3Types

I’m in the middle of a long (6 months or more) project to upgrade all of my reports. I’m doing this for two major reasons. We’re gradually migrating the data warehouse from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005, and as I move my projects to a new 2005 server I’m trying to review my code to take advantage of new SQL 2005 features. At least as important is the fact that we’re in the process of putting in a new billing system, which means that most of the data sources for my programs are going to be changing.

(more…)

Many of my programs involve pulling data from our data warehouse, manipulating it a bit, and presenting the results to the user. Because it can time to get data out of the data warehouse (anywhere from a few seconds to 30 minutes for more complicated queries), the program can easily look like its frozen while the user is waiting. In the case of Excel macros, a running query can freeze up not only Excel, but make the whole computer seem sluggish.
(more…)

One of the programs that I’m happiest with is an Excel add-in that I call Sales Macros. It’s a set of Excel macros that I wrote to automate all sorts of tasks commonly performed by folks in the Sales department.

We have several different online systems that will provide information about our titles - but most of them work on one title at a time. So if a rep or a sales assistant needs, say, updated prices for a spreadsheet full of titles, she would need to look up each title individually. But with Sales Macros, the whole spreadsheet can be filled in with a single operation!

(more…)