Ross Goodman

Category: Misc

Anything that does not realy sit anywhere else.

  • Uselfull Excel Macro – Make Contents Page

    I commonly have large excel spreadsheets with many tabs or worksheets within the same workbook.

    I use the following Microsoft excel macro to generate a contents page.

    NOTE: I’m assuming the “Contents” worksheet will be the first and the list will be generated from A2 downwards.

    Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
        For i = 2 To Sheets.Count
            Range("a" & i) = Sheets(i).Name
            ActiveSheet.Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=Range("a" & i), Address:="", SubAddress:="'" & Sheets(i).Name & "'!A1", TextToDisplay:=Sheets(i).Name
        Next i
        Columns("A:A").EntireColumn.AutoFit
    End Sub

  • Tools I Use – Auto Hot Key

    I have decided to start a small series of posts where I share some of my tools, tips and tricks as to how I make my work and personal life a bit “better”.

    The first of these tools is AutoHotkey.

    “Fast scriptable desktop automation with hotkeys. Creating your own apps and macros has never been easier”

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  • Useful Outlook Macros

    Quite often I want to create a task immediately off the back of sending an e-mail – usually to remind me to follow up with the recipient after a period of time. I created a macro to do this rather than having to remember to go into tasks and do this manually – better to keep the flow rather than having to remember the steps.

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  • Contacts – Keep In Touch or Update Details

    One of my New Year resolutions was to keep in touch with more people.

    I also need to clear out my contact list as there are lots of “old” and incomplete entries in my Google contacts list.

    Ever the productivity geek I wanted to automate this. I ended up writing the following Google Apps Script:

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  • Add Reminders To Outlook Appointments

    A Reminder
    Creative Commons License photo credit: Andrew Coulter Enright

    If like me your Outlook calendar can get a bit hectic and others can add meetings to your calendar sometimes you end up simply “reacting” to your schedule and jumping from one appointment to the next on “autopilot”. It’s at times like these that Outlook’s ability to create a reminder can save your dignity.

    However, sometimes the meeting organiser does not set a reminder. I have created an Outlook macro that will look for incoming meeting requests, without a reminder set and give you the option to set a reminder.

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  • InBox Zero And Quantified Self

    I’m a huge fan of keeping my inbox empty, but not very good and keeping it that way.

    I’m becoming more interested in the “Quantified Self” concept i.e. you can only fix things that you can measure.

    The obvious answer is to monitor what my GMail inbox looks like on a daily basis. (more…)

  • Stay Focussed – Stay OUT of Outlook!

    One of my main productivity “sinks” is continually monitoring Outlook to see if any mails have arrived.

    I have a rule set up that notifies me if an “important” email lands but for this to run, outlook needs to be running (minimised of course). I can’t resist the temptation to just “have a peek” outside my first thing in the morning, last thing at night email window.

    To get around this I want to be “discouraged” from opening Outlook.

    To implement this I have used Antonio Franca’s fantastic WinTrigger AutoHotkey script.

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  • The ‘Tache Is Dead

    As you will have seen from my previous posts, I was growing a mustache for MND Scotland

    DSCN1333

    All it would have taken is £10 / day for me to keep the ‘tache.

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  • Long Live The Tache

    DSCN1284

    Since Christmas I have been sporting a new look – now it’s the time to announce why!

    I have been raising money for various charities by running (I’m doing 4 marathons this year for MND Scotland) but I have finally found a way where your donations can impact ME as well as helping MND sufferers and their families in Scotland.

    On Monday the 2nd of April my tache will be “born”.
    I will keep my tache for as long as there are donations to support it.
    My tache expects £10 per day – if the total raised is £100 then my tache will “live” until 10 days after the 2nd of April.
    The more you give the longer it lives – once it’s gone it’s gone !

    https://www.justgiving.com/LongLiveTheTache

  • A Personal Manifesto / Dashboard / Scorecard

    Those that know me will agree that I’m a bit of a “geek”.

    Whilst I don’t always chase the latest and greatest geek toys or gadgets I do like to try and find a practical application of how technology can help me. This is a side effect of being a Business Intelligence consultant where I am striving to maximise (and measure) the benefits for my clients.

    During a quiet moment I pondered – If I was to build a dashboard to measure/motivate/incentivise “ME” what would be on it?

    Oops
    Creative Commons License photo credit: churl

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