Skip Weekends when filling dates in Excel

While using date function in Excel we come across dragging a cell to fill the cells with dates. As per standard for formula it drags and fills the cell with all dates. Most of the times, we do not need weekends in those cells. So how to remove those weekends?

It is very simple. Select a cell which has date and drag it. While dragging, you get an icon with row an columns. Click on the icon. It gives you options to fill the cell with. In the list shown, select Weekdays. This will fill the cells with only weekdays and skip weekends.

-Ashish

Chat Security that Google Misses

Today I am going to add one more point to likes about Microsoft Products. It is about MSN Messenger. In early days of chatting, Yahoo was the most popular and then MSN messenger. There were similar chat clients available. But with entry of Google Talk and embedded chat in Gmail, everyone took back seat. Every everyone came up with embedded chat with audio and video. But Google Talk is still popular being very light weight. I like Google talk to avoid many non-sense features that typical chat clients have.

But there is one feature about GTalk which I always hate. When you log in from multiple locations, it keeps all the sessions active. When you chat with someone, you are never sure if you are talking to the real person. In this case even you are not sure who is reading your chat session. So you lose your privacy. You cannot easily end all other sessions.

Now coming to MSN Messeneger (Now Windows Live Messenger) it has many features which I do not use like integration with Facebook and LinkedIn. But common chat feature I use. The best part of it is that when you log from multiple locations, it gives you a notice about being logged in from multiple location and all the locations from where you have logged in. I know even Microsoft is getting data from your system. But it publishes and give you a facility to remotely end all other sessions so that you can keep your active session live.

Actually Google too have this feature in Gmail but it is hidden from common users. One has to go to some page which I do not remember now and end all other sessions. May be here I can say that Google keeps your data for their use and do not wish a common user to understand it where as Microsoft gets your data and shows it to you.

An a layman I will say Google is missing a chat security feature in chat clients where are Microsoft scores here. I can log out from all other session from a client which I wish and keep only one session active.

 

thanks and regards
Ashish Kulkarni

 

Microsoft and Others

Some time back I was one of the computer users who used to hate Microsoft Applications and including operating systems. Windows Vista was the main reason. But these days I am liking Microsoft applications.

I liked two products of Microsoft. One is licensed and other is like open source. I am one of the lovers of Content Management Systems (CMS). In open source products, I like Drupal the most. I still love it for its features. But I like Microsoft SharePoint as well. Though I am a end user or just a portal administrator but still I liked it a lot. It is always debated that can it fight with PLM? Answer is NO. But still it can replace many features of PLM like Document Management, Workflows or any typical information management feature. I liked Custom Lists feature a lot. One does not need programming experience at all. Just some added commonsense is enough to create very useful custom list which can reduce your lot of data management efforts. As I always say, we need to integrate PLM and SharePoint with some social networking features. In this area, I do not see Google anywhere. I know they have many things for corporates but you need internet connectivity. I think in organizations where internet is still under control, SharePoint is the best option to have company intranet.

Another Product I like is Microsoft WebMatrix. I am still a novice in WebMatrix but it is a good tool who want to experiment with web applications. Basically Microsoft has given us a tool to experiment without much programming knowledge or a monopoly feel. Earlier I used XAMPP for this purpose but it needs some amount of basic knowledge of how web applications work. WebMatrix is just wonderful. It does all background work and one does not need to worry about Database Server, WebServer and so on. It just simple helps you to download some of the templates based tools and configures it for you on your localhost. Then you can publish your site with world using WebMatrix or just keep on experimenting locally. Here too, I see Google not much ahead. Google gives some good site development features but everything is static. Yes, Google Apps is there but again you need programming knowledge.

I liked these two products. May be sometime in future I will write more about features in these Products. I wish Microsoft keeps doing this good work.

thanks and regards
Ashish Kulkarni

Building Simple Websites – Microsoft

Having an email address and having a cell phone number is very common these days. These two things are our identities in today’s technology world. When it comes to a level higher, i.e. having something of my own on this world wide web, then its as simple as having own website. Having a blog is not so great today. Anyone can go to any service provider and start his/her blog, a group blog. But making a website is still not so common.

If some is starting his/her own small business, then having a website is like to reaching to the everyone on the worldwide web. I also thought to have my own website if start something on my own. So I started searching for simple solutions. I am a very common man having no coding skills. So I need something like editing a word document. Finally I got 2 solutions. Initially it was only one called “Google Pages” which is renamed to Google Sites now. But recently I explored that Microsoft also started its such service called Microsoft Office Live Small Business.

This gives you a free access to create your own website with a lot of features. I started exploring it and created my first site on Microsoft platform. Visit Kulkarni Consultants to have a first look. I would like to know your suggestions and feedbacks. I am exploring Google Sites too.

Till then happy surfing.

 

Thanks and Regards

Ashish Kulkarni