I was browsing the internet looking for possible solutions to my problem. For a job I have to extract data from an Excel worksheet in order to turn that data into something like a scheduling module. It's meant to give the customer insight into the progress his employees are making (most prominent).
Now since I couldn't find a specific answer and this post suggesting the only real way was using internet explorer, I was wondering if there are better and more modern ways to do this.
My framework of choice would be Laravel. I thought I'd mention it in case it matters for the possible solution or not. I am really scratching my head here because I cannot imagine that with today's technology we would still have to rely on Internet Explorer.
If anyone has tips, suggestions, anything that helps me: I would really appreciate it.
Can someone help me with the following problem. I want to make text appear and flow to the right at the same time like this website: https://www.wokine.com/en/ . How should my code look like?
There are a series of solutions to that and writing about them all in detail would take forever, I'm just going to share a few of my favourite libraries and a few resources on them.
AOS is in my opinion the nicest library doing what you want to do. It's on Github.
WOW.js is another library that does what you are looking for, but it has some strange licensing.
With a queck search I could also find ScrollMagic, I have no experience with that one.
Hope it helps get you started!
I have an excel sheet I've received from someone with information about their personal library recently, and they've asked me to add the library of congress number to every book on the sheet. There's thousands of books on this thing, and it would take forever to search the library of congress website and copy-paste everything on here. Is there a built-in function or a way to have a column search the website for each book and copy the appropriate number?
Err... No.