a data-set that I got from somewhere.
The problem – build a lookup formula
And the problem. Oh, simple. Write a lookup formula to find how many customer walk-ins we have on any given day.
But how?