Excel Paste Special

The following comes from a newsletter issued by Exceljet.net:

Do you use Paste Special every day?

If not, you could be wasting a lot of time in Excel.

Paste Special sounds boring, but it's a gateway to many hidden and powerful features:
 

A treasure trove of powerful features lies here!

With paste special, you can easily:

• Convert formulas to static values
• Paste data without borders
• Paste formulas without cell formatting
• Paste values without any formatting at all
• Copy column widths (bizarre, but useful!)
• Extend formatting down a large table
• Copy and paste comments
• Copy and paste data validation
• Clone a pivot table (without source data or controls)

Not only that, you can use Paste Special to change values without formulas. This lets you do things like:

• Add 30 days to column of dates
• Subtract a penny from a sheet of prices
• Increase sales projections by 10%

All without formulas.

If all that's not enough, Paste Special lets you transpose vertical data to horizontal, and vice versa!

The bottom line: Paste Special is a killer feature you should use every day in Excel.

Some ways to protect yourself online

Cyber-crime is a huge problem in today's world. Ransomware continues to grow. Here are a few things you can do to protect yourself:

Fight fraud: Scams, identity theft, ransomware attacks

Free Windows 10 Upgrade — Not Over Yet

If you missed getting the free upgrade to Windows 10 and if you are now desperate to get the latest version of Windows (despite all its many problems), you may want to read the latest How-to Geek report on upgrading to Windows 10 simply using your existing Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 activation key.

Windows 10: Is it any wonder?

The more I read and hear about Window 10, the more I dislike what Microsoft is doing.

Am I surprised? No, it is not a surprise at all. Microsoft has been a bully for decades.

Am I disappointed? Frankly, no I am not disappointed. This may be one more reason for people to look for an alternative. Some of my friends have gone the Apple Mac way, some the Linux way.

Am I converting? No, no, no! Very soon I will test an alternative approach. If all goes well, I will do completely without Windows on my home system. if necessary, I will install CodeWeavers' CrossOver (they are having a 40% off special on their site) to run a few Windows apps that I may still need for work-related projects. Otherwise, I will be done with the whole Windows mess. I will report here on my progress.

If you want more details, feel free to read the comprehensive analysis that How-to Geeks has published of Windows 10 after a year of complaints.

Check your router for malware

Our connection to the Internet is vital, and every part of that connection is vulnerable to problems, including security issues. Here is a nice article on checking your router to make sure it is secured: How to Check Your Router for Malware

Who is right? Who is wrong?

In a normal day many of us tend to make judgments as to right or wrong. It seems that around election time the right or wrong dichotomy becomes even more visible. The media and the political parties push us to select one side or the other, and most of them want us to ignore the middle.

Shortly after joining my first job out of college, one of the senior engineers, Dan Sinto,  told me something that stuck with me to this date. Life is not about black or white, but about all the greys in between.

The best way to make progress is for all of us to find the grey areas between the extremes, the middle of the road.

You can read more about this in a great blog post by Leo Babauta: http://zenhabits.net/true-way/.

We also make progress when we become aware of our judgement of others or of ourselves. This awareness is growth in itself.

Is a NUC PC in your future?

It is a well-known fact that PCs have been becoming smaller over the years. And small PCs are not new; we have seen brick-size PCs in the past. However, these workstations were, generally, somewhat slow and limited.

But a new generation of very small computers is gaining popularity and their features are rather impressive.

Here is nice article about the new NUC PCs:

http://www.howtogeek.com/231978/htg-explains-what-is-a-nuc-pc-and-should-you-get-one/

Enjoy!