Chandoo.org Wants You
Over the past 9 years Chandoo has written about 2,200 posts on all things Excel and Hui has contributed another 140 posts mostly targeted at the application of Excel techniques to real life situations.
But is this really what you want to see us write about?
So in this post we’re opening the floor to you, with a single simple question:
What would you like to see discussed in future posts in 2017 at Chandoo.org ?
Your ideas can be as specific or general as you like:
One Rule only: The Idea must involve the Functionality, Use or Application of Excel !
We cannot guarantee that your idea will result in a Post, But if you don’t ask, you won’t receive
We will do our best to schedule posts where most requested and suitable skills and time is available by authors.
So, What would you like to see discussed in future posts at Chandoo.org ?
Let us know what you’d like to see in future posts in the comments below:
85 Responses
Excel connection to SAP Data.
Are you able to some of the statistical features available? In particular a multiple regression analysis.
The regression function returns a large amount of information and a bit on how to use that information and how to interpret it could be very helpful, particularly anyone in studying or researching economics.
Also, how to identify errors after the regression has been run.
This would be extremely helpful!
some ideas
1) how to read data from various websites into excel
2) present environmental and sustainability key performance indicators in an interesting way
3) create a league table in excel
4) create a form which validates input from other data on the web (eg check a certificate number is valid from a site like http://info.fsc.org/certificate.php)
Please contact me (mgolcer@yahoo.com). I prepared a “League Table”. You input the results of games. Output comes as classification of the league. If you change the week number than you get the classification at the end of this week. You can ask a question to the program such as “what would be the classification of the league if the league was played in any N number of teams instead of all teams”. You choose the teams which combine N teams. There are also a lot more abilities of the program.
Power Query / Power Pivot / DAX and the use of Excel across Office 365 suite
I think it would be good to see post regarding Excel and how to connect to other applications.
Some examples:
Other Microsoft Office Applications
SharePoint
Adobe Acrobat
I want to learn more about the Cloud Applications.
Sequential numbers and arrays..
I’m interested in formulae generating an array of numbers which can be used in array formulae . However, some formulae unexpectedly don’t yield an array of values. I tried named formulae, INDEX and offset constructs without satisfying results. The final aim is to load an array in vba with Evaluate(formula).
At your request, I ll send a workbook. Thanks.
Hi ,
Why don’t you post this as a question in the forum , where you can upload your sample workbook ?
@Narayan
This isn’t a “How do you solve my xxx problem” post?
This post is about ideas and themes that people want to learn about in future posts in 2017 and beyond
As always if people have a “I need help with …” post they are welcome to visit the Chandoo.org Forums and start a New Thread and attach a file if required.
Hi Hui ,
A lot of posts on this blog have arisen out of questions posed in the forum.
Whether Jan wants a post on his ideas or an answer to his problem depends on him.
Whether you make a blog post out of his question , where ever it is posed , is up to you.
I am merely giving him a suggestion. It is for him to decide what he wishes to do.
Hai, if so it would be interesting to know which suggestions were taken into account and when there will be a post (rough order). Thanks.
@Jan
I will be doing a summary of responses, probably late this week but more likely next week
The summary will contains links to suitable solutions where known
Other solutions will require finding a suitable author or web site where we can learn or refer people to.
The issue is that the normal authors here don’t have for example access to a SAP system to use in developing a solutions etc
I would like to see CHANDOO in 2017 with the below areas :
Excel usage with society & daily life .
I second the database programming requests using the full range of Excel techniques. I love tables but would like to access data from relational databases within my spreadsheets.
Daily Showcase of some user-submitted models that use various functionalities. I’d love to see how other people use their knowledge of Excel to build dynamic dashboards.
I love this Idea. I think this can become a medium to showcase skills and creativity. With potential freelancing opportunity (an incentive to participate).
However, I feel daily update would be a little overwhelming. if Chandoo can manage the quality and showcase only the best of class that would be amazing.
Yeah even if its a weekly submission format, that would be amazing. We can then see how individual Excel applications can be combined to make some amazing dashboards. 🙂
This seems a great idea, particularly for dashboards, as there can various innovative ways to create dashboards for addressing common reporting/analysis requirements.
