Main Rant ~ Online Business Tip ~ Excel Tip ~ Training Tip
Welcome to the Software Africa Newsletter: Subscribed to by the Select, read by the Elite, acted on by the Exceptional.
Later this month there is good news coming for dotPLOT buyers.
You constantly pay to renew your AutoCAD licence: Is there an alternative?
In Business tips, how can you fill in (and even sign) a non-fillable PDF file?
Our last live online course for the year, Excel Macros, runs at the end of the month. Or you can do a cheaper self-paced version online.
This month's Excel Tip introduces the tricky question of calculating with dates.
We end with the questionable wisdom of Computius.
We can't say more yet, but keep an eye on your email inbox in the week leading up to Black Friday, 25 November. You may be in for a pleasant surprise. If you aren't on the dotPLOT mailing list or don't get an email about dotPLOT, please ask.
What are the main differences between AutoCAD and progeCAD?
Many users find that less expensive or mid-range CAD software still has all the features their companies would use. progeCAD 2D/3D is a reliable and legal alternative to AutoCAD®. It has the AutoCAD “look and feel” and a lower long-term price. The mission of progeCAD is to offer customers a choice, better value for money, and extra functionality. progeCAD boasts perpetual licenses as opposed to Autodesk's annual licensing.
OK, but I customized my AutoCAD UI, so it won't work the same.
If you customized your AutoCAD User Interface (UI), it's no problem. You can import it into progeCAD.
How do prices compare?
A progeCAD 2022 2D/3D Professional Single License costs R8,947 including VAT. This is a perpetual (once-off) license for one user on up to two computers. In contrast, you could pay around R31,189 for AutoCAD including specialized toolsets (new annual subscription). Or R8,086 for AutoCAD LT (new single-user annual subscription).
Could it be time to stop paying Autodesk every year? Contact us now!
You may be sent a PDF file to fill in, and find that it has blue blocks into which you can type. Great! But sometimes there are no blue blocks and the PDF doesn't let you enter data. What to do?
Of course, if you have a printer and a scanner, you can print the document, scrawl on it in by hand, scan it skew, and email it back.
However, with Fill & Sign, Adobe Acrobat Reader lets you fill in any PDF on your computer, and even add your signature. You can add ticks, X's and lines too.
Acrobat Reader has a main menu: File - Edit - View - Sign. The top item in the Sign menu is Fill & Sign. It is also in the Tools section of the menu right under the main menu. Whichever one you choose gives you a new toolbar that looks like this:
The first toolbar item, shown in blue, is active by default. It gives you an I-beam
cursor. Use that to click somewhere in the document. It will give you a text box
into which you can type whatever text you want to fill in. You can drag the
block to place it anywhere in the document.
As shown above, there is a button to change from a solid block of text, to text where
each letter goes into a separate block (such as one finds on many official
forms).
The “Sign yourself” section allows you to scan in your signature and then place that signature wherever you like in the document.
Fill & Sign is a very useful tool to extend your use of PDF files.
You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader free from the Adobe site. If you don't want them, un-tick the optional extras: Acrobat for Chrome is useful if you use Google Chrome. You might not want McAfee Security Scan Plus, or McAfee Safe Connect.
The Excel for Engineers course is available on-line as a self-paced course. The same manual and examples as the live version. The same trainer. No live support, however. But done at your own pace at times that suit you. Take half an hour a day and complete it in a month. Spend an hour a day and finish it in two weeks. Or dedicate two days –a weekend, perhaps?– and crack the whole course.
Sign up now and get these Bonuses:
Take our self-paced online course in your own time and venue. All the value at a quarter of the price of the live course. Backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Microsoft Excel stores dates as sequential serial numbers for use in calculations. 1 January 1900 is serial number 1. 2 January 1900 is serial number 2, and so on. Thus, 1 January 2000 is serial number 36526 because it is 36,525 days after 1 January 1900.
This means that you can do maths with dates. Subtract an earlier date from a later one to find the number of days between them. Want to know the date two weeks hence? Add 14 to today’s date.
But how do we get Excel to insert today’s date? Here’s how:
TODAY
Enter =TODAY() into a cell with the equals sign (=) and the parentheses ( ), but no parameters. Whenever the spreadsheet updates, that formula will give you today’s date.
How about a fixed date? Two functions can supply that:
DATE and DATEVALUE
Where you have the year, month, and day as numbers, you can enter dates using the DATE function. Syntax: DATE(year, month, day). For example, DATE(2022,11,20) will give 20 November 2022.
Where you have text that looks like a date, you can enter dates using the DATEVALUE function. Syntax: DATEVALUE(date_text). For example, DATEVALUE(“25 Nov 2022”) will give the date serial number for 25 November 2022. Which date formats Excel recognizes will depend on your Windows Regional Settings. Your machine might even be set up to expect DATEVALUE(“Nov 25, 2022”) or something similar.
You can also just type the date into a cell, for example, 25 Nov 2022. If the date changes to a different format, Excel recognized it as a date. If not, you need to try a different format. The year-month-day format yyyy-mm-dd is widely understood since it is unambiguous. This is unlike dd-mm-yyyy (UK) and mm-dd-yyyy (US).
More about Excel dates next time. Read more here on our Excel for Engineers blog.
Macros let you 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 ...or the dog. You can now attend the whole course live online over two days from the comfort of your own computer. Do you have a good knowledge of Excel, and now want to program your own time-saving applications? Then this course is for you!
Scheduled Course: Please take note of the change of date.
| Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 November 2022 (two days, 08:00-17:00 CAT). |
Venue: Live Online via Zoom. You get an 85-page PDF manual,
and valuable examples.
Early-Bird Price if
paid not later than two weeks before the course: Only R4,500 plus VAT per trainee.
Thereafter
R5,000 plus VAT each.
For more information including the curriculum, click here. To book a course online or in-house at your company, click here and send the resulting email. Or email info@softwareafrica.co.za.
Instead of a doing the whole Excel Macros course over two days, you can do it online in your own time, more cheaply. The Software Africa Quick 'n Easy Turbo-Start Excel Macros course is now online. Take it now!
New Proverb: A bug in the code is worth two in the documentation.
All the Best from
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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