Software Africa Newsletter - June 2023

Main Article ~ Online Business Tip ~ Excel Tip ~ Training Tip

Preview

Welcome to the Software Africa Newsletter: Subscribed to by the Select, read by the Elite, acted on by the Exceptional.

Do you need to manage spatial data that you have in AutoCAD?  Read on...

In the Business Tip, user feedback on last month's dictation program

Excel Macros and Excel for Engineers are ready for you as self-paced online courses.

In this month's Excel Tip we conclude our mini-series about Excel dates.

We wind up with weird and wacky wisdom from Computius.

Rick's Editorial:

Welcome to winter! After going down to 2° overnight last week, Johannesburg has warmed up to 9-degree lows recently. It's almost balmy.  I was so hot I took off my fleecy top during my 4 km run at 6 on Thursday morning.

The Rand continues to slide relative to the dollar, making Autodesk software increasingly more expensive. The price hike at the end of June turned out to be from 7 to 12%, depending on the product. Customers who chose to pay a little early certainly benefited.

Here's a powerful AutoCAD plug-in you might like too:

What is Spatial Manager?

Spatial Manager is a Windows desktop application designed to manage spatial data in a simple, fast and inexpensive way. There are Spatial Managers for AutoCAD, for BricsCAD, for ZWCAD, for GstarCAD, and Spatial Manager Desktop. The program has:

• Thematic maps: Visualize objects colouring them depending on their field values
• Fields calculator: Calculate simple or complex expressions using operators and functions applied to field values
• Location tools: Location and geo-coding tools help to add reference elements and enhanced data to existing objects
• Publishing to Google Earth: Export all or part of the elements (2D and 3D), in the visible Layers of the map and their data to a file
• Google Street View integration: Google Street View dynamic image browser on any geo-referenced drawing or map
• Spatial analysis: Perform spatial analysis operations over the objects in the drawing generating new objects from such analysis
• Background Maps: Choose them from providers such as OpenStreetMap, Bing, MapBox, Ordnance Survey, etc.  Or configure your own maps from TMS, WMS or WMTS servers
• and more!

Spatial Manager provides the power of a GIS (Geographical Information System) in AutoCAD.  It has that rarest of pricing in the modern CAD space, a once-off perpetual licence.  Isn't that wonderful?  There's also a free trial version.

It comes in 3 flavours: Basic, Standard, and Professional Edition. See feature comparison here.

We are their South African resellers.  We recently quoted Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD - Professional Edition + 1 year of Updates and Support at R11,500 + VAT.  The same program with 3 years of Updates and Support is R15,700 + VAT, saving 21%.  Prices will rise as the Rand deteriorates against the US Dollar, so email us now!

On-Line Business Tip #74 – Faster Typing Using Your Voice, The Sequel

Last time we had a review of Voice In Typing, an add-in that you can load into Google Chrome.

I bought a lifetime subscription to Voice In Plus, because I was hoping to use it for many years. I did this largely in desperation at the program’s constant use of the word “karma” instead of typing a comma.  Their support said that on the paid version I could program it to use a “,”.  I then did that, and it sometimes works, but at other times it just uses a different nonsense variation.

Here are the problems I still have:

1. One must remember to say "open parenthesis" and "close parenthesis" not "open parentheses" and "close parentheses".
2. Why it capitalises “Close parentheses” (and other random words) is a mystery
3. I get Kama and korma now instead of a comma!  What is so difficult about a plain comma?  I would bet that among South African English speakers –even those of Indian extraction– the punctuation mark of a comma (“,”) is used at least 1000 times more often than “karma”, “Kama” or “korma”, whatever the latter two are.
4. I programmed “ colon” to give a “:”.  It got it right on the third try, after trying “Cole on” and “Kohler”.
5. “Covid” was even worse, though it finally understood “covid19”, after trying covered covert kovered 19, whatever “kovered 19” might be!
6. “Delete word” and “delete last word” plain do not work in Google Docs, even when repeated clearly several times.  The program registers the words, but then ignores them.

The authors of Voice In Plus asked for feedback, so I gave them the above.  Anil Shanbhag, the Founder, gave me a quick reply last Sunday (amazing), promising to get back to me in detail "tomorrow" (Monday).  He finally replied on Wednesday (less than amazing). I must still try his suggestions, but they do not look promising.  More to come in Sequel II...

