Software Africa Newsletter – November 2020

Autodesk Tip ~ QuickBooks Tip ~ Online Business Tip ~ Excel Tip

Editorial

Welcome to the start of the Silly Season.  Christmas is already well underway in the shops.  We has a blessedly quiet Guy Fawkes, but a noisy Diwali.  It is regrettable that a few people try to outdo each other in demonstrating how inconsiderate they are and how much they hate their neighbours –and their neighbours' pets.

One New Year's eve a neighbour's child threw a firecracker at Wagner, our young German Shepherd.  For the rest of his life the dog would shiver uncontrollably at the sound of fireworks, and even thunder.  You may say, "it's just one night in the year".  That one hour's fun can have lasting consequences.

This New Year will probably see similar behaviour.  Do we need a ban on fireworks?  Must everyone lose their rights because some people cannot use them responsibly?

In fireworks of a different kind... This month we have good news in an AutoCAD price decrease.  A price decrease?  Now that's a rare event.  If that's not enough, we have sourced a cheaper alternative.  In our tips, we continue to look at platforms you can make money on by putting your knowledge into a course.  Our Excel Macros course continues with a new chunk.

Save on AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT and Revit LT Suite: 5.7% Price Decrease!

The Rand has strengthened against the USD and AutoCAD software has now become slightly more affordable. As a subscription customer, you'll enjoy access to the latest innovations the moment they're available, including enhanced technical support and greater control of your software. Subscribe now, and save.

Here are the current prices (excluding VAT) for an annual licence:

Here are the current prices (excluding VAT) for a 3 year licence:

To order – email us for a quote!.

Train Your People at Home During Lockdown

Many of your staff are working from home at present. Could your company make this an opportunity instead of a drawback?

Employees are more valuable when they know Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access (the database), and Visual Basic automation. We can train them online in person via the internet at times that suit your schedule.

At Software Africa we have a wealth of training material, tested and honed in in-person classes. Levels range from beginners through to programming. Now we train online, live via Zoom at times to suit you. It is actually better that way! The trainee can see the trainer's screen up close, instead of peering from the back of a room. The trainee can share their screen instead of the trainer having to wander around to look.

Join the new wave of online upskilling: email Rick.

On-Line Business Tip #44 – Put Your Knowledge on the Web IV: Teachable

We are investigating alternatives for on-line schools.  Last issue we looked at TabletWise.

Rick started using Teachable in 2017. This is his experience.

In general, Teachable is a straightforward, solid platform and your students will find navigation easy. Teachable’s strength is with its video driven content and simple tools to support selling your courses. Llike their customizable sales, checkout, and "Thank You" pages.

In Teachable, setting up a course is simple.  Courses are organised into Sections and these are filled with Lectures.  This makes it easy for Students to navigate even a long course.

Teachable is clearly geared toward selling courses. Setting up a sales page is uncomplicated, yet produces an appealing result. Some confusion arose as they changed editors.

As part of the set-up process for a course you specify basic things like the name of the course and the instructor, but you can also specify a search engine optimized (SEO) URL, page title and meta-description for each course you create. You can also easily upload a thumbnail image that will be displayed in the catalogue and on the course interface as well as a promotion video that can be displayed on the sales page for the course.

A recent problem with Teachable is that, as of August 2019, schools on the Free plan are limited to 10 students.  Prior to that, you could have unlimited students.  This may well mean that you will have to shell out money (at least US$29 per month) before your income is covering the cost of the plan.  That was the main reason we are putting our recent courses on Thinkific, which we will look at next.

Is AutoCAD Bleeding You Dry?  What Can You Do?

Are you finding AutoCAD expensive?  It's the market leader and probably a product you know.  But many of our customers who are up for renewal, tell us that it is no longer affordable.  It's Covid-19 time and business is down.  We hear you.

What choice do you have?  Go out of business?  Find a cheaper alternative?

What if there was a package that was cheaper –for a permanent licence– than a one-year full AutoCAD subscription?

How about if it does everything that AutoCAD does and more, matches the AutoCAD ribbon, and reads and writes AutoCAD DWG files? 

And gives you a month's no-obligation free trial to see if you like it?

We have found you ZWCAD, and negotiated a promotional price valid until 31 Dec 2020 (subject to exchange rate fluctuations).

