Software Africa Newsletter - July 2024

Editorial ~ Online Business Tip ~ Excel Tip ~ Training Tip

Rick's Editorial:

Would you like to build a mailing list of up to 2,000 contacts, a blog, a community, one online course, and 3 funnels?  The cost?  How does "Free" sound?  Not just free for a limited trial period, but free lifetime access?  And free emails to that list!  You get that with the platform we use for the Excel for Engineers Online Course: systeme.io.  We sent this newsletter from there.

It is simple to use, and they give top-notch personal customer service. When you outgrow the free version, it's much more affordable than the alternatives.

OK, but what is a funnel? (I hear you ask)  A "Sales Funnel" is where you sell your stuff.  You would usually have:

1. A Sales page.  Here you show off the benefits and features of your product or service, pricing, conditions, guarantees, etc. and get them to buy.
2. An Order form - appears when they click the "Buy now" button.  You get their contact details and they pay.
3. A Thank you page - to say "Thanks" after they have made the purchase (and possibly offer more goodies, upsells, downsells, etc.)
4. Optionally, a Link in Bio page to tell people about you and your company, and link to more of what you do.

Systeme.io is the easiest way to create sales funnels. Trusted by 300,000+ Entrepreneurs, systeme.io's funnel builder replaces ClickFunnels, Kartra, Kajabi, Leadpages, OptinMonster, and many others. Try systeme.io now! (did we mention that it is free forever?)

"I got everything I needed within systeme.io and more! I'd tried building a sales funnel on another website builder, but it was clunky, frustrating, and every time I needed another function, I'd have to pay more money." - Mark O., Professional Consultant.

To see our sales funnel for Excel for Engineers, click here.

Autodesk Price Decrease: AutoCAD, Revit, etc, Still Cheaper

As mentioned last time, effective close of business on 19 June 2024, we had a price decrease of 4.8% on all the Autodesk products we sell.

We re-quoted all the open quotes at the time, and gave one customer a partial refund after they paid on the old quote.  The new prices apply to all new quotes.

Might this be a good time to renew before the new GNU make a major blunder and the Rand tumbles again?

On-Line Business Tip #86 – Right-Click the Start Button

The innocuous-looking Windows "Start" button is at the left of the taskbar.  The taskbar itself will be at the bottom of the screen, if you haven't set it somewhere else. This little button conceals a host of often-useful functions. We recently discovered (confession time!) one of these.

Right-click the start button to bring up a pop-up menu. It has a list of probably the most useful features that you can access in Windows. There are a lot these, so we will look at the (more technical) top panel next time. The lower panels contain:

• Task Manager - processes running, performance graphs, app history, start-up programs, users, and services.
• Settings - All the computer settings: System, devices, mobile devices, network and internet, personalization, apps, accounts, time and language, gaming, ease of access, updates, and security.
• File Explorer - Run Windows File Explorer to manage your hard drive, view, copy, move and delete files.
• Search - Open the search box next to the start button and display a lot of occasionally useful information.
• Run - Enter the name of a program, folder, document, or Internet resource, and Windows will open it.
• Shut down or sign out - Sign out, Sleep, Hibernate, Shut down, Restart
• Desktop - Minimize all programs and show the computer's desktop.

It might seem strange that you click "Start" to stop the computer, but then again this is Microsoft. And anyway, we can all think of devices where the ON switch also functions as the OFF switch, so maybe it makes a bizarre sort of sense.

The Software Africa eShop has Closed

Our host, WorldsView, has closed their eStore facility, which we had used for some years. For renewals, or to buy new Autodesk products, email us directly now!  We sell AutoCAD including specialized toolsets, AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD Revit LT Suite, and Maya LT. This is for new subscriptions and renewals.

The Excel for Engineers Online Course is Live

The Excel for Engineers course is on our online platform, systeme.io.  It has video in most lessons,  This is the most complete one we have produced. There are extra sample files and material we don't have time for on the regular two-day live course.

Why should you take the Excel for Engineers course?

The course is chock-full of benefits for any Excel user in a technical field.  Using 19 pre-built spreadsheets (yours to keep), we comprehensively cover using Excel as an Engineering and Scientific Tool.

Do it 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.  Then revise until your memory is solid.

Sign Up Now and get three Free Bonuses.

Excel Tip #233 – Fitting Quadratic and Cubic Curves with LINEST (Part 2: The Cubic)

Last time we introduced using the Excel LINEST function (normally used to fit a straight line to data points) to fit higher-order curves.  We then used an example to show how to use LINEST to fit quadratic curves to data.  Today we'll look at fitting a cubic (third power).

As a reminder, this comes from the sample spreadsheet LINEST-2-3.xlsx in our Excel for Engineers online course.  You can type the example in yourself from the data given previously and below, or order the file free of charge from us by email.

Fitting a Cubic Curve with LINEST:

Now let us calculate the cubic (3rd power) LINEST Coefficients for Head:

The cubic equation has four coefficients (a, b, c and d in y=ax³+bx²+cx+d).  Select the 4 empty cells F3:I3

Type =LINEST(Head, Flow^{1,2,3},TRUE, FALSE) and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter (remember, this is an Array Formula).  You should see four coefficients.

The equation for Head (fit³) in H6 is:

=$F$3*B6^3 +$G$3*B6^2 +$H$3*B6 +$I$3

Copy it down to cells H7:H11.

Now to see the error (difference between experimental values and the fitted curve).  In cell I6, enter the formula = =C6-H6 and copy down as far as row 11.

Fitting the Curves for Power

The above gave us the curves for Head.  You can produce similar equations for Power.

Use cells L2:N3 for LINEST for the quadratic equation, and K3:N3 below them for LINEST for the cubic equation.

The quadratic and cubic equations for Power can then go in cells K6:K11 and M6:M11 respectively.

Their error calculations can go in columns L and N respectively.

The spreadsheet will then look like this (except for row 12, which we will add next time):

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.