Loop Through Charts in Excel Worksheet

Here’s a quick piece of code that will generate message boxes for every chart in the active worksheet with the name and top position of the chart

Sub LoopThruCharts()

For i = 1 To ActiveSheet.ChartObjects.Count
ActiveSheet.ChartObjects(i).Select
MsgBox ActiveSheet.ChartObjects(i).Name
MsgBox ActiveChart.Parent.Top
Next i

End Sub

Detect and Remove Spyware

Run the free version of this program called Ad-aware on your computer and I bet you will be surprised by the amount of spyware or tracking cookies that have been installed on your computer without your knowledge. I ran this product after I started noticing that whenever I Googled something, pop-ups would appear on my screen advertising products or services related to my search terms. I thought first of all, Google does not have pop-ups, and second, how the heck is it that these pop-up screens seem to know exactly what I'm searching for.

Anyway, I have used this product on different types of operating systems and it has never created any problems.

You can find the program at this site: www.lavasoftusa.com

Using Shortcut Keys in Windows XP

When I'm typing, I hate reaching over for my mouse; it "breaks the flow of things".

Solution: Create a shortcut key for frequently used programs or websites.

Basically you right click on the file for which you want to create a shortcut key in order to access the file's properties window.

Set the cursor (mouse) in the shortcut key textbox and press any letter. If for example you press the letter "A", you will see that the textbox value has changed to Ctrl + Alt + A. In order to launch the file, typically an *.exe file, you would then press 3 keys at the same time: Ctrl + Alt + A.

The same can be done to launch a website; in this case you would first add the website to your favorites, then right click on the favorites entry and follow the process as described above.

Instant Messaging Aggregator

If you use multiple instant-messaging services, such as AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! you might want to aggregate them into one tool. My favorite is called:Trillian. You can download it for free at www.ceruleanstudios.com

Hide System Tables on SQL Server

If you see tables on your SQL Server and have no idea where they came from, you are probably looking at the system tables, which are used by SQL Server. To hide them, you need to right click on the right click on the server (using Enterprise Manager), then Edit SQL Server Registration Properties and Uncheck Show System Databases and System Objects.

No need to update links on Excel Graphs

If you have an Excel Workbook with Graphs and you email it to someone, as soon as the other person opens the workbook, by default, Excel will ask if it should update the links. If the other person does not have access to the data you used to create the graph, meaning if the other person is not mapped to your computer or to the same network shared folder where the data resides, then the other person must decline to update the links.



If you copy and paste your Excel Graph into a new workbook, the links will carry over. However, if you press the SHIFT and CTRL key at the same time you click on Edit on the top menu bar, you will see a new option which allows copying the graph as a picture--no linked data.

SQL SERVER POLL SERVER

The other day I got an angry email from our IT Department asking why I was constantly pinging their SQL Servers. Turns out I was unknowingly Polling all SQL Servers registered in the Enterprise Manager. How? Well, I inherited a computer from a co-worker that left the company. Her computer has SQL Server installed and by default, Enterprise Manager Polls any registered SQL Servers every 10 seconds to see what services are available and inquire about the state of the server. The funny thing is that I remember turning this feature off on her computer a long time ago. But now that I'm logging on to her computer using my own Windows User Id, the settings have reverted to default. Here's what the screen looks like, you can find it in Enterprise Manager under TOOLS / OPTIONS:

Security Warning: Unsafe expressions are not blocked.

Ok this happens every time I move to a new computer and try to open an Access database, I get these annoying pop-ups saying my computer might break if I open the database.

Here’s what they look like:



At this screen, I say NO!

And then I get this screen, asking if I really want to open the file, of course I do, so I do as MS recommends and go to http://www.windowsupdate.com/ to see if I have the latest Microsoft Jet 4.0 Service Pack, and of course I already have it installed, but Microsoft makes me check anyway—whatever.



At this screen, I click YES, because… YES I really want to open the file!
And then I get this screen:
Which basically says that the file I’m trying to open might harm my computer!

I click OPEN of course because I created the database in the first place and I know it isn’t going to harm my computer.



And finally, after 3 annoying pop-ups, the database opens.


To stop getting these pop-ups, you can do the following:

Go to Tools / Macro / Security and set the level to LOW:


BUT YOU BETTER HAVE SOME GOOD UP-TO-DATE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE INSTALLED AND CONFIGURED TO CHECK MACROS. OTHERWISE, YOU KNOW WHAT? YOUR COMPUTER MIGHT JUST BREAK!

Get the column letter of the active cell in Excel

Sub GetColumnLetter()
Dim strCol As String

strCol = Mid(ActiveCell.Address, 2, (InStr(2, ActiveCell.Address, "$")) - 2)
MsgBox strCol

End Sub