Discuss the interoperability of Excel with Google Sheets. The ability to share Excel worksheets with others over the internet and allow collaborative development and use of the workbook is very important. Google seems to have come up with a good solution by allowing me to start with Excel, then go to the Google Sheets world, work with others and then, if needed/desired, upload the Google stuff back into the Excel world.
Thank you for allow us to contribute to your world and for making ours so much better.
Relationships. Not the interpersonal kind, but between tables. I frequently have to pull small datasets from census-like datasets and link it to other small data from state and federal data. I could probably do this in MS Access, but 1) I don’t know how, 2) I have to create dashboards from pivot tables/charts that can be emailed to users who also don’t use Access, and 3) the tables are small enough that Excel seems like the right choice.
Analyzing text cells, frequency on words, phrases, sentiment…
Would love to see varying degrees of tips. Like Excel 101, 201, 301.
I love this idea. I think there’s a lot of 101 material that would go well on Chandoo, and the ability to filter posts by the level of proficiency that the reader is interested in would be really helpful. I’d love to refer my beginner friends to Chandoo, but it seems like a lot of what’s here is 200-level content.
How about a series of Excel uses aimed at senior citizens. This could include medical history records, financial/stock records, and the like. I am at a retirement community and there are many other residents with computers that have Excel. Something that encourages better use of Excel would be welcome.
To be fair there must also be Excel applications that would start youngsters on the road to awesomeness rather than playing mindless games.
Excel and Access interaction
Regular expressions and excel
Manipulating text with excel
🙂
Getting Started step by step curriculum
I would like to see more topics about using powerpivot and the interaction of excel with Microsoft Power BI and examples of the use of DAX functions
Any chance of seeing macro integration between excel and access?
I second that motion!
Dear Mr. Chandoo, My concern is to use Excel in determining point spreads for American Football that give a better than %60 chance of winning. Also could I use the program “League Table” to do the same thing? Thanks.
I would like to see more of use cases of how excel has helped simplify capturing of records and reporting based on the data captured. Users could also share their solutions for a particular use case and then Chandoo can advice a recommended approach for the same.
Dear Mr. Chandoo, can we have a function that can convert numbers into letters and also be able to handle approximation in fraction.
As far as I know Excel has not any function for this issue. I have a short program with no macro converts numbers to words in English and in Turkish languages. The biggest number it can convert is 999,999,999,999.99. If you contact me I share the program.
I would love to see more about the amazing “new” tooling which we have since Office 2010 like PowerBI, Powerpivot, powerview, DAX etc.
Thanks.
I would like to see interfaces and layouts and navigation suggestions towards to end user of my excel spreadsheets. Say you have 10 sheets but you want a modern looking Index page and layouts etc.
Oh, yeah – I’d second and third and fourth this suggestion!!
DAX !
Just to reiterate what’s already been said above: PowerPivot, Dax, and Power BI. I think with the emergence of dashboard tools I think it’s important to start focusing on this.
To start with …
What’s the most efficient way to organise data in Excel to read into Power BI to allow drill down?
Ways to get around the row limitations (maybe via CSV)?
Dear Chandoo,
I would like to see more about Excel-Powerpoint and Word relationship samples and some reviews about useful third party excel add-ins .
May be you can suggest or review some hardware for office rats like me 🙂 (ergonomic monitor , mouse, etc…).
Best Regards
Dear Chandoo,
Also i would like to see some articles about Excel-SAP relationship and formatting the raw extracted excel data which is extracted from SAP.
Best Regards
I second this! Create an integrated SAP-Excel dashboard which is automatically updated. Work in SAP, visualize in Excel Dashboard.
Addins! Please show how to create SECURE add-ins that can be distributed and/or sold such that the source code is protected and is not visible or hackable…
Real life (clear & somewhat simple) VBA examples and explanations.
I would like to see more HR related themes such as forecasting turnover depending on variables such as age, sex, position, etc
How to create Kanban board in excel with drag n drop cards.
