Tag: Excel
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Excel: Calculate percentage
I need to calculate what percentage one number is of another on a relatively regular basis. Luckily, it is relatively easily done using functions in Excel. Here’s how: For the purposes of this example, let’s assume that the source number (i.e. the one which we are comparing with) is in field A12, and the number…
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Excel: Combine two columns
While analysing an Excel sheet the other day, I needed to combine two columns so that I could get names in the format firstname lastname (the list had been provided as lastname,firstname). As it happens, doing so is relatively easy. You do it on a cell by cell basis, by using basic excel commands. If…
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Calculating percentage change in Excel
If you do a lot of work in Excel, odds are you’ve needed to calculate a percentage change. Luckily, Excel does this for you quite readily if you simply apply a basic formula of (New Value – Old Value)/Old Value. There is, however, a pitfall that you’ll not get the values you expect if the…
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Outlook: Mail merge
I have previously written about one of my many responsibilities; contacting users whose login credentials have shown up in breach lists. While the pertinent results of the breach files are delivered to me in a flat file, I use Excel’s Text to Columns feature to separate logins (usually email addresses) from the password. While this…
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Excel: Text to Columns
I work a lot with text files containing data which is, to some degree or another, structured. Whether a breach file from a published breach, or the result of a powershell query such as Get-ADUser, Get-ADComputer, or Get-ADDirectReports, I need to separate the data into columns so that I can work with it. This is…
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Excel: Highlight duplicates
Among my many areas of responsibility at work, is contacting all the users found in various data breach lists that our InfoSec team get their hands on (typically, these are the same lists that eventually make their way to HIBP). Not unsurprisingly, there is a significant amount of overlap between some of these lists, and…
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MS Office: Pin items
Many companies, my employer included, uses spreadsheets on a more or less consistent basis in order to track such things as vacation planning and KPI reporting. For me, as an employee, keeping track of these spreadsheets can, from time to time, be a bit annoying. Much to my surprise, at some point in the past…
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Excel: Quickly remove blank cells
From time to time, Excel worksheets fill up with blank cells interspersed among the content. While the judicious use of whitespace can be useful, it may also make reading the worksheet somewhat challenging. Luckily, Excel has a tool to help us get rid of the blank cells. Here’s how: Open the worksheet in question Press F5…
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MS Excel: Create PDF of active worksheet
I recently had a user call in and ask me how he could export the contents of a single worksheet to PDF while working in Microsoft Excel 2010. As I told him, that is a simple feat to achieve. Here is how: Click File, then Save as… Change the format in which to save to PDF Click…
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Decrypting Windows’ Minidump files
When a Windows computer crashes, it will, if possible, write a minidump-file (filetype *.dmp) to the hard drive. These files are usually located in %SYSVOL%\Minidump, and they are usually called something like Mini042809-01.dmp. The problem with these files is that they are not exactly easy to read; here’s a small extract of my last minidump:…