The ZWCAD Standard version handles two-dimensional drawings, like AutoCAD LT does.  The Pro version has capabilities like full AutoCAD.

For a comparison of AutoCAD and ZWCAD prices, look at the table below.  All prices in ZAR excluding VAT, but note that ZWCAD provides a perpetual licence, while AutoCAD is an annual (or 3-year) subscription:

ZWCAD 2021 STD (2D) PRO (3D)   AutoCAD 2021 LT FULL
New Perpetual Licence R11,520 R15,200   1-Year Subscription R5,685 R22,499
1-Year Maintenance (includes Upgrade to 2022) R2,240 R2,560   3-Year Subscription R15,358 R60,783

A perpetual licence for ZWCAD Professional will save you 32% over a single year of full AutoCAD.

A perpetual licence for ZWCAD Standard will cost you about two years of AutoCAD LT, and save you thereafter.

Would you like to give ZWCAD a try, with no obligation?  email us for a PDF on ZWCAD and a free download link.

Don't delay!  This offer is strictly time-limited, but will disappear earlier if the Rand depreciates.

 

Excel Tip #192 – Basic Coding 5: Holding Values Temporarily

In the last issue, we listed what our macro needs to do to process a list of telephone numbers into a uniform format.

To achieve point 2 (“Store it somewhere temporarily”), we need to learn about variables.

Data is stored in a program in the form of variables (rather like cell references).

Before use, every variable must be declared (given a name and a Data Type). We are going to mention three data types: String, Long Integer, and Double (double-precision floating-point). The first is used for any text, the latter two for different types of numbers.

Variables are declared using the Dim (dimension) statement. This can be anywhere in the Sub, but it is good programming practice to put them at the top, just after any opening comments. This is one of the commands you cannot add while you are running the macro; it is a fundamental change.

The format of the Dim statement is:

Dim StringVariable1$, IntegerVariable2&, DoubleVariableName3#

The symbols $, & and # are the type-declaration character. This defines the Data Type. For String (text), this is $. This means that any variable the name of which ends in the symbol "$" will automatically be a String. The type-declaration character is & for Long Integer, and # for Double.

To remember: $ looks like the “S” for “String”.

# (hash) is often read as “number”.

& (“there’s more!”) reminds us of “Long” (integer).

Use Double to store numbers with decimals. You can do math with Double variables, but the result may not be exact; you might have to round it off. Complicated calculations that you might expect to produce the value 4.00 might instead give 3.99999999999

Use Long Integer if decimals are not needed or could cause problems. If we are counting how many times something has to repeat, use a Long Integer, not a Double, to avoid the 3.99999999999 problem. You can do calculations with Long Integer variables, but the result will always be a whole number.

Use a string to contain any text: Letters, numbers, symbols, punctuation, and spaces. You cannot do calculations with a string.

Variable names must start with a letter, and can contain letters, numbers, and the underscore (_). No spaces or other special characters are allowed (except the type declaration character at the end). The case you use (UPPER or lower or MiXed) in the Dim statement will be used everywhere.

Tip: Except for the Dim statement, type your variables in all lowercase. If the program changes them to Mixed Case to suit the Dim, then you spelled the variable name correctly.

[There are other data types that are not of interest to us in this course, and other ways of declaring them, which are more cumbersome and less useful.]

Which variable type should we use for our phone number?

Think!

?

 

Correct! At first glance, we might consider Long Integer because it is a “number”, but wait; it also can contain spaces and other symbols! Hence, we must use a String.

Add this line to your macro just after the comments (“Tel” is short for “Telephone number”):

Dim Tel$

Next time, we will start on "How to Get and Change the Contents of Cells".

Finish Covid-19 Lockdown with a New Skill!

You can use this time to learn simple Excel macros. Do repetitive work in a flash, instead of repeating the same boring stuff manually. Save hours not working late, and spend more time with your family...  The Software Africa Quick 'n Easy Turbo-Start Excel Macros course is now online.  To help you during lockdown, for a limited time you can get it at a 75%+discount!

Computius Say:

Raubenheimer's Law: "The bigger your computer screen (and the more monitors you have), the more difficult it is to locate your mouse pointer."

Remember:  We can make your business run better by:

All the Best from the team!
Judith, Catherine, and Rick

Communication in Action cc trading as Software Africa

"Empowering African Business with standard and custom PC programs, databases, and templates using Microsoft technologies"

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