Number of barn owls cited in Devon in 2010 is 237

The following is information but not data:  The number of barn owls being sited in Devon has been increasing over recent years.

Note that very often information can [...]]]> Data is information recorded precisely in the form of text and numbers. The following is a piece of data:

Number of barn owls cited in Devon in 2010 is 237

The following is information but not data:  The number of barn owls being sited in Devon has been increasing over recent years.

Note that very often information can be backed up by data.  If you can produce the previous few year’s figures for the number of owls sited, then the above statement can be comfirmed or proved false. If you cannot, then it is speculation, not information.

That’s it! Well almost … Its not really a relational database unless the fields, tables and links are designed intelligently. By creating an appropriate structure for the data, we ease the process of designing forms [...]]]> A relational database is a software system which holds data in fields in a set of tables which are linked together.

That’s it! Well almost … Its not really a relational database unless the fields, tables and links are designed intelligently. By creating an appropriate structure for the data, we ease the process of designing forms and reports to allow users to interact with the data.

A lot of thought has to go into what data is required, how it is arranged in tables, and how those tables should be linked together. If we consider our database for owl sitings, we first need to consider what kinds of objects we want to hold information about. At the minimum we might need.

• Types of Owl
• Places
• People who report sitings
• Actual sitings

You would devise a table for each of these then decide on what fields you need in each table, i.e what information you want to hold about each of these items which are known as entities.

Then you would decide how to link the tables together. Each siting will be for a particular type of owl, in a particular place, by a particular person. The tables and fields article shows how two tables are linked together. The following diagram is called an entity relationship diagram.

If cells cell A1 and B1 contain the earlier and later times respectively, with the cells formatted as time, the difference between them [...]]]> What if you want to calculate a time difference in hours as a real value? I have seen some rather complex solutions to this, but a simple formula is all that is necessary.

If cells cell A1 and B1 contain the earlier and later times respectively, with the cells formatted as time, the difference between them can be retrieved using the following formula in a cell formatted as a number:

=(A1-B1) * 24

If you want the difference as hours and minutes, format the cell as a time cell, and leave out the ‘* 24′

Click the rectangle at the top, where the row numbers and column labels meet.

This selects all the cells in the sheet.

The best way is as follows:

Public Functon SplitFullPathName(sFileAndPathName as string, sFileName as string, sPathName as string)

sPathName = Left(sFileAndPathName, InStrRev(sFileAndPathName, “\” – 1) sfileName = Mid(sFileAndPathName, InStrRev(sFileAndPathName, “\”) + 1)

End Function

There is a button to enter a formula giving the sum of the cells above, it looks like this But smart computer users use keyboard shortcuts because it’s quicker (I am still learning to do this though!) The shortcut for this is: Alt  + That is, hold the Alt key down and press the ‘+’ key.

Using a VBA macro, you can  use any of the images available in [...]]]> If you want to create a custom button in Excel (or indeed any of the Microsoft Office applications)  versions 2003 and below, you can do this manually, but you are offered a dismal range of options when you click the ‘Change Button’ option.

Using a VBA macro, you can  use any of the images available in Office if you know the ID of the image you want to use (and to find out, click here) . You can create the button manually, but to illustrate this better, the code below creates a toolbar, a button, and then gives it the face image you want.

create a VBA macro  and insert the following lines:

Private Sub CreateCustomButton
Dim newBar As CommandBar

Dim newCtrl As CommandBarControl
Set newBar = CommandBars.Add

With newBar

.Name = “My Custom Toolbar”
Set newCtrl = .Controls.Add(msoControlButton)
newCtrl.Caption = “My Custom Button”
newCtrl.FaceID = (ID Number)

End With

End Sub

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