Tag Archives: Excel

fixed : PowerPoint presentation too large for eMail

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Question :

I just made a beautiful PowerPoint presentation which I want to eMail to my friend. When I tried to eMail it, that seemed to work okay at first, but a few moments later I got an error message saying that the eMail could not be sent.

How can I fix this ?

 

Answer :

eMail providers have set a limit to the attachments’ file size per eMail to prevent cluttering the eMail traffic and flooding the recipient’s eMail inbox. For most providers this limit is set to about 5MB of attached files per eMail message. Some providers have expanded this limit to 10MB, and providers like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! even allow you to attach up to 25MB of files to each eMail.

But if your PowerPoint presentation is even larger than 25MB (which might easily occur if you have done your best to make it a beautiful presentation), you will probably do the recipient  a pleasure if you send a smaller file, especially if they are planning on viewing it on a mobile device. The easiest way to ‘shrink’ the size of a presentation is to convert it into a PDF-file. (a PDF-file is even more versatile than a PowerPoint-presentation, as it also can be viewed by people that don’t have PowerPoint software installed)

To convert your PowerPoint-presentation into a PDF-file, do this :

In MacOSX :

– open your presentation in PowerPoint

– then go to “File” in the upper menu bar and select “Print” from the pulldown menu that appears

– in the “Print” menu that appears, adjust everything as desired, then click on the “PDF” button (bottom left)

– in the pulldown menu that appears, choose “Mail PDF” and a new eMail message will be made for you including your Presentation as an attachment

…or you can choose “Save as PDF…” to first save the PDF-version of your presentation to your Mac so you can attach it to any eMail later on

Note : the above procedure also works in other OSX programs like Word, Excel, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, etc.

For Windows users, the general idea is similar but slightly different :

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/powerpoint-help/save-as-pdf-HA010064992.aspx

If the standard conversion of your PowerPoint into a PDF still turns up with a PDF-file that is too large to eMail, you can adjust the conversion settings, as described here :

How to create even smaller PDFs in OSX

You might also want to try the “Reduce File Size” that is in the “File”-tab of each Office 2011 application (so in Word, PowerPoint and Excel). This option will only reduce the size of the pictures inside the document. The smallest this option can reduce to is 96ppi a.k.a. “Best for sending in e-mail”. This is an interesting option, but converting to PDF usually leads to even more file size reduction.

And if the recipient insists on getting the original PowerPoint-file, you could do as a lot of professionals do, and send your presentation trough the FREE WeTransfer service :

http://www.wetransfer.com

that’s it !

enjoy !

😉

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fixed : hashtags making text unreadable in Excel

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Question :

Somebody sent me an Excel spreadsheet in which some of the data is unreadable since it has been replaced by text consisting of hashtag signs only…

I’ve seen this happening before, and the remedy used to be just to broaden the column, since all number that are too large to fit their cell width are automatically made unreadable…

However, in this case, if I broaden the column width, some of the hashtag text will turned into readable numbers, but other hashtag text will remain, no matter how wide I make the column…

What is wrong ?

And how can I fix this ?

 

Answer :

This seems to be a problem with Excel for Windows files that are opened in Excel for Mac (possibly more specifically with data copied or converted from another application into Excel on a Windows-PC). So PC-users will not be warned on forehand that their Excel output is not suited for use on Macs…

Fixing it turns out to be rather simple (but annoying) :

• open the file in Excel for Mac

• select the cells that are effected (or preferably even the entire column), then go to “Format” in the top menu bar

• from the dropdown-menu that appears, select “Cells…” and a window entitled “Format Cells” will open

• make sure the “Number”-tab is selected and make sure that you select “Number” or “General” from the list (make sure that it is something else than what was previously selected ; anything seems to be okay, as long as it is not “Accounting”)

• no return to your spreadsheet to check if the hashtag texts have disappeared (if not : try again)

That’s it !

Enjoy !

😉

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fixed : copied Excel data only shows zeros instead of original values

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Question :

I have this data-range in MS Excel that I want to copy from one page to another, but when I do, in the area that I want to copy to, all cells are filled with zeros…

…the original data has disappeared…

How can I fix this ?

Answer :

Just use the “Paste Special”-option from the Edit-menu, like this :

– in MS Excel, go to the data that you want to copy

– select the range of data you want to copy

– press CMD + C (or choose “Copy” from the Edit-menu)

– then go to the area you want to copy the data to, and select the upper-left cell of the area you want the copied data to appear in

–  then press SHIFT + CMD + V (or choose “Paste Special” from the Edit-menu)

– in the pop-up window that appears, select “Values” (the option third from the top) instead of “All” (which was the first option from the top), and click “OK”

– now the original data will appear

…that’s it !

Enjoy ! 😉

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fixed : copy a row into a column (or a column into a row) in MS Excel

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Question :

I have this column full of data in MS Office’s Excel, and now I need the exact same data range in another spreadsheet, but this time as a row…

Do I really need to re-type all data ?

Isn’t there an easier solution ?

Answer :

Yes, there is a far simpler way to copy data from a row into a column (and vice versa) in Excel.

