Excel conditional formatting based on multiple cell values

1. Condition on a single cell

To apply conditional formatting based on the values of multiple cells. In other words, format a cell where formatting cell is different and conditional cell is different.

Click on the cell where you want to apply for formatting

Go to Home on the Ribbon, then select Conditional Formatting.

Then select the last option, "Use a formula to select which cell to format"

Now, in the formula cell write the formula for your condition

=$C$6=10

2. Conditions on multiple cells

What if you have to consider multiple cells for the condition?

Condition cell 1: Value equal to 10
Condition cell 2: Value equal to "Krishna" 

You need to build a formula with multiple conditions using AND operator. Based on your requirement, you can also use OR operator. Not just AND and OR, you can use any of the available functions in the MS Excel. The overall result should be TRUE or FALSE. It does not matter how complex your formula is, what does matter is the return value.

Now, build this formula and paste it in the conditional formatting formula bar.

=AND($B$6=10, $C$6="Krishna")

How to control your Android Phone from PC | How to make a phone call from Laptop

Have you ever thought of using your Laptop or in general a PC to make a call? It would be easier if there is an option available to make a call or receive a call. Yes, there is an option to use your PC to make a call.

In other words, connect your mobile phone to your PC and control it. Without touching your phone you can make a call, send an SMS or transfer a file between your PC and your Mobile. You can even open a link in the Mobile browser. 

There is a utility called AirDroid, using this you can connect your phone to PC. Then, from within your PC dial a number or send an SMS, etc. This is very handy if you are using the phone most frequently when you are in front of your Laptop.

How to setup.

On your Android mobile, download and install the Airdroid mobile app. On your PC, you have an option either install a desktop application or you can use the web application. 

If you don't want to install any application on your desktop, then go to http://web.airdroid.com/.  It will give you 2 options. One, you can register yourself in an existing email. Second, you can just scan the QR code and connect instantly.

In your mobile phone, Open the AirDroid app. Scan the QR code and click on SIGN IN. That's all, you are ready to control your phone from within the Laptop

You will see this below screen. This is the main screen, you will get all the option on this page.

You can do below tasks from your Laptop

• Make a Call or receive a call
• See the notifications
• Send an SMS
• Play music or video which is present in your phone. You don't have to copy them to your PC
• Open the camera and take photos or record a video
• Find my Phone
• See the call logs
• Status bar, which shows battery percentage, network connectivity

How to connect wireless Bluetooth headphones to your old TV or non smart TV

Have you ever thought of making your old TV wireless audio capable? Wanted to connect your wireless headphone or a wireless speaker to your TV which does not support wireless audio streaming? You can do that with an additional device.

Smart TVs have the capability to stream your TV audio onto your wireless speakers or headphones. But non-smart TVs does not support this feature. Just for the wireless purpose, you cannot change your TV, right?. Instead, make your TV wireless capable and connect any wireless audio receivers to your TV and increase your TV viewing experience.

I will explain to you what are the devices you need to make your TV wireless audio capable, but before that, you should understand some terminologies.

Bluetooth audio transmitters and Bluetooth audio receivers 

Most of the Bluetooth wireless audio devices like Headphones, Wireless Speakers are audio receivers. They are capable of receiving the audio signals through from a transmitter and they cannot transmit back. The audio sources like Smart TV, Computer, Mobiles, Audio Players are the Bluetooth audio transmitters. So, you are going to make your TV which a Bluetooth audio transmitter. For that, you need additional hardware.

There are plenty in of them in the online market. Before getting one, check the specifications.

The connectivity options 

The first thing you need to check is that its a transmitter and not a receiver. For example, if you want to play your mobile content on your car stereo, or any other AUX enabled speakers, you need to look for Bluetooth audio receivers. But in our case, we want to transmit the TV audio.

Second, check for input and out options. That means, the device's input should match with your TV audio output. If your TV has 3.5 mm audio output jack, then your transmitter should have 3.5mm audio input options. If your TV does not support the 3.5mm audio out then you have to go for the transmitter which has AV input. Every TV should have AV out and AV in. If your audio source is an STB, then you have to connect STB audio out to transmitter audio input.

Then, the options available for the power supply. The device needs an external power supply. Generally, it will be a USB cable. If your TV has a USB port, use it for power supply. Otherwise, you can use any mobile wall charger which has a USB port.

