14Apr 2013 by Charlie Nichols 2 Comments
How to use Excel to test a list of URLs or links to see if any are broken

How to use Excel to test a list of URLs or links to see if any are broken

200 level, Excel
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] Link checking in Excel Out of the box, Excel doesn't test links to see if they're broken. It does have a HYPERLINK function to make some text you've formatted as a URL to be clickable. But you still need to click the link, which is a pain with a long list. But with this cool add-in for Excel you can test your entire list using one of its Web Assistant functions called pwrISBROKENURL. It does just what you think it might -- it returns a TRUE value is the URL is broken. Using this function for checking links can be a huge time saver. You can use it as simply as in this example. =pwrISBROKENURL("https://officepowerups.com/brokenurl") You can use this in a more complex formula and use more complex…
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10Apr 2013 by Charlie Nichols No Comments
How you can add the 50 New Functions in Excel 2013 to your old copy of Excel

How you can add the 50 New Functions in Excel 2013 to your old copy of Excel

200 level, Excel
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] Excel add-in to power up older versions of Excel Excel 2013 has been released and it looks like there are about 50 new worksheet functions added. Now you can get a matching function for each of the new Excel 2013 functions that has the same name and same parameters. [table id=3 /] Excel 2013 new functions available for your old version of Excel The listing below shows the Excel 2013 new function that is available for Excel 2010, 2007 and 2003. The matching Excel PowerUps function is in parentheses after the name and can be used within Excel 2013 as well. You'll notice that each of the PowerUp functions has a prefix of "pwr". This is done to avoid name collisions with other functions you may have. All…
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06Apr 2013 by Charlie Nichols No Comments
An Excel function to calculate your dog’s or cat’s age

An Excel function to calculate your dog’s or cat’s age

400 level, Excel
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] Dog years, explained Do you think one person year equals seven dog years. I did, until doing some research. I wanted to add a “fun” conversion factor for a conversion function in an Excel add-in I've created. What I learned is that the seven year equivalent value is a pretty poor approximation of a dog’s equivalent age. Dogs do mature more quickly than people, but when they are young they mature at an even faster rate (relative to people) than they do when they are older. This post describes some capability you only get by installing an add-in for Excel. The add-in used here is fully functional and free during its trial period - so you'd have plenty of time to try this out. The add-in is called PowerUps…
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03Apr 2013 by Charlie Nichols No Comments

How you can use an add-in to make a quick-and-dirty sentiment analysis spreadsheet with Excel

400 level, Excel
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] Note: This post describes some capability you only get by installing an add-in for Excel. The add-on used here is fully functional and free during its trial period - so you'd have plenty of time to try this out. The add-in is called Excel PowerUps Premium Suite and using the steps below you can create a little sentiment analysis tool using a feed from the Twitter API. A link to download the free trial is at the bottom of the page. Note2: The Twitter API used as an example in this post has been retired. The new API requires authentication as well as only returning JSON instead of XML. I'll be looking at adding both of these to the pwrWEBSERVICE and pwrFETCHXMLVIAGET functions in the weeks to come. When…
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