Meet the “Swiss Knife” Calculator of Windows

Microsoft Windows Tip: If you think the default calculator that came with Windows (7, 8, 8.1) was just a normal calculator you are wrong. Don’t launch Excel yet! This calculator is a Swiss knife of calculators. Click “View” in the menu of the Calculator and you will see the array of calculations this app can

Looking up values in 2-Dimensional tables

Microsoft Excel Tip: I was recently working on process for a manufacturing company, where they had costing in tables. Typically, the materials in rows and across columns were size, ratings, type, etc. depending on the item. To retrieve a price, this required a look-up on material and then a cross lookup on the type /

Calculating Year-to-Date (YTD) total… and the right way to learn Excel

Microsoft Excel Tip: We often have data (sales, production, expenses, etc.) for months and require a year-to-date (YTD) total. Here is an sample Excel sheet – In cell M2 enter the formula: =SUM(A2:INDEX(A2:L2,MATCH(=TEXT(NOW(),”mmm”),A1:L1,0))) You can edit cells and ranges to match your tables and sheets. =TEXT(NOW(),”mmm”) returns the current month. You also substitute this with