Adding every other cell in a column with =SUM(MOD…

Administrator — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:05:00 GMT

Abstract:

Past Tip of the Day

Jenny asks "Is there a quick way of adding every other cell ?, I have a column of about 250 cells, and I have to select them manually using Ctrl. Can you help ?"

Jenny, this is a matter of using a little math to remember how to determine if a number is even or is odd, and then translate that into the formula.

The formula
=MOD(A1,2)
would return 0 if the number is even and 1 if odd. If we use instead of A1, the ROW() function, we can know if a particular row is even or odd. Now, suppose you're trying to calculate this formula

=A1+A3+A5+A7+A9 ... etc.
or this one
=SUM(A1,A3,A5,A7...)

=SUM((MOD(ROW(A1:A250)-ROW(A1),2)=0)*(A1:A250))

Remember, this is a CSE Formula, to enter it you must press at the same time Control Shift Enter, instead of just Enter as regular formulas.

You can also use this non-array formula

=SUMPRODUCT((MOD(ROW(A1:A250)-ROW(A1),2)=0)*(A1:A250))

By Juan Pablo Gonzalez on 24-Jan-2002

MrExcel.com Consulting can be hired to implement this concept, or many other cool applications, with your data.

Resource: MrExcel.com provides examples of Visual Basic procedures for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. The Visual Basic procedures on this web site are provided "as is" and we do not guarantee that they can be used in all situations.

Add a Trendline to a Chart

Administrator — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:42:00 GMT

Abstract:

Add a Trendline to a Chart

Many know how to use Excel to chart existing data. It is also possible to have Excel automatically add a trend line to show the slope of data points. In this chart, I've been using Ron Martin's Weight Loss Tracker for 3 weeks. The green line is actual data and the straight black line is where I would have needed to be in order to hit my goal for the month.

It struck me that the green line is trending downward, but not as quickly as I would like. I wanted to do a quick forecast to see where I would be at the end of the month if I continued at the historical rate. Luckily, Excel provides the ability to do this in 3 mouse clicks.

Right-click the green data series in the chart. From the pop-up menu, select "Add Trendline...".

In the Add Trendline dialog, there are 6 types of trendlines available. In this case, I am assuming a linear trend, so I click OK.

Instantly, Excel projects a trendline and adds it to the chart.

This trendline indicates that based on my prior results, I will miss my goal for the month.

The default trendline is drawn in basic black. If you want to change the appearance of the trendline, right-click the trendline and choose Format Trendline.

The Format Trendline dialog is like the Add Trendline dialog. A new "Format" tab allows you to change the color and linestyle.

The

Investing Full-Time is Overrated

Administrator — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:27:00 GMT

Abstract: Investing Full-Time is Overrated
by Alan Brymer

I’ve been investing in real estate full-time since I graduated from college five years ago. I guess you could say I did it part-time while I was also juggling college classes, homework, papers, and another student job. Now it only takes me an hour or so per day, so you tell me how to classify it now – full time? Part time? Who cares? I’m doing what I want to do with my life and I encourage everyone to do the same, whatever that may be.

At any rate, I’ve met a lot of investors who are itching to get to the point where they are making enough money in real estate that they can quit their 9 to 5 and invest full-time. This seems like the American Dream, but I will play Devil’s Advocate and be the one guy to point out the less glamorous side of investing full-time:

1) Living off your investments is not the same as retiring early. I’m all for retiring early, but real estate is an active investment. It has been described as a second job. I refer to it as running a business. It can be a very lucrative business, but for the most part it is going to require time and effort to stay on top of things. And in many ways, running a business is more stressful, with more responsibilities, risks, and obligations than having a job.

2) Say goodbye to any and all job benefits. Because I am self-employed, I had to pay cold hard cash each time we had a baby, about $5000 - $6,000 each time, in addition to our regular monthly insurance premiums. What a joke! Our health insurance did not pay for a doggone thing. Meanwhile, my sister and everyone around me paid $25 here, $30 there for doctor’s office co-pays, and nothing more. The echoes of my grinding teeth can still be heard in distant parts of the earth.

Now, of course, if your business is making money hand over fist, you might think $5,000 here and there is no big deal, but I can virtually guarantee that these kinds of bills will come

Is Your Real Estate Investing Comfort Zone Being Threatened?

Administrator — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Abstract:

Is Your Real Estate Investing Comfort Zone Being Threatened?
by Ben Innes-Ker

Have you ever imagined yourself putting through a multi-million dollar deal, going to closing and picking up a check with six zeros? It's the ultimate dream for real estate investors. But why must it be a dream when it can just as easily be a reality. Every day there are real estate investors making offers on high end houses just as there are real estate investors making offers on median price range houses and below. There are just a lot fewer going after the big game.

High dollar houses naturally instill fear in real estate investors as they feel if they make a mistake they will be sued for hundreds of thousands. Real estate investors perceive they need perfect credit, a high net worth and millions of dollars already to buy million dollar houses, so they exclude themselves as buyers and don't pursue high end deals. Most real estate investors feel they don't deserve to buy a million dollar house or to be talking with the people that own them. They have a self image that equates themselves with lower price range houses and the people that own them, so those are the houses they pursue.

All of these reasons are fear in one form or another, and none of them are real. The beings that own high end houses are people, and they get divorced, lose their jobs, go out of business, make stupid mistakes, have bad financial management, and do all of the things that result in financial distress and necessitate a quick sale. The high dollar properties they own are real estate, just like the two bedroom one bath house in the median price range neighborhood, It can be put under contract, optioned, or creatively financed just like any other house in any other price range.

But real estate investors avoid them, and in doing so, prevent their most heartfelt dreams from coming true. The key point all real estate entrepreneurs and investors must understand i

Pooling Private Money

Administrator — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:21:00 GMT

Abstract:

Pooling Private Money
by Alan Cowgill

When you pool money from private lenders, you're putting funds together from two or more different private lenders.

You obviously need to look at doing something different where your state's paperwork is concerned. This means you will need to file paperwork with your state and provide a disclosure document to your potential private lenders.

In Ohio, for example, we have what is known as 6(A)1 filing. This filing allow for pooling private lenders' money in running your real-estate investment business.

This filing also allows advertising and unlimited private lenders.

Remember, securities laws and regulations vary from state to state and the Federal SEC has its own set of laws and regulations.

Pooling money occurs when you combine funds from two or more different private lenders.

You should use or form a new business entity. You should choose a corporation (which could be an S-corporation) or an LLC. Some states have different filings available depending upon whether you have a corporation or an LLC, and LLC's are sometimes treated as partnerships. Most states won't allow you to pool money when you're operating as a sole proprietorship or DBA.

You cannot use your state's exemption for real-estate transactions, similar to Ohio's 3(H) exemption, when you pool lenders together. You can not use this particular exemption because there is no paperwork involved. In Ohio, you must "upgrade" to the 6(A)1 form, which allows pooling. All states have similar paperwork levels.