Bluetooth Transmitter

AV to 3.5mm Audio converter

AUX 3.5mm input output male to male cable

I just purchased one of the basic Bluetooth transmitters. It does not come with a brand name, though it does the job pretty well. I even tried with the Laptop and it works perfectly. It has all the options like USB power, 3.5mm audio input and AV to 3.5mm audio converter.

USB Power Source

My TV has USB and 3.5mm audio out close to each other. Used TV USB for power supply. Connected TV audio out from 3.5mm to audio input of the transmitter. 

Amazing tricks in MS Word which are less known

Write Anywhere

How to write anywhere in the MS word document

You can only move the cursor to the location you have already visited. But what if you want to type anywhere in the document? You can do so by double-clicking your mouse left button. Once you double click, the cursor will move to that location and you can start typing.

Quick calculate

How to quickly calculate big numbers in MS word

Think about you have a big number and you want to know the total sum or the difference of the numbers quickly. You may copy the values into excel and find a sum or difference. Or you can use your calculator to do the math. What if you have the Excel-like option within the MS word to quickly calculate the sum or difference? Yes, you have that option in the quick access menu. That’s at the top left corner. First, enable the Formula item in the quick access menu, then to find the sum select the numbers and press on the formula button. You can see the result in the status bar.

How to clear the formatting at once.

Select the portion of the text, then press CTRL + Space. All the formatting will be cleared.

How to delete an entire word at once

Move to the location where you want to delete. Hold the CTRL key and press Backspace and Del one after the other. Backspace will delete the left portion from the cursor and Del will delete the right portion of the text from the cursor.

How to change upper case to lower case, Lower case to upper or camel case

Select the portion of the text, which you want to change the case. Hold the SHIFT key and then press function key F3. Remember, if the function keys are associated with multimedia other functions, then you have to hold the Fn key along with the SHIFT key.  

Replace all the images in the document at once

Keep the to-be-replaced image in the clipboard. For that, open the image in an image viewer and copy. Go to MS word document. Press CTRL + H to replace all the images. In the search box enter ^g, this means all the graphics content. In the replace box type ^c, this means the content of the clipboard. Then press replace all. You will see all the old images replaced with newer ones.

4 Amazing WhatsApp features you should know

A lot of new features have been introduced in the WhatsApp recently. You may know some of them or all of them. I am listing here 4 new features that are very handy.

1. Sending messages to multiple people - Message broadcasting

Earlier there was no option to send messages more than one person at a time, without creating a group. But now, WhatsApp has added this new feature where you can send a message to multiple persons. Remember, you cannot forward a message to multiple people. It has to be your own message and not the forwarded message. If you want to broadcast a forwarded message, then you can copy and send it to multiple persons

Follow these steps to broadcast a message to multiple persons.

On the home screen of WhatsApp, select CHATS, then click on 3 dots, which will display a menu.

You will find a menu item called New Broadcast, click on it. In the next screen, you will get an option to chose the contacts to which you want to broadcast a message. Select the contacts and click on the tick mark at the bottom to go the compose screen.

2. Change the way ENTER key works

In most cases when you press the ENTER key on your keyboard, it takes you to the new line. But in WhatsApp, you can configure it to act as a SEND button. That means, whenever you press the ENTER key, the message, which is already composed will be sent. You can configure this in the CHAT settings.




Under the CHATS menu, click on the 3 dots. Then select Chats

In the next screen, under Chat Settings if the box is checked, then ENTER will act as a send key. If you uncheck this box, then ENTER key will take you to the new line while composing a message. 

3. Check who has read or received your message in a WhatsApp group

If you are sending a message to a single contact then you can easily see whether the message has delivered or not. You can also see if the recipient has read your message or not, provided, the recipient has enabled the REAS RECEIPTS. 

What if you are sending a message to a group, you still have an option to check who has read your message and whom and all the message has delivered. 

Follow the below steps.

Select the message you have sent to a group by long pressing on it. 

Then click on the 3 dots at the top right corner, select Info.

You will see 2 sections, one Read By and second Delivered to. This shows who has read your message and to whom all the message has delivered.  

