Bits'n'Bytes

As heard on CJCD

Episode 44

Business people and students use Microsoft Excel almost every day to create spread sheets. There are lots of neat tips and tricks I could teach you about creating formulas that cross various worksheets, I could tell you how I do my household budget using Excel or even how I keep the stats in our poker league. But, instead, I'm going to try to explain a really neat use for Excel that even the most seasoned user may have overlooked.

To create an interactive map using Excel, you start with a graphic of a map of, say, the Northwest Territories. Apparently, a good size is about 400x600 pixels, so you may have to figure out how to resize an image, or get someone to do it for you. Open Excel so you have a brand new worksheet. Click on Format, then on Sheet, then on Background. Using the dropdown menu in this window, find your graphic and click on the Insert button. It'll be inserted several times, so fill in the cells around it with black so it looks like there's only one instance of the picture.

Next, click on Format, Cells, then Width. Select a width of 2. This will make all the cells in the workbook smaller, so you can be more accurate. Next, click on Tools, then Options and go to the View tab. There, look for and uncheck the Gridlines checkbox, to get rid of all the lines all over the graphic you have as your background.

Now you have a map, with no lines on it, set into an excel worksheet. Find your points of interest - let's use Yellowknife as an example. When you click on the point on the map where Yellowknife is, you're actually highlighting one of the small squares, or cells, in the worksheet. Click on Insert and pick Comment. In the comment box, type Yellowknife, then click somewhere else on the map to get rid of the comment box. All that will be left is a little red triangle. But, now any time a mouse slides over that square, a little yellow pop-up will appear to let the person view know that area is Yellowknife!

Stay tuned next week when I talk about using Microsoft's Movie Maker program.

I’m Computer Dave, thanks for your time.