Creating a query in Microsoft Access is simple and most people can learn to do it in a relatively short period of time. However, using query in Microsoft Access has two major drawbacks: If you want to create a parameter query and the parameters are saved in a table, it will be very slow to … Read more Use Embedded SQL Query for better efficiency and security

I seldom buy lottery ticket, no matter whether it is Power Ball, Mega Million, or Texas Lotto. I buy them by the motivation of “fear”. I usually buy them with my colleagues when the jackpot accumulates to certain large amount and one of my co-workers will start asking around to have people pooled money to … Read more Lottery Numbers Generator

First In First Out (FIFO) and Last In First Out (LIFO) calculations are the integral part of an Accounting System. Neither calculation will affect the life to date (LTD) allocation. However, the choice of either FIFO or LIFO will affect the periodic recognization of profit or loss. It all comes down to the timing difference … Read more FIFO vs. LIFO Calculations using Visual Basic Modules

We frequently need to compare data from different sources to identify discrepancies. If there is a large data set that requires more than eyeballing, it is better to know what functions in Excel that might help. It is easy to compare data of two values. After you identify the discrepancies, you can use either the … Read more Compare Multiple Numbers and Text in Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Outlook has a wonderful voting feature that allows you do a quick poll. It is easy to use and it automatically summarizes the poll result for you. Let’s say you are in charge of a department luncheon and you want to know which restaurant your co-workers in the department would like to go. You … Read more Use Microsoft Outlook to conduct Voting

We sometimes get data in a crosstab table. Data in crosstab table are user-friendly to be read and understood by a human being. However, they are usually not compatible with data storage requirement in database. That causes many problems if you need to convert such data to be imported in a database or to make … Read more Convert a Crosstab Table into a Database Table Format

When you do a calculation, you have three components: inputs, formula, and result. The result is a function of the inputs and formula. In a more layman term, the result is calculated by a formula based on the input figures. In the below example, Sales Commission (result) is calculated by the Sales Amount (input 1) … Read more Use Goal Seek command to reverse engineer desired results

There are many shortcut keystrokes in Microsoft. You can see the full list of those shortcut keystrokes by visiting this Microsoft Support page (https://support2.microsoft.com/kb/126449). It may not be easy to memorize all of them but you will gain much efficiency by just memorizing a few of them. The below shortcut keystrokes are my favorites: CTRL+C: … Read more Gain Efficiency by using Shortcut Keystrokes

In Microsoft Office Suite, you can double click the image until you see the image format menu. On the left hand side of the “Format” menu, there is command called “Recolor”. Click it and choose “Set Transparent Color”. Your pointer will then be changed to a dropper. Now move the dropper to the white area … Read more Set Transparent Color for a Graphical Object