4. Change the FONT in the WhatsApp - More Options 

This feature was introduced a little while ago, check out more options below 

Parsing a text file and importing values to MS Excel

We can use Excel VBA script to analyze a text file for a specific purpose. In this example, I have a text file that contains a list of files and their details like name, date created, file size, etc. This is an extraction of DIR command in the dos prompt. I am trying to find a text string "CNT" in each line and if it is present then I will extract the name of the file and store that in the Excel Cell along with the date the is created. 

I have hardcoded the column here, you can modify it however you want. The first column will keep the name of the file and the second column will keep the file creation date. 

Sub import_text_file_to_excel()

Dim fileHandle As Integer

Dim fileLine As String

Dim r As Integer

Dim c As Integer

r = 1

c = 1

Open "C:\\Users\\krsanjee\\files.txt" For Input As #1

While Not EOF(1)

Line Input #1, myline

On Error Resume Next

line_first_part = Left(myline, 40)

line_second_part = Right(myline, Len(myline) - 40)

If InStr(line_second_part, "CNT") Then

arr = Split(line_first_part, " ")

ActiveSheet.Cells(r, c).Value = arr(0)

ActiveSheet.Cells(r, c + 1).Value = line_second_part

r = r + 1

End If

Wend

Close #1

End Sub

You should know these MS Excel skills if you are using MS excel

If you are using excel for whatever reason then knowing these skills will definitely increase your productivity. These are not advanced but moderate skills. You can manage with excel without knowing these skills but knowing these skills will improve the proficiency in Excel.

1. Defining named tables.

You can define a range as a table and give a name to it. Later you can use this name in a formula. You can also use these named tables in references.

Under formulas menu bar, select Define names. Then give a name to the tables, for example, Sales. Then select the range and select ok. After you create the named table, you can use the table name 'Sales' in the formula to calculate the sum.

2. Autofill 

Using autofill you can complete the series based on the current values. For example, if you want to fill multiple of a number, you can enter the first 2 numbers of the series and click on the autofill icon and drag down the column. In the newer version of the office, you will get multiple options. 

The options are

copy cells

This will repeat the already available items, instead of completing the series with the next numbers. 

Fill series

Completes the series with the next values. 

Fill format only

It will ignore the values. Just copies the format of the existing cells. It can alternate the colors based on the selection.

Fill without formatting

This will ignore the format but copies the value of the series. 

3. How to get to the new line within a cell

As you know Excel is a spreadsheet tool, the basic building block is a cell. Unlike any word processing tool, if you press 'Enter Key' it will take you to the next cell. What if you want to enter a new line within the cell. You can do that by holding 'ALT' key and pressing 'ENTER' key. 

4. Data bars

If you want to represent your data visually amazing, you can use data bars. It is very simple and it looks very attractive. The data needs to be numerical values. This is one kind of conditional formatting. You can create a bar horizontal graph just by applying a conditional format. 

Select the range you want to apply the format. Go to Conditional formatting and select Data Bars. Under the gradient fill, select whatever color you want. 

   

If you want the Data Bars in a separate column, then copy the values in the next column. Apply the conditional format on the new column but not on the old column. Edit the condition formula and check the box 'Show Only Bars'

5. Paste special 

Under the paste special you have options like transposing a the selected. That means you converted a row into column and column to row. 

You can paste only the value if the source is a formula

You can paste only the formula, not the values. 

You can also link destination cells to the source cell. By this, you can make sure that any change in the source will also get affected by the destination. 

6. Text to column


Suppose you have a bank statement in PDF format. If you bring the statement into excel you will have a lot of options to analyze it. One example would be a BRS, Bank Reconciliation Statement. Import the statement to excel and apply formulas on the imported statement.

You can split the single line into multiple columns based on a specific delimiter. In the below example list folders and files have been extracted to a text file and it contains columns like date and time, type of the file, and the name of the file and folder. Each of these columns can be split into separate columns in the excel. Once the data is in tabular form, it can be used for various analyses. In this case, you can sort the files based on their creation date or based on the names, etc.

After converting a single line into multi-column 

7. Auto-sizing a column width or row height. 

By clicking on the line between 2 rows or a column, you can auto adjust the width of the column or height of a row based on the content of that column or row.

8. Row and column selection shortcuts 

Ctrl + Space	To select the entire column
Shift + space	To select an entire row
Ctrl + Shift + Space:	The First click will select the filled range surrounded by the current cell. Second, the space press selects the entire worksheet.
Ctrl + shift + +	Insert a new row or a column
Ctrl + -	To delete a row or a column