2009-11-18

Excel - Import Leading Zeroes

HowTo: Import numbers into Excel without stripping, truncating or loosing leading zeros. A classic example are zipcodes being imported from an external source. Codes, such as "08401" can import as "8401".

When Excel imports numbers, it assumes the "General" format for each column. Fields, such as part numbers, zipcodes, SSN, and other non-numeric numbers will have leading zeroes stripped because Excel thinks they are real numbers. Prevent this by forcing the import as TEXT.

In order to do this properly, you must run Excel's Import Wizard (steps 1 through 3). For this article, assume a simple tab-delimited data file with City names, State codes, and ZipCodes (file columns may not line up this pretty in your actual data file):


Launch Excel and start at a blank sheet

1. Select File,Open: Tunnel to your test data file. Be sure the file extension is .txt, .tab, or .csv in order to trigger the Import Wizard

2. On the 'Text Import Wizard', step 1 of 3, choose "Delimited"

3. On step 2 of 3, choose ([x] Tab)

4. Here is the key to the problem:

On step 3 of 3, click the first column, then Shift-Click the last column (highlighting all columns). Select Option "Text" and complete the import. (Most files should import all columns as text. Optionally, you could select only the ZipCode column.)


Results in Excel will look like this:


Related Keyliner Articles:

Excel UDF (User Defined Functions)
Using Excel for Raffle-Ticket Drawing: Prizeorama
Excel VLookup - a complete tutorial
Excel Coloring Alternate Rows
Excel Parsing City-State-Zip
Excel Importing Text with Leading Zeroes
VB - Return First Word, Last Word, Supertrim
Using VBA to Send Email
Using Excel to select Raffle Tickets - Prize-orama

2009-11-09

Microsoft Product Activation

Reference: U.S. Microsoft Product Activation phone support: 1.888.571.2048

Microsoft's Product Activation phone support number is impossible to find. All Microsoft pages refer you back to your computer (Control Panel, System) but that hardly works when the computer's Activation is awry. It took me several hours to find this number.

US Product Activation (Windows 7) voice number: 1.888.571.2048

When installing Windows 7, I recommend waiting to Activate your product for as long as possible. This way, if something blows up (while fiddling with obscure drivers, for example), you do not have to call Microsoft and beg for your license again.

2009-11-06

Windows 7 / 8 Exposing the RUN command

Howto: Reference article: How to Expose the Start Menu's Run command for Windows 8, 7 and Vista. This is an excerpt from this article: Streamline Windows Start Menus

Windows 7 / Vista - Expose the RUN Command:

The Run command is a handy way to launch programs like Notepad, mspaint, and other obscure programs, where you know the name, but not the icon. Often, typing Start, Run, "notepad" is faster than finding the icon. By default, the Run command is not visible on the Start Menu; here is how to expose it.

Click image for larger view; click "right-x" to return

1. "Other-mouse-click" the Start-button, choose "Properties"
2. Click the "Start Menu" tab
3. Click button "Customize"
4. Check "Run Command"


Other Recommended Changes:
Check [x] Network
Uncheck [ ] Use Large Icons



Windows 8 - Expose the RUN command

1.  From the Start Page, "other-mouse-click" the background (or swipe from bottom).
Click "All Apps"





2.  From the Charm menu, search for "Run"





3.  "other-mouse-click" the Run tile, choose pin to task bar



Use these same steps to expose the Command Prompt icon or Notepad.

Related article with other cleanup steps:
Windows 7 Streamline Start Menu
Start Menu Cleanup (removing unneeded startup programs)