You should use one of your state's filings that allow for pooling money. As an example, Ohio has a number of these filings available, such as a 6(A)1.

These filings require you to fill out paperwork, informing the state regulator about your business and what you're doing. It usually requires you to disclose information to your potential private lenders, which

Looking for Value in a Bear Market

Administrator — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:20:00 GMT

Abstract:

Looking for Value in a Bear Market

Sweet Honey in the Rock?

By Lynn Carpenter

Years ago, my friend Bob Meier told me that bears start every bull market. Sounded strange. But it’s true.

Bulls push rallies farther and higher on big hopes, but they’re not the ones to start them. But bulls are like adolescents. They don’t handle adversity well. And just about the time the bulls are upset because they aren’t going to make 40% a year, the bears are smelling honey in those trees. They are seeing stocks that should go up 15% to 20% and priced at half to two-thirds of their fair value.

But how does a bear know what the fair value is?

Because the market has standards and traditions. Bears are the ones who know them.

For instance, you have heard that the normal historical P/E for the stock market in the United States is 15. Good research shows that it is actually around 16 (Jeremy Siegel) to 17 (Ned Davis). It swings around those numbers, not often much lower, but in recent years a lot higher.

And today the P/E ratio for the S&P based on the last four quarters’ earnings (the trailing 12 months or ttm) is only 10. It hasn’t been this low since the early1980s. Right before the last great bull market.

Things are just as deeply discounted on other valuation scales. The price to sales ratios for the NYSE and Nasdaq average 0.85 today. That implies almost everything is a great bargain because a ratio of 1.0 is considered a strong value. Most of the time, this ratio is closer to 1.2 to 1.5 and it sometimes goes much higher.

Price to book value? It is actually 1.0 for Nasdaq and 1.5 for the S&P 500. The implies that most companies are now selling for the replacement cost of their assets or exactly what shareholders have invested in the company. The S&P’s price to book ratio is usually over 2.0, and a ratio of 4.0 is not uncommon because

Project Communications: How to Keep Your Team Engaged and Informed

Administrator — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:06:00 GMT

Abstract:

Project Communications: How to Keep Your Team Engaged and Informed

By Dave Nielsen

Communications are a critical deliverable of every successful project and a key project management soft-skill. You may not have thought of communications as an actual project deliverable, but it is. It may not be the one your client or customer places the most emphasis on, but that's because every client and customer will take good communications for granted.

Project communications is one deliverable that you are personally responsible for and it's one that has a large influence over your project's success or failure. I say this because personal experience has taught me that the best managed projects, delivering on all their promises, on time, and on budget can still get a bad reputation and be perceived as failures. The reason: the project manager did not do an adequate job of communicating project success to their stakeholders.

We hope that the information and template in this section will help guide you to choose the right information, schedule, and communication vehicles for your project.

The Major Elements of Project Communications

Who to communicate to...

You could just say that it's important to communicate with all the project's stakeholders and leave it at that, but this approach would guarantee failure. Each individual stakeholder has a different set of requirements for project information, and prefers different ways of receiving their communications. It will not be possible to define a unique set of communications and communication vehicles for each stakeholder in most projects, so the best you can do is identify the different category of stakeholder and define the required information and communication methods that best suits the group.

Executive Sponsor/Business Sponsor

Probably the most important customer(s) of

Forex Trading - a Simple Way to Increase Forex Profits Dramatically!

Administrator — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:37:00 GMT

Abstract:

Forex Trading - a Simple Way to Increase Forex Profits Dramatically!

Author: Sonia Kristina

Enclosed you will find a tip which if you learn and apply it will boost your profit potential and decrease the time you spend on your forex trading strategy...

The tip is based on the well known 80 - 20 rule, which applies in many areas of life and that includes Forex trading.

The 80- 20 Rule in Forex

The rule simply states that - 80% of your profits will come from just 20% of your efforts.

In business sales, it's well known that 80% of sales are generated from 20% of the clients, in Forex trading a similar ratio applies and generally, 80% of your profits will come from just 20% of your trades. So to make more money and increase the odds of success in less time, you simply need to trade less.

How Often to Trade?

Most novice traders over trade, as they want to be in on the action, or their frightened they may miss a move - but I know traders, who trade less than once a month and make triple digit annual gains.

Getting the Odds on Your Side

Forex markets are not a market of certainties, they are a market of probabilities and the way to win is - to get the odds on your side and be on the right side of the big moves.

You cannot force these high probability set ups to come!

You need to wait for them to emerge and then trade them. Most traders think the more they trade and the more effort they make, the more money they will make. This is not true - forex markets don't reward you for hard work or trading a lot, they reward you for being right and that's it.

Catching and Holding the Long Trends for Big Profits

Take a look at any forex chart and you will see how long the big trends last and its months and in some cases years as these trends reflect the economic fundamentals which change very slowly.

So just lock into and hold these tr

Commercial Hard Money Loans – Best Scenario

Administrator — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:21:00 GMT

Abstract:

Commercial Hard Money Loans – Best Scenario

Author: Jeff rauth

One of the best scenarios for commercial hard money loans is when the borrower has an opportunity that he knows he will make a substantial amount of money on, needs to move on it immediately, and regardless of the fees the hard money lender charges. With this scenario the profit the borrower will make will easily offset the fees the borrower has to pay to the commercial hard money lender.

Commercial Hard Money Loan - Scenario 1

For example, we have recently worked with a borrower that had an opportunity to purchase a fleet of trucks for his business at a 50% discount. Total purchase price on the trucks was just over a million dollars with a value over $2,000,000. On the commercial hard money loan the borrower had to pay 3% in fees in order to get the loan or $30,000, to be able to save over a $1,000,000 of needed trucks for his business. He collateralizes the commercial hard money loan with his building and was able to close in 3 weeks. So $30,000 in fees to save over a $1,000,000…

Commercial Hard Money Loan - Scenario 2

Another similar example is when a borrower wants to purchase a property from a distressed seller at a substantial discount. Typically the seller can’t wait 60 to 90 days to close a conventional commercial real estate loan and instead needs to close in a few weeks or will not offer the discount.

So say the property is really worth $2,000,000 but the seller has agreed to $1,500,000 a $500,000 discount. The buyer would get a commercial hard money loan at 60% of the purchase price or a loan amount of $900,000 and pay say 5% or $45,000 in fees to the commercial hard money lender. So the borrower would save $455,000 by taking advantage of the opportunity. In this case most borrower wouldn’t care (at least that much) about paying the commercial hard money lender their points because of the amount of money they make

How Your Portfolio Will Recover

Administrator — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:33:00 GMT

Abstract: How Your Portfolio Will Recover
By Chuck Saletta
The market has fallen by 40% from its highs a year ago, but that doesn't mean you'll never again make money investing.
If anything, the Wall Street Panic of 2008 means you have an even better chance of seeing some extraordinary long-term returns.
Winners through the crashes
In the past 25 years, there have been at least three major market corrections:
Black Monday in 1987.
The bursting of the dot-com bubble from 2000 to 2002.
The bursting of the subprime and credit bubbles in 2008.
In each one, investors racked up significant paper losses (and realized them, if they sold low) as the market crashed. Yet investors also racked up significant gains coming out of each of the market corrections. Why? Three reasons.
Cheaper stock prices mean you can buy more shares of good companies for every dollar you spend. Since stock prices are based on the market's perception of a company's future performance, the overall pessimism works in your favor.
Because share prices are low, reinvesting dividends (which don't fluctuate with share price) boosts your investment even further, because each reinvested dividend buys more shares.
When market sentiment returns to a more even keel, bringing share prices up with it, you'll see the best returns from the shares you bought at the lowest prices.
In other words, the more the overall market has been hammered, the better your chances of profiting as it recovers.
Let's revisit door No. 2
That market crashes are good times to buy in isn't news -- we've all heard the adage "buy low and sell high." But the part dividends play in this story isn't as well-known.
Because dividends are based on a

The Perils of Being in 3D

Administrator — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:06:00 GMT
Abstract:
The Perils of Being in 3D
by Jon Peltier
Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright ©right; 2008. All rights reserved.
Whenever I am faced with a 3D chart I think of the song lyric I’ve used as the title of this post, taken from Pardon Me by Incubus. I also think of the following chart, which was submitted by thiswasmyclone to the b3ta challenge: graphs. (I didn’t add a hyperlink, because I didn’t want to make it too easy to waste your time, but the link is at http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/graphs/popular/, copy and paste at your own risk.)
I always tell people to avoid using charts with 3D effects, and they wonder why. I’ll use an example from the Mr Excel forum to illustrate much that is wrong with 3D charts. The Mr Excel thread, Excel Chart - stacked column to chart progress, dealt with ways to show progress towards a goal, where the progress consists of a sum of items. One suggestion was to use a stacked column with 3D effects. Some sample data is shown below, along with my best reconstruction of the 3D chart offere

Is it possible to "Crash-Proof" your Portfolio?

Administrator — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:16:00 GMT
Abstract:
Wish YOU had gotten Out at the Top of the Market?
Is it possible to "Crash-Proof" your Portfolio?
by Tim McMahon
With the recent 5% tumble in one month in both the NYSE and the NASDAQ, I've begun thinking about protecting my portfolio from the downside. In an effort to keep you fully invested at all times investment advisors are quick to quote statistics like, "By missing just the best 10 days in the market between 1997 and 2006, an investor's annualized return would be cut by more than half" but they fail to mention that the NASDAQ peaked in 2000 at around 4700 and is currently at about half of that or 2372. So if you bought near the peak and held the NASDAQ for the last 7 years, it has resulted in a 50% loss.
So I began looking for systems that would profit during both up and down markets and I remembered a system I read about years ago...
Basically, there are three types of markets, up markets (bull markets), down markets (bears), and flat markets. Now of course the market is never perfectly flat, it always goes up and down but if the downs generally equal the ups, in the end you are back where you started (and I would consider that a flat market).
So is there a system that will handle all of these markets and profit no matter which of them we are currently in. The answer is that I think there is. The market trends up about 70% of the time, that is why perpetual bears end up losing in the long run. So we want a system that will profit on the upside. But at least 10% of the time the market is moving down (and often more sharply than it went up) so we want to profit during that time too. And finally it would be nice to be able to profit when the market is just bouncing along going nowhere really.
There is an old quote that says, "a rising tide lifts all boats" in other words in a strongly rising market it doesn't matter which stock you own because they all go up. But some go

How to Invest for Safety

Administrator — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:04:00 GMT
Abstract:
How to Invest for Safety
Wish YOU had gotten Out at the Top of the Market?
There are many ways to invest and you need to understand all the tools at your disposal in order to invest safely and wisely. In this article Steve McDonald explores an area of the market that has been ignored in recent years but should be better understood by investors today in order to protect their portfolios. -- editor
Safety First – What 25 Years in the Markets Have Taught Me
By Steve McDonald
When things get really bad in the market, I like to look back at the almost 19 years I have spent carving a living out of it. It helps me ignore the panic.
There was a time when people talked about something other than the stock market. The market was considered taboo for most. Too risky. Too foreign. The generation of the Great Depression put their money in the bank. Some still kept it in cans buried under the front porch.
In the early eighties something totally new appeared on the investing horizon: the IRA. Life has never been the same.
It seems impossible that they have been around for less than 25 years. But, there was a time when people didn’t invest in mutual funds, stocks or options. IRA’s changed all that.
For the first time in the history of the markets the average guy had enough long-term money to venture into stocks, the sacred land of the gurus. There was an explosion of investors who poured their money into areas they knew almost nothing about. The result was stock market averages sky rocketing to levels unimaginable to even the most optimistic.
2,000 on the Dow – earth shattering. 3,000 – in the stratosphere. 14,000 plus? You would have been laughed off Wall Street f

Pros and cons of indirect investing

Administrator — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:20:00 GMT
Abstract:
Pros and cons of indirect investing
By: WilliamKing
Investing indirectly means purchasing shares of companies that hold large portfolios of securities on behalf of their share holders. Indirect investing is a great opportunity for those who are willing to start investing with a small amount, having no previous knowledge or experience of stock market’s ups and downs. You can decide if indirect investing is the right choice for you after examining the following features.
Level of Risk:
Although mutual funds are managed by qualified professionals and experts, no expert can guarantee a profit on every investment made. There are many uncontrollable variables involved and then there is always a chance of “something” unpredictable happening, normally referred to as “the great unknown”. Mutual funds can be divided into different categories on basis of risk, for example “hybrid fund” being less risky while “specialized stock funds” falling in the high risk – high return category.
Professional Management:
Probably the biggest advantage of indirect investment is the fact that these investment companies have experts specializing in investment analysis and portfolio management. These companies always stand a better chance for positive yields as compared to a common man who barely knows about financial markets. If you are just starting, you should go for these companies. You can always move your funds elsewhere later on.
Extra Charges:
Investment companies do not provide this high quality portfolio management services for free. Of course they charge for these services. Also, most of these companies run excessive marketing and sales campaign because of competition. Some part of this expense is also charged from investors, known as sales load.
Discount & Premiums:
Net asset value of Investment Company’s share keep going up and down based on company’s performance. In case of close-e

Application Events

Administrator — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:24:00 GMT
Abstract: Application Events
This page describes how to work with Application Events.
Introduction
If you program VBA using events and event procedures (see this page for information about working with events), you may find Application level events useful. I would very strongly recommend that you read the Events And Event Procedures page prior to working with Application events.
Application events and their related event procedures are very much like events of the Workbook object or the Worksheet object. The only real difference is that there is no built in container for the application events, as there is for Workbook events (ThisWorkbook) and for Worksheet events (the Sheet modules). You must use an existing object module such as ThisWorkbook or create a dedicated class module to handle events. Neither approach, using an existing module or creating a dedicated module, has any real advantage over the other. I tend to use a separate class module for Application events so the code is modular and separated by function into separate modules. You may use which ever method your prefer.

The CALL Function

Administrator — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:17:00 GMT
Abstract:
The CALL Function
This page was written by Laurent Longre, and is included on my site at his request and with his kind permission. I have made some minor changes in formatting and spelling.

NOTE: The CALL function has been disabled in Excel 2000, because it represented a very serious security risk. This page refers to Excel 97 only, not Excel 2000 or Excel 2002.

The CALL function
The following formulas are based on the CALL function. CALL, inherited from Excel 3/4, allows you to use DLL functions directly in worksheets.
Syntax :

=CALL(dll_name,function_name,type_string,arg1,...,argN)

Where
dll_name is the name of the DLL that contains the function. This name must contain a full path if the DLL file is not located in the Windows folder, the System folder or a folder named in the PATH environment string.
function_name is name of the function.
type_string is a text string specifying the data type of the returned value and the data types of all arguments to the DLL. The first letter of type_str

Successful Database Migration

Administrator — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:32:00 GMT
Abstract: Successful Database Migration
by Alex Polishchuk
One of the issues that companies are facing in their operations is database migration to new hardware, or a different operating system platform, or even a new database vendor. There are many steps and factors involved in this process. This article will describe the overall process and interviews with companies that went through this process.
According to a recent Bloor Research survey, the data migration market is estimated to be over $5 billion and growing. Companies perform their database migration in many different ways, such as extract-transform-load (ETL), replication, and manual scripts. This task gets more complex as the data volume grows on one hand and available downtime is shrinking on the other one.
Statistics presented in “Data Migration in the Global 2000” by Bloor Research in September 2007 shows the following picture:
16 percent of data migration portion of projects were successful
37 percent had budget overruns
64 percent were not delivered on time
Migration has to be carefully planned and executed to minimize production downtime and maintain data integrity and database performance, because many companies have locations worldwide and have to be operational 24x7.
Our interviews with people from a wide range of industries on the topic of database migrations have shown that legacy system migrations are one of the top reasons to switch over to new systems according to the interviewees. Total cost of ownership (TCO) of new systems is typically lower as out-of-date systems are more expensive to maintain. Some companies perform database migration due to the equipment lease ending and being replaced by a newer system. Once migration is complete, the target system will be up-to-date and supported by hardware and software vendors. The new system will have a wider range of features and wil

How to Achieve Project Objectives

Administrator — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:01:00 GMT
Abstract:
How to Achieve Project Objectives
By Leslie Allan
Projects can be large or small, complex or simple. It may be implementing a new accounting system, moving employees to new premises or reorganizing your company’s organization chart. Whatever your project, follow these ten steps to ensure that you succeed.
Difficulty: Moderate
Instructions
Things You’ll Need:
Project Sponsor
Project team members
Project Brief
Step1
Before you start your project, find a committed project sponsor who has sufficient clout in your organization. Your project sponsor will prove invaluable in helping you overcome organizational roadblocks as they arise.
Step2
Analyze who are your project’s key stakeholders and communicate with them throughout the project. Your stakeholders can make or break your project. Compile a stakeholder communication plan with the help of your project team and sponsor.
Step3
Get your sponsor and key stakeholders together to thrash out the measures of success of your project. How will you know if your project has succeeded? What are the key indicators of success? Get everyone on the same page from the outset.
Step4
Decide upfront the methodology you will use on your project. What project phases will the project proceed through? What will be the key go/no go decision points? What are the expected project outputs for each phase?
Step5
Draw up a project schedule that clearly allocates project tasks to team members. Identify which tasks depend on others for their successful completion. Communicate schedule progress regularly to all team members and to the project’s sponsor.
Step6
Make sure that project changes don’t get out of hand by reviewing and authorizing all proposed chan

Making a Project Plan to Pass the PMP Exam

Administrator — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:01:00 GMT
Abstract: Making a Project Plan to Pass the PMP Exam
By John Reiling, PMP

Passing the PMP exam is challenging, but hundreds of thousands of people have already done it! What is the secret? One of the keys is to put into practice the discipline, practices, tools, and frameworks that are the subject of the exam. This is accomplished by making a plan based upon the many structures, terms and concepts that are part of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). These are the things that experienced project managers will learn that takes them beyond their project management experience base. This article discusses some keys for building an effective project plan to pass the PMP exam.
8 Points for Building an Effective Project Plan to Pass the PMP Exam
Writing down the goal, which presumably is to pass the PMP exam, is a great first step.
Putting together a Project Charter for the objective of passing the PMP exam is the next step. This Project Charter is an opportunity to think through many of the aspects of project management as per the PMI and PMBOK Guide.
As part of the plan, any aspirant should join the PMI. It is actually less expensive to join the PMI and take the exam, than to simply pay the exam fee without joining the PMI. In addition, project managers will get "plugged in" to the network of project managers, including selecting and joining a local chapter, networking, a great deal of information that can help with the plan, and opportunities to find potential study groups. A PDF version of the PMBOK will also become available for free. Joining simply involves going to www.pmi.org and following the steps.
One decision to make is to determine what study materials are needed. This is a personal decision, and involves thinking about learning style, learning preferences, hardware, learning environment, time available, and budget. Training comes in many forms, including CD's, audio programmes, books, exam simulations, two day

New Phishing Attacks Target Legitimate Web Domain Owners

Administrator — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:47:00 GMT
Abstract:
New Phishing Attacks Target Legitimate Web Domain Owners
Phishing campaign could be fallout from pressure to shutter notorious registrar associated with spammers, cybercrime
By Kelly Jackson Higgins
DarkReading
A new brand of phishing attack now under way and aimed at legitimate Web site domain owners could be the result of efforts to shut down a notorious domain registrar popular among spammers and malware writers, security experts say.
The phishing emails, pretending to be from legitimate registrars eNom and Network Solutions Inc., attempt to fool domain name owners into giving up their account credentials. The eNom phishing email claims that eNom will be conducting database and data center maintenance, while the fake Network Solutions message says the customer needs to renew his or her expired domain registration.
Security experts say the timing of this phishing attack, complete with slick and authentic-looking messages and phony Web pages, is unlikely a coincidence. They say it may be the work of worried customers of EstDomains, which was terminated as an Internet domain registrar by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) earlier this week. But ICANN yesterday has ordered a stay on the termination process in order to check out EstDomains' response that its president, who has been convicted of credit card fraud, money laundering, and document forgery, left the company back in June. (ICANN cited the criminal charges against EstDomains' president as the premise for terminating the registrar).
The new phishing attacks are a way for spammers, malware writers, and fake antivirus writers to keep their operations running, whether or not EstDomains remains in business. "We believe this is tied to ICANN's decision" to terminate [EstDomains] domains, says Dmitry Samosseiko, manager of spam operations at SophosLabs. "There's no other reason for criminals to start phishing attac

Excel Tips on Conditional Formatting

Administrator — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:19:00 GMT
Abstract:
Excel Tips on Conditional Formatting
Excel can be very tricky to use. I learned a lot by taking an Excel training class in Buffalo NY.. However Allen Wyatt provides these great tips on his website for conditional formatting.
Adding Ordinal Notation to Dates If you use dates in your worksheet, you may want to add an ordinal indicator to the day of the month. This tip shows the best ways to achieve this result. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007
Changing Coordinate Colors Want to change the colors used by Excel for the column letters and row numbers on a worksheet? You can’t do it directly in Excel; instead you need to make an adjustment in Windows itself. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003
Changing Font Face and Size Conditionally Conditional formatting does not allow you to change the typeface or font size used in a cell. Instead, you need to use a macro to accomplish your formatting goals. It’s easier to do than you think it is by using the information in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003
Conditional Formats that Distinguish Blanks and Zeroes Conditional formatting is a great boon to Excel users. One use is that you can use it to highlight cells that contain zero values. However, if a cell is blank, Excel also considers that cell to be equal to zero. This tip explains how you should perform your conditional test to get only those cells containing an actual zero value. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003
Conditional Formatting A few ways to use conditional formatting on cells in your Excel worksheet. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003
Conditional Formatting Based on Date Proximity Creating conditional formatting to turn cells different colors depending on the values entered. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003
Conditional Formatting for Errant Phone Numbers If you’ve got a bunch

Understanding Your Cash Flow

Administrator — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:25:00 GMT
Abstract:
Understanding Your Cash Flow
by Philip Campbell, CPA
Copyright 2004, Philip Campbell - All Rights Reserved
The single biggest reason the small business failure rates are so incredibly high today is this one simple fact: Most business owners don’t really know what’s going on with their most precious asset – their CASH.
Despite the fact that cash is the lifeblood of the business, the fuel that keeps the engine running, most business owners truly don’t have a handle on the flow of cash into their business and the flow of cash out of their business.
The reason this problem is so widespread today is that each of us has been taught that managing the financial side of our business means having financial statements.
We have all been taught that financial statements show us the complete view of the financial side of our business.
Well, the truth is they don’t.
Recognize the Limitation of Financial Statements
There is no doubt the basic financial statements that every business must prepare are very useful; in fact they are a must.
Banks require you to provide them. Investors require you to provide them. They are the common language of business. You cannot succeed in business without them.
At the same time, if you have no other tool for understanding and managing the cash flow of your business other than the basic financial statements, you will always feel out of control. You will be flirting with disaster because you will be neglecting the lifeblood of your business – your cash.
The accounting rules that govern the creation of financial statements are not about tracking the actual flow of cash through your business. They are focused on measuring profit or loss – not cash flow.
That’s why a profit in your financial statements does not necessarily mean you created any cash.
By the same token, a loss in your financial statem

The Beginning of the End: Defining Project Closure

Administrator — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:19:00 GMT
Abstract:
The Beginning of the End: Defining Project Closure
By ExecutiveBrief

How do you know when your part of the development race is over? Learn how to establish a clear finish line for your project!
When undertaking a software development project, an effectively designed closure plan serves as an outline of required tasks that must be carried out appropriately in order to result in successful project delivery, and adequate preparation is one significant element when it comes to ensuring a smooth transition to implementation. The closure plan must be considered at the outset of the project, as the client outlines their specific software requirements. With a detailed description of the desired end result communicated and understood, the expected capabilities and deliverables of the software are established. But as you enter the final stages of a software development project, what can be done in order to ensure that the program is completely suitable and fully primed for implementation?
Key Components
According to Joe Coley [1], "Projects that I've been involved with have been very much subject to additional needs and desires of the user community." In effect, this means that the end deliverable becomes the focus of the closure plan, that is, to ensure a high level of end user satisfaction with the software requested and therefore created. Coley has 20 years of experience in the information technology industry and offers much insight on the subject. When it comes to key components for successful closure plans, he highlights three main aspects to consider, presented below:
Assess the project requirements. In order to determine the best course of action throughout the cycle of a project, it is necessary to first consider the scope of the project. Establishing a clear outlook and complete understanding as to the required deliverables will greatly improve the ability to adequately de

Real Options (Strategic Options) in Financial Modeling

Administrator — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:16:00 GMT
Abstract:
Real Options (Strategic Options) in Financial Modeling
The traditional, financial results led approach to assessing the viability of a project or business in a financial modeling exercise continues to work very well today, however, a more strategic approach to decision making has also emerged to complement the traditional process.
Real options (or strategic options) are opportunities embedded in projects or investments that are likely to exist and have a material economic impact on cash flow and risk. The recognition of real options embedded in a project will result in the project’s strategic net present value (NPV) to differ from its traditional NPV, as follows:
Strategic NPV = Traditional NPV + Value of real options
We highlight a number of the most common categories of real options which can occur in when performing financial modeling on a project or investment.
Abandonment Option
The option to terminate or abandon a project before the end of its planned lifespan. This option allows executives or project owners to minimize or avoid monetary losses on projects that turn financially unsuccessful. A good financial modeler who explicitly recognizing the abandonment option when evaluating a project often increases the NPV.
Flexibility Option
The option to incorporate a greater degree of fluctuation / flexibility into a company’s operations, especially manufacturing & production. It generally includes the opportunity to design the manufacturing & production process to accept multiple inputs, use flexible manufacturing techniques / technologies to create a range of outputs by reconfiguring the same set of plant and equipment, and purchase and retain excess capacity in capital intensive industries subject to wide fluctuations in output demand and long lead times in building new capacity from the ground up. A financial modeling and analysis exercis

Becoming Radiant: Mind Mapping For Creativity

Administrator — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:32:00 GMT
Abstract:
Becoming Radiant: Mind Mapping For Creativity
I don't take notes anymore. Instead, I create one wildly colorful, creative and inspiring page whenever I need to make a decision, prepare a presentation, or plan an event. That whole two-column plus and minus approach? Gone.
Bring on the Mind Maps!
I read Tony Buzan's first book on Mind Mapping back in the early eighties, but I was too caught up in the old-school world to see how it could be of use to me. I recently rediscovered Mind Mapping and it has become an integral part of the work I do with clients.
Tony Buzan created the Mind Map concept in the early seventies. Based on his brilliant observation that our brains do not process information in a linear way, Mind Mapping allows us to use words, images, and color in an effort to engage the right side of our brains in what is normally considered a left-brain task: organizing information.
We've already learned that one of the keys to maximizing our potential as humans is to forget that whole right-brain/left-brain divide. Instead of seeing ourselves as a logical person OR a creative person, we're both. We've simply chosen to put more energy into developing skills associated with the analytical left or the daydreaming right. We must recognize that there's a fine line separating analysis from daydreams and that in order to have a fully integrated brain, we need to do both.
We speak in a linear pattern. We can say only one word at a time, and we can hear only one word at a time. Similarly, we read in a linear pattern-words flow in lines across the page.
So when it came time to organize notes and teach the proper form for creating outlines, it's easy to see why we turned to the tried and true linear approach. You know the format: Roman numeral one (I) followed by A, B and C, followed by 1, 2 and 3. We look for things to slot into each line in order to make it fit properly.
In school

7 Online Banking Success Stories

Administrator — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:04:00 GMT
Abstract:
7 Online Banking Success Stories
By: Matthew C. Keegan

You have seen their ads and you may have wondered if they are worth a second look. What am I talking about? Online banks! Also known as internet banks, these are financial institutions who provide the majority of their banking services over the internet. Typically, online banks offer consumers high savings rates, low loan rates, and a mix of other services. Let's look at 7 winners in this fast growing field:
1. E Trade Bank Part of E Trade Financial, the discount internet stockbroker. E Trade Bank offers checking accounts, money markets, and certificates of deposits as well as a VISA credit card.
2. Netbank Along with offering checking and money market accounts, Netbank provides mortgage and home equity lines of credit to customers. With tie-ins to affiliated companies Netbank also offers Auto, Homeowners, Condo/Co-op & Renters Insurance and Life, Health, Long Term Care & Dental Insurance.
3. Virtual Bank VirtualBank, a division of Lydian Private Bank, is a federally chartered bank regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision. The bank offers checking, savings, and credit card services to customers.
4. Ever Bank This leading internet provider of banking services offers the most extensive, and varied services of any online institution. Ever Bank offers business and personal checking accounts, mortgages, home equity loans/lines of credit, reverse mortgages, a VISA credit card, and world currency accounts. This latter category is for investing in Deposit accounts and CDs denominated in any major world currency.
5. Emigrant Direct Part of Emigrant Savings Bank which traces its roots back to 1850 as a service provider to Irish immigrants. Emigrant has $10 billion in assets and more than $1 billion in net worth. It operates as a full service bank through 36 branches in the New York metropolitan area, and through Emig

Laying the Foundation for Budgeting Success

Administrator — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:49:00 GMT
Abstract:
Laying the Foundation for Budgeting Success
First you have to realize that the key to financial success is very simple. Budgeting success is essential for financial freedom. Spend less than you make! Once you have adopted the principle of spending less than you make, you are well on your way to winning the mental financial fitness battle which could lead the way to financial success . After you have determined that you will take the steps necessary to become financially fit, you need to incorporate a financial success system into your personal financial life. The Success is a system that can be adopted and routinely followed to ensure continued improvement and long-term financial fitness. This system includes four steps: plan, track, compare, and adjust which helps you to keep your financial freedom intact.
The system seems relatively simple, but results can be extraordinary when these steps are followed continuously. Successful companies everywhere incorporate this system for financial planning, into their monthly, quarterly, and annual management systems and processes. Successful project managers, contractors, and process management professionals all follow this cycle. What's more, the cycle can be applied to a very small project spanning a few weeks or to the construction of a multibillion-dollar industrial plant spanning a number of years. In either case, successful execution requires that each of the steps in the Success Cycle be taken. Steps cannot be shortened or eliminated from the financial planning. Often in our society we like to find the quick fix or the silver bullet. What we need to realize is that victory comes through the steady and persistent application of proven principles.
Some years ago, Frank Burge, a noted publisher, told a story regarding management styles in an article in the October 7, 1991, issue of Electronic Business magazine. His story related a conversation between himself and Alex d'Arbelof

Beyond Taxes - How Your Cash Flow Statement Can Help You Run Your Business

Administrator — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:33:00 GMT
Abstract:

Beyond Taxes - How Your Cash Flow Statement Can Help You Run Your Business
By L Dawson
The Cash Flow Statement is made up of three sections. The first section is operating activities. Operating activities include your company's profit or loss and non-cash items that affect your profit without affecting cash. Examples of these types of non-cash expenses are depreciation and bad-debt expense. Also included in this section are changes to your operating assets and liabilities. Operating assets and liabilities include accounts receivable, prepaid expenses, accounts payable and accrued liabilities. A common feature of operating assets and liabilities is these items have been reflected in the Profit & Loss Statement in a period different from the period in which they were paid.
The second section of the Cash Flow Statement is investing activities. Investing activities are items such as property and equipment or loans receivables. An interesting aspect of investing activities assets is that they, unlike operating assets, generally do not affect the company's profit. In other words, investing assets do not represent revenue or expense items.
The third and final section of the Cash Flow Statement is financing activities. Financing activities are debt and equity items. If you increase or decrease your debt, that change is included in financing activities. Equity changes such a capital contributions or shareholder distributions also are reflected under financing activities. Like investing activities assets, financing activities liabilities and equity do not represent revenue or expense items.
The sum of the three sections: Operating activities, investing activities and financing activities is your cash flow for the period being reported. A positive number indicates an increase in cash and decrease indicates a decrease in cash. Now it's time to take a closer look at the Cash Flow Statement and see why your cash

How to Choose Accounting Software For Big Business

Administrator — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:21:00 GMT
Abstract:
How to Choose Accounting Software For Big Business
By Joe Coffee
When deciding to go for accounting software, it must be understood that the best accounting software is not necessarily the most expensive, but the one that performs the entire core accounting functions quickly and accurately. All additional features are secondary to the basic functions. Don't forget, it is the rigid rules of accounting that makes the software so consistent throughout.
The most elaborate business accounting software provides very in-depth financial information. These numbers can be so detailed that it takes a professional accountant days to interpret. On the flip side, some software can give a general summary with a few clicks of the mouse.
The greatest business accounting software cannot convey what an increase in bank transactions and a decrease in sales volume means for any specific business. So, even with great software, accounting knowledge is required to forecast corrections to be made or areas to focus on with accounting figures.
When dealing with large business accounting, it is always a good idea to employ a controller or accountant even if software is utilized. It is very important to the future profitability to make sure the numbers are accurately displayed. A professional bookkeeper can confirm the relevancy, accuracy, etc. and explain what those numbers mean for the company's situation.
So, even with simple software that calculates an overview summary of the accounting functions, at least a background knowledge of accounting predictability is necessary to be successful.
Some small companies may not want comprehensive software that computes double-entry bookkeeping, because the business does not keep a balance sheet to require the double-entry method. While small businesses do not need double-entry software, virtually all big businesses must use the double entry method to comply with audit and tax laws.<

What Does ##### Mean in Excel?

Administrator — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:51:00 GMT
Abstract:
What Does ##### Mean in Excel?

by Susan Daffron

As noted, I'm not much of a numbers person, so using Excel is a challenge on a good day. Sometimes it does things that just mystify me. For example, after a long absence from Excel, I entered some information into a spreadsheet and ended up with #### in one of the cells instead of numbers.
I'd put in a formula and figured that I'd just done it wrong. (That would not be unusual for me after all.) Oddly enough, I couldn't find # (pound signs) in the online help. Maybe it's there, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, at some point, I finally discovered that it means the data is just too wide to fit in the cell. The annoying pound signs actually just indicate a formatting problem. You also may end up with your number turned into scientific notation, so a huge number turns into something like 1E+20.
Once you actually know what the pound signs mean, the solution is easy. You just need to make the column wider. The easiest way to make an entire column wider is to place your cursor at the top of the column and click and drag to move the column divider over. (You can tell when your cursor is in the right place and you are able to drag the divider when the cursor turns into a double-sided arrow.)
I'm also a big fan of Excel's AutoFit command, which automatically resizes the cells to fit the longest item in the column. Click on the letter at the top of the column to highlight the entire column. Then choose Format|Column|AutoFit Selection. An even easier way to access AutoFit is to double-click at the top of the column on the divider (again when the cursor is a double-sided arrow).
Once you make the column wider, magically all the pound signs go away.
This article belongs to Logical Web Publisher.
Related Software:
GoDiagram for .Net 3.0
Our Go libraries are graphical components that allow developers to quickly build graphical applications. You can easily customize Go just by setting properties on views, documents, and objects, or by providing event handlers.
There is also, in the downloadable solution, a utility class "SPGen" that handles running stored procedures and returning DataReaders, and a RemoveFiles utility method that cleans up any XLS or CSV file older than the specified number of minutes. The key method presented below is the CreateExcelWorkbook method.
NOTE: You should be aware that you will probably need to run this page under an account that has administrative privileges as it needs write permissions to store the generated Excel or CSV files on the webserver's file system. Probably the easiest way to handle this is to have the page in its own folder with its own web.config, and insert an <identity impersonate ="true" ... elment. You may also need to enable ACL permissions on the physic

Can You Hear Me? How to work better with headquarters

Administrator — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:18:00 GMT
Abstract:
Can You Hear Me?
How to work better with headquarters.
Don Durfee - CFO Asia
The shining glass building that houses the offices of ICI India is an unusual sight. The structure itself is ordinary — it would blend in perfectly in a suburban London office park. But this isn't England. It's Gurgaon, India, the chaotic and dusty special economic zone more than an hour's drive from Delhi. On the sidewalks, vendors carry on a lively trade in the mid-day heat (over 40 degrees Celsius on a recent afternoon). A cow grazes in an empty plot across the street.
Inside the air-conditioned office, Sandeep Batra is explaining the peculiarities of the Indian paint business. "We don't sell our paints through big retailers as you would in Europe or the U.S.," says Batra, the urbane CFO of Imperial Chemical Industries' Indian operations (ICI is now owned by Dutch chemical company Akzo Nobel). "We sell through mom and pop shops in the markets."
Convincing the store owners to carry ICI's products requires a costly but essential investment: tinting machines that allow the store to mix the full range of ICI's paint colors. And because the company sells through hundreds of tiny shops instead of big home improvement centers, its distribution model is necessarily different. Instead of the one or two warehouses that ICI has in most countries, there are 60 in India. The number of sales staff is also many times bigger.
Such deviations from ICI's usual way of doing things cost money, of course, and expensive exceptions don't generally win the goodwill of corporate managers. But Batra and his colleagues in Gurgaon have learned how to overcome objections. "Our business situation is impossible to explain to someone who has never visited India," he says. "So when the CEO or any other senior visitors come, the first thing we do is take them to the market. We take them to the shops and to the warehouses where we sell materials — that's a very dif

5 ways to assess risk of your option ARM

Administrator — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:00:00 GMT
Abstract:
5 ways to assess risk of your option ARM
By Holden Lewis • Bankrate.com
A mortgage called the option ARM offers a tantalizing possibility: The minimum payment is so low that you owe more on the house at the end of the month than at the beginning.
If you read Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" as a kid, you're familiar with the concept. As the characters dine on a concoction called "subtraction soup," they become hungrier by the spoonful. They feel ravenous at the conclusion of the course.
An option ARM is like subtraction soup, except that a steady diet of minimum payments can result in a feeling of homelessness instead of hunger. To pile on the alarming rhetoric, a recent cover story in BusinessWeek dubbed the option ARMs "nightmare mortgages" and called them "toxic" and "deceptive."
Payment option adjustable-rate mortgages are appropriate for some borrowers in certain circumstances, and they're dangerous for other people.
1. You don't understand how an option ARM works, but you have one anyway.
Mitch Ohlbaum, president of Legend Mortgage in Los Angeles, bemusedly pages through the BusinessWeek article that calls option ARMs nightmare mortgages.
"They're nightmares to the extent that people don't have them explained," Ohlbaum says. "I get calls all the time from people who say, 'I took this loan, I didn't understand it, my rate keeps going up. No one explained it to me."
Option ARMs are hard to describe. Mortgages lie on a spectrum from the fairly simple to the sublimely complex, like the math taught from first grade through college. Fixed-rate loans are like basic arithmetic. Adjustable-rate mortgages are like algebra. Option ARMs are like calculus. Plenty of homeowners are furrowing their brows in calculus class when they should be memorizing their multiplication tables.
An option ARM is an adjustable-rate mortgage that gives the borrower four c

Using Parameters In Dashboards

Administrator — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:38:00 GMT
Abstract:
Using Parameters In Dashboards
Today we have a guest post from Dan Parish, who is a program manager on the Excel Services team. Dan is going to explain a bit more on how to use Excel Services to set up dashboards that are driven by parameters.
Back in the original posts regarding Excel Services, Dave mentioned that Excel Services is targeted at consumers and explorers of workbooks. As such, Excel Services doesn't allow you to simply type into any cell or create new workbooks on the fly. Dave also mentioned that we do understand that in some scenarios some cells need to be edited, and this post discussed the idea of 'parameters', those being specifically marked cells that can be edited on the server. Let’s take a closer look.
Why use parameters?
In the firts public beta, we only allowed you to mark single cell named ranges that were either blank, or contained a value (i.e. no formulas) as parameters. With the most recent beta build, however, we also added in the ability to mark PivotTable Report Filters as parameters. Since PivotTable and OLAP Formulas are the only way to refresh external data with Excel Services this release, this allows you to be able to drive your external data queries using web parts other than the Excel Services web part (called Excel Web Access or EWA for short).
What are some examples of where this would be useful? Well, let's say that you are creating a dashboard and want to display several different charts of data related to a stock chosen by the user. You can create these charts in Excel and display them using Excel Services, but you probably wouldn't want the user to have to select the stock in each w

Chart Pattern Fills

Administrator — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:31:00 GMT
Abstract:
Chart Pattern Fills
Today’s Author: Eric Patterson, a program manager on the Excel team. Eric is going to discuss applying pattern fills to chart data points and includes a sample add-in for this purpose.
Overview
In Excel 2007, the interface for applying Pattern fills to chart elements has been removed in favor of the interface for applying Picture and Texture fills. Charts formatted with pattern fills in previous versions of Excel will retain and display the pattern fills when opened in Excel 2007.
Here is an example of a chart with pattern fills applied:

While the interface for applying Pattern fills has been removed, support is still available via Excel’s object model. The FillFormat.Patterned Method can be used to apply pattern fills to chart elements, such as datapoints in a series. I will describe how the object model can be used to create the chart shown above. A sample add-in with an interface for applying pattern fills to chart elements also accompanies this blog entry.
The sample add-in with RibbonX and VBA code is here: http://officeblogs.net/excel/PatternUI.zip
Applying Patterns using the Visual Basic Immediate Window
To demonstrate how pattern formatting can be applied, let’s start with a simple Pie Chart. After creating the chart, click on the Q1 Pie slice once to select the series, then a second time to select the Q1 data point. It should look like this:
DEBTSMART: 10 financial questions you should ask yourself today! By: Scott Bilker
To quote the very well-known motivational speaker, Anthony Robbins, "Questions are the answer." What exactly does he mean? Tony believes, as do I, that you have the ability to find the answer to any question. They key is to ask the right questions. If you're constantly asking yourself, "Why was I so stupid to get into debt?", your brain is going to give you an answer like, "Because you're a loser." The thing to remember is that your brain will keep working on your question subconsciously until you get an answer. We've all had the experience of waking up in the middle of the night with the answer to something you were thinking about earlier in the day. The quality of the answer is directly related to the quality of the question. A better question is "What action can I take today to start reducing my debt?" Your brain will ponder this until it returns an answer. That may be something like, "Get financially organized. Look through all my credit card statements and see if I can determine if any one card is better than another."
Here are 10 questions whose answers, I am confident, will guide you to a better financial life:
1) What action(s) can I take today to start reducing my debt?
2) How can I start making more money within the next 5 days?
3) What can I do to start saving money?
4) What did I learn about finances today?
5) What day, this week, can I commit to going to the library and researching my financial opt

Cranfield University uses @RISK to Demonstrate Benefits of Investing in Product Reliability

Administrator — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:34:00 GMT
Abstract:
Cranfield University
uses @RISK to Demonstrate Benefits of Investing in
Product Reliability
Cranfield University is a wholly postgraduate institution with a worldwide reputation for excellence and expertise in aerospace, automotive, defence, engineering, environment and water, health, management, and manufacturing. It is one of the top five research universities in the UK and combines academic study and qualifications with the commercial and business focus of industry.
Starting with Product Design and @RISK
A recent project focusing on sub-sea equipment for the oil and gas industry at Cranfield University provided evidence to business managers that a better return on investment (ROI) is achieved through enhancing a product's longterm reliability as a result of spending time and resources early in the product design lifecycle. The project is funded in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the UK's main government agency for funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences.
Cranfield's School of Applied Sciences uses @Risk software from Palisade to calculate the likelihood of sub-sea oil and gas production equipment failing, and the overall cost throughout the project life cycle, should it do so. @RISK is an Excel add-in using Monte Carlo simulation to show all potential scenarios, as well as the likelihood that each will occur, thereby providing the decision-maker with the most complete picture possible.
Sub-sea oil and gas equipment can be required to function in excess of 2000m below sea level. This means that the failure of any product, or product component, has huge ramifications. There are the practical considerations of difficult repair work, as well as the financial aspects. Fo

Finding Clarity: Using MindManager® Pro 7 to Manage the Gray Areas

Administrator — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:31:00 GMT
Abstract:
Finding Clarity: Using MindManager® Pro 7 to Manage the Gray Areas

Jerry Manas is author of Managing the Gray Areas, president of project management consulting firm The Marengo Group, co-founder of the popular leadership blog site PMThink!, and a two-time Mindjet webinar presenter. He considers himself an organizational architect with a specialty in project management and virtual team dynamics, helping leaders create integrated organizations and teams.
Mindjet: What’s the value of using MindManager to organize information?
Jerry Manas: I often refer to MindManager as my “management Swiss Army knife,” whether it’s to organize thoughts around a book I’m writing, capture issues and actions during a meeting, facilitate a team planning session, or any number of other activities. People have commented to me that they appreciate seeing the principles, objectives, issues, planning topics and more, all in one map, along with links to supporting documents. Also, I do a lot of telephone consulting, where I coach and mentor people remotely. I typically send the client a questionnaire ahead of time, and then plug the answers into a map that we view together during our call. Over the course of a number of sessions, we’ll develop a map of solutions and ideas that they will walk away with, and even use as a template.
I recently attended a thought leadership summit with a cross-disciplinary group of thinkers, including experts in neuroscience, generative thinking, verbal and nonverbal communication, neuro-linguistic programming, and appreciative inquiry, brought tog

a Mailing List Building System with MindManager® Pro 7

Administrator — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:30:00 GMT
Abstract:
Create a Mailing List Building System with MindManager® Pro 7
By Stephanie Diamond

The Issue: How to Take Your Successful Business to the Next Level
Shea Writing and Training Solutions is a successful woman-owned communications business, with the tagline: “Helping Engineers Communicate Clearly Since 1997.” Shea has an impressive roster of clients like BP; Panhandle Energy (Southern Union Gas); Cheniere; Chevron; Baker Hughes; Hess, and recently determined that their customers fell into two primary groups: 1) retainer clients, and 2) immediate “hair-on-fire” clients. Shea’s goal is to find a way to add more variety to their customer groups, without spending too much valuable time away from their writing; client engagement participation has to be easy and quick.
The Approach: Create a Mailing List Building System
I determined that the best approach for Shea to increase growth would be to create a third client group that starts their association with Shea by planning and developing projects in advance. This would give Shea a chance to plan their resources and deliver services more effectively. The key to creating a self-perpetuating system is to build a mailing list of new customers who understand the value of advance planning.
What does a mailing list building system need to include? As I work with clients, I find that most of them have at least a small mailing list. When I ask what they are doing to build that list, they say they don’t have the time. What I have them do is create a way to fill up the list without stopping their core work.&nbs

Make Your Service Easy to Understand with MindManager®

Administrator — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:28:00 GMT
Abstract:
Make Your Service Easy to Understand with MindManager®
By Stephanie Diamond

Welcome to my second Mindjet newsletter column, where I present you with one online marketing solution each month using a map. Thanks to everyone who submitted an online marketing issue last month. Here’s the best way to submit your issue:
1. Simply answer these three questions with your contact information, then click the “submit” button at the bottom of the page;
2. If I chose your issue for the column, I’ll contact you for a 20-minute meeting (your name and company can be kept anonymous).
This month, we’ll be looking at an issue submitted by Yovia.com, a new Social Media Optimization service agency.
The Issue: Marketing a New Media Service
A new social media agency called Yovia.com wanted to create an easy way for potential customers to understand their approach to social media optimization. What makes them different from a search agency or other Web 2.0 service is that they create the structure and host social media content for vertical content blogs, Facebook®, bookmarking sites, etc. They also have a private network of writers who create quality content. No company starting their own social media program can hit the ground running and show growth as quickly without such support.
The Approach: Interactive Map for Service Businesses
The first thing they needed to do was decide the best way to explain and present the service using MindManager Pro 7. Then, they created a map with Yovia’s solution. Click on the notes fields on the hyperlinked topics to se

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