You can just copy & paste, or “Paste Special” to be exact… it goes like this :

– in Excel, select the range of cells you want to use (or copy)

– then press the CMD + C key-combo (or select “Copy” from the Edit-menu)

– then go to the page (a.k.a. “sheet”) you want the copy the data to, and select the upper-left cell of the area you want the copied data to appear in

– then press the SHIFT + CMD + V key-combo (or select “Paste Special” from the Edit-menu)

– …and in pop-up window that opens, put a check-mark in front of “Transpose” and click “OK”

– now the data from your original row (or column) will ‘magically’ appear as a column (or row)…

…that’s it !

enjoy ! 😉

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fixed : change the Currency-format of only a few cells in Numbers (from iWork)

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Question :

I’m using the Apple Numbers spreadsheet-app (from iWork) and I want to use multiple currencies in one spreadsheet (US dollars, GB pounds and Euros). I tried “Create / Change Custom Cell Format” from the “Format”-menu, but there the currency is set to default to my local currency (Euros) and I can’t change it…

This must be possible, right ?

But, how do I do it ?

Answer :

The trick is you should change the currency format of a (group of) cell(s) in the “Inspector”…

Here’s how to :

– in Numbers, select the cell or cells of which you want to change the currency

– then click on the “Inspector” (info-sign shaped button on the right of the upper bar of the spreadsheet-window)

– in the “Cells”-window that opens, choose the tab marked “42” (*)

– there, under “Cell Format” you should change the default “Automatic” to “Currency” and choose the one you want to use

That’s it !

😉

(*) this is probably a subtile reference to “The Hitchhikers Guid To The Galaxy (H2G2)”, where 42 turns out to be the answer to “the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything”…

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fixed : place a picture behind an Excel chart or graph

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Question :

I am using Excel (from Microsoft Office) and I want to put the chart I’ve just made on top of a picture. How can I do that ?

Answer :

In Excel v14 (from MS Office 2011 for Mac), this can be done like this :

1- create the chart

2- select the chart area (you will see a bold, light blue frame around the entire chart area), then click the “Charts>Format”-tab (the purple tab in-between the green tabs), then in “Current Selection” click the “Format Selection”-button

3- in the window that opens select “Fill”, then the “Solid”-tab, and set the “Color:”-dial to “No Fill” and click “OK”

4- select the chart itself (inside the chart area – you will see a black lined square with light blue dots on the corners around the actual chart), then again, click “Charts>Format”-tab (the purple tab in-between the green tabs), and again, in “Current Selection” click the “Format Selection”-button

5- in the window that opens, again select “Fill”, then the “Solid”-tab, and set the “Color:”-dail to “No Fill” and click “OK”

6- then de-select the chart

7- in the upper Excel menu bar that’s fixed in the Finder, select the “Insert”-tab, and from the drop down menu that appears, select “Photo > Picture From File” and in the “Choose a Picture”-window that appears, select the image you need and click “OK”

8- the image will appear on top of your chart, now first resize it (by dragging the light blue corner-dots) and place it over your chart area

9- select the image (again, if it’s not already selected), click the “Format Picture”-tab and remove the background color(s) of the image if you need (using the “Remove Background”-option from “Adjust”)

10- then, also in the “Format Picture”-tab, select the “Reorder”-option from “Arrange”, and select “Send to Back” from the 4 options that appear in the pulldown menu ; your image will now be behind your chart

11- for fine-tuning, if needed, you can now resize or rearrange the image and the chart until the align exactly as you need them to

12- if you want the Excel-cell-grid behind your chart to disappear also, select the area of cells behind and around your chart and select WHITE (or any other color you need) from small triangle-shaped arrow just next to the “Fill Color”-button (the paint bucket icon)

That’s it !

Enjoy !

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fixed : export contacts database from AddressBook to Excel

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Question [1] : I’m new to Mac, I just switched to my first Mac, before I only used Windows PCs. How can I import my contacts from my Windows PC into my new Mac running OSX ?

Question [2] : I’m a Mac user myself, but I need to share my contacts database from Apple AddressBook with WindowsPC-users I’m working with. Since there is no Apple AddressBook for Windows, this seems impossible. What can I do ?

Answer to both [1] and [2] : It’s possible, and it isn’t that complicated either.

There are (free) MacOSX-applications that can do this for you.

! BEWARE ! there are 2 applications around that are extremely similar (and therefore easily confused) both in name and features :

Address Book Exporter 2.1.2 (from 2003 ; with a space in the name)

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9312/address-book-exporter

AddressBook Exporter 1.0 (from 2005 ; without a space in the name)

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17501/addressbook-exporter

The first one (from 2003 ; with a space in the name) is the best one. That’s the one that still works properly with Apple AddressBook from MacOSX 10.6 “Snow Leopard”.

How to install :

  • download the application (from 2003 ; with the space in the name)

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9312/address-book-exporter

  • drag the application-icon to your Applications folder

How to use it :

  • startup the application “Address Book Exporter 2.1.2”
  • from the “Groups” list, choose “All” to start converting your entire AddressBook, or choose only the selection that you want to export
  • if you would like to convert / export a selection that is not listed, go back into your AddressBook and create a (temporary) group from your selection
  • now, in “Address Book Exporter 2.1.2” check the checkbox of “Export using current field settings”
  • click the “Configure Settings” button
  • in the pull-down menu that appears, check the checkboxes of everything that you would like to export, and click “OK”
  • click the “Export Address Book” button
  • if you like, you can change the name of the exported file
  • then choose a destination on your Mac where you will be able to easily find the exported file (e.g. “Desktop”) and click “Save”
  • quit “Address Book Exporter”
  • open “MS Excel”
  • drag the icon of the exported file (from the Desktop) onto the MS Excel icon in the Dock, to have it opened in Excel
  • and… here you are : all your contacts are in Excel now
  • from there you can “Save As” to have a .xls-file that you can share with WindowsPC-users