Hi Chandoo..
love you webpage, your approach as the man to enriching others..great job you do..thank you..
as the sales manager I would like to see what and how can be analysied / visualised in Excel from sales data.
Respect,
S.
I would be interested in seeing a comparative review and the limitations of other excel alternative softwares such as LibreOffice Calc, WPS Office Sheets, Gnumeric, Spread32.
For instance I am impressed with spread32’s concatenate function’s ability to operate on a range and not just individual cell selection.
I am not sure if it’s possible to convert to a table in LibreOffice Calc.
When we type an inbuilt function in any cell, Excel pops up on the screen a help about that function.
My request is to teach us how to make a similar feature for a UDF.
I would like to convert and edit PDF table to excel
Please refer to the blog “Import Tabular Data from PDF using Power Query” posted by Mr. Matt Allington at http://exceleratorbi.com.au/import-tabular-data-pdf-using-power-query/
How to create a SIGN IN which needs a username and password to enter my USERFORM
1) How to handle recursion/recursive events in VBA?
2) Treeview/Hierarchical data structures in relation with the first question
Hi Hui,
Good day…
Chandoo.org have covered all most all the topics in detail, and we have learned all the things here.
But since you have opened the floor, I would like to avail this opportunity to learn more about AGGREGATE function, specially with 2 or more conditions (sum or max), I have seen a lot of example at the forum, specially using AGGREGATE function to avoid Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
Regards,
VBA created forms – how to dynamically add check boxes/radio buttons, how to adjust their size based on wording length, how to add OK/Cancel buttons programmatically.
I think for Small Businesses
Using Excel
Data entry Form
Storing Data using Excel
Searching data using Excel
How to build a fully functional Media Player embedded in an Excel file.
Protecting worksheets and vba workbooks effectively.
I mean, anyone with a hex editor can get in; but a guide to making it as hard as possible.
Excel web app would be great since everything is “Online” now. Embedding Excel as you can see on (my newly created website) may offer a quick way to share our workbook easily.
Publishing spreadsheets that are (at least mostly) automated for daily/monthly updates:
– connections to other data sources
– Power BI/Query
– methods of publishing/distribution
Statistical analysis for people with only basic knowledge of statistics. Ex. clustering to find customers who are “similar” in their purchasing patterns. Ex2. analyzing data that’s not a Normal distribution.
Methods of gathering user feedback via XL: Ex. sending a list of customers for review, asking for updates on specific fields (like price level or market segment) based on included data.
How to open PDF file data into excel.
I would like to see the best options to present Excel created charts and tables in MS PowerPoint without linking to a file, when presentation is emailed out to a group.
More Power Pivot and Power Query.
Fewer videos. I read my RSS feed, but don’t have the time to watch videos. Text is also more searchable from my mail client.
can there be an excel quiz or a workbook? i am a beginner and have to understand where to apply all this excel knowledge! there must be ways(quiz/fun Q & A kind of forum) that could sharpening the excel basics and standard everyday businness templates that i might need.when i need it, it would be easier for me to recall and use it .
Eg: my dad is having trouble understanding the startup costs for his new business, i could set up a template for him. or have him take your quiz to be confident.
I would like to see full discussion on the use of both (Indirect) and (Address) formulas
I’d like tutorials on template creation in Excel. I really would like more information on how to create useful Excel templates.
Thanks Chandoo.
How about an Excel for Moron Managers study?? You know the kind where we have to create some type of report in Excel for our managers who have all the technical skill of a brick and constantly need us to hold their hands to the mouse to get them to click… :^)
Ok – maybe just a bit joking.
I create tutorials on template creation for PowerPoint but am at loss w.r.t how to do Excel ones and the formulas that I see in some of the calendar templates. So yeah, I’d like a few template creation tutorials for Excel. 🙂 And yeah templates would also help the uninitiated Excel user just copy and paste into already formatted nifty re-usable templates.
I think we should work without indirect function.
Because i don’t want to open the number of files for that.
I would love to see a discussion on “Excel and Sharepoint”
Hai, I’m interested in learning more about table driven approaches for generating names, UI interfaces and more. Hui used one for generating names in the pendulum miracle.
Also:VBA interaction between Excel and Access.
Thanks.
Hello,
I would like to see VBA codes and Powerpivote intersection.
Hi, I want more and more posts and templates on Budgeting and Expense, Income and Savings Tracking. Detailed, complex and comprehensive reports with charts and analytical reports on daily, monthly, Annual and multiple years data generated with different excel tools and formulas.
Please share useful dashboards for Information Technology industries like Invoice Dashboard, Executive Dashboards which helps Top Management to take good decisions.
Hello Chandoo..
Thank you so very much for checking what people wanted.
These days Robotics are killing VBA skills i belive…which is one step head of automations..
So need to prove Excel vba which is fav of millions and billions is not less then of any Robotics tools like…Blueprism, Automation anywhere and UIpath..
Thanks
Monty
It would be better if I had written this before Christmas as this was a great time waster for me.
Use Excel to solve “Aristotle’s Number Problem” -see http://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/invt/cmcn439400 -each ‘row’, whether 3, 4 or 5 tiles, must add up to the same number.
Will like to see how to efficiently use:
1. Power Query
2. Link Excel to Access and Vice-versa for importing and exporting charts and tables
3. Use solver add-in for regression and other analysis.
4. use excel sheets in browsers and how to utilize SharePoint for excel
lastly: how to read PDF data directly in excel – using VBA
Dear Chandoo,
Please note that I have been working in Excel file contains two times of our teammates who claims overtime an each calendar month
My excel file as like this :-
ROW 1 Days of Month
ROW 2 Date of Month
Cell -1 [Time IN], cell -2 [Time OUT] no break in our factory and anything after Eight hours assume as overtime as standard in all across.
Appreciate if you could help me in providing the best an Exclusive Excel formula to calculate each day overtime excluding staff eight hours regular duty and Friday consider as full day overtime.
Kindly help me at the earliest convenience.
awaiting for your expertise………….
Best Regards / Ikram Siddiqui
Daylight savings time conversions: I have been given a list of records of transactions. Name, Address, City, State, Country, Postal Code, and sales transactions columns.
One of those sales transaction columns is a SaleDate column formatted in ISO 8601 format.
Example: 2016-01-12T05:40:06Z
Goal: the date needs to be formatted as MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM AM/PM **AND** adjusted to reflect the proper timezone **AND** also adjusted for either daylight savings time observation or standard time – for each address as well as converted to local time.
So if the address is in New York City then the adjusted ISO time for the example above would show:
2016-01-12 05:40:06 UTC
and since the date is the 12th day of January, it is in “standard time” so the final, local, format of the date will become:
2016-01-12 00:40:06 EST (UTC-5)
If the date was 2016-04-19T00:28:57Z then the final date would be 2016-04-18 20:28:57 EDT (UTC-4) reflecting the local date AND daylight savings time being in effect (EDT) for that NYC address.
I can do this manually but I have over 10,000 records. I have tried to create a VBA function but I am lost. How do I / where do I find information about local timezone adjustment and daylight savings time adjustments for a particular address anywhere in the world? The data has a variety of addresses from around the globe. The task became overwhelming so I have begun to do it manually. 🙁
Would love to see any ideas on this sort of data conversion…
Please visit http://radacad.com/power-query-not-for-bi-event-date-and-time-scheduler-part-1. I think it’s what you wanted.
Wow, thank you. This looks fantastic!
Dear Chandoo
You are doing a great job by helping others to add new skills and tricks in Excel but now you should also focus on google sheets. Google sheets being an online platform adds a new dimension for the user specially if he wants it to share / collaborate with others. One can even create a small online database for small business without spending even a penny.
Regards
hello,
I would love it if you could find a VBA solution for the error that arises from overlapping pivot tables. There must be some code to handle automatic spacing to, for example, 1-2 rows.
Than you.
Is it possible to record time changes on website?
what i mean is, on our office, we have an intranet website that we use to login and logout. I want to record the changes on the website so that i can track the time that I’m logged in and logged out as it is the basis on how we could get paid. Once I gather the time data, i would be able to create a table that i will use to add the time that im logged in.
I appreciate your response excel masters. Thanks.