Excel for Engineers Online Self-Paced Course

Not for engineers alone, the Excel for Engineers course is available online as a self-paced course.  The same manual and examples as the live version.  The same trainer. 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:

1. Report, "Are You Making These Microsoft Excel Mistakes?"
2. A Free Support Group
3. Our Excel file "Excel Shortcut keys & My Macro Shortcuts" (you'll want this once you start building macros).

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.

Live Online Training Webinars: Excel for Engineers and Excel Macros

BEST (Built Environment Skills and Training (Pty) Ltd.) uses Rick to run these two courses regularly over two days. You get 2 CPA points from ECSA.  And lunch from Uber Eats.  Visit BEST here.  Please tell them that Software Africa sent you.

Excel Tip #220 – Working with Dates, Part VIII: Other Useful Date Functions & Examples

Last month we introduced the NETWORKDAYS function to calculate working days, excluding weekends and holidays.  And its companion, WORKDAY.  Here are some other date functions you may find useful:

DATEDIF(start_date,end_date,unit) calculates the number of days, months, or years between two dates. This function is useful in formulas where you need to calculate an age.  For Unit, use "Y" for the number of complete years in the period. Use "M" for the number of complete months in the period.

DAY(serial_number) returns the day number in the month, for a date serial number.

MONTH(serial_number) returns the month number in the year, for a date serial number.

YEAR(serial_number)  returns the year number of a date serial number.

WEEKDAY(serial_number) returns the number of the day in the week corresponding to a date serial number.  This is an integer from 1 (Sunday) to 7 (Saturday), by default.

Short Examples using Date Functions

To get the first of the month from any date in the month:
=start_date - DAY(start_date) + 1 or
=EOMONTH(start_date,-1) + 1

To get a specific day of the week from any date in the month, for example, the next Tuesday:
=start_date -WEEKDAY(start_date) +3 +IF(start_date -WEEKDAY(start_date) +3 < start_date, 7, 0)
How this works:
start_date - WEEKDAY(start_date) is always a Saturday.
Add 3 for a Tuesday.
However, that might be last Tuesday, so add 7 if it was.
Change both 3’s to 1 for Sunday, 2 for Monday, 4 for Wednesday, etc.  Remove both “+3” for Saturday.

That concludes our mini-series about Excel dates.  Read the whole post here on our Excel for Engineers blog.  Something new next time!

Microsoft Excel Macros Online Self-Paced Course

Macros let you do repetitive work in a flash, instead of repeating the same boring stuff by hand.  Save hours not working late, and spend more time with your family ...or the cat.  Do you have a good knowledge of Excel, and now want to program your own time-saving applications?  Then this course is for you!

Do it in your own time, at your own venue and pace, cost-effectively.  The Software Africa Quick 'n Easy Turbo-Start Excel Macros course is waiting for you online.  Take it now!

Computius Say:

Definition: "Compatible": Gracefully accepts erroneous data from any source.

Remember:  We can make your business run better by:

• Training your company live online, or live in-house, or via a self-paced online course.  We train on Excel, Word, Access, and Windows (all levels from beginners to Programming).
• Automating your in-house processes with Excel macros, a custom program or database.
• Promoting your corporate image with a set of templates on Microsoft Word or Excel, linked to your address list.
• Speeding up your processes by linking to your database or spreadsheet.
• Solving your QuickBooks, Microsoft Access, Excel, Word, Visual Basic, and PowerPoint problems.
• Supplying software: We re-sell and support various accounting, timesheet, scheduling, and productivity programs.
• Providing world-class programs for the Engineer and Civil Engineering Geologist.  We sell dotPLOT, progeCAD, ZWCAD, and Autodesk products like AutoCAD, Revit LT Suite and Maya LT.

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"

Reg.  2009/007863/23 ~ VAT No 4500104387 ~ 126 Kelvin Drive, Morningside Manor, Sandton, 2191 South Africa.

Disclosure:  Some links we share might be affiliate links we promote in return for a commission.  We only promote things we've actually tried and think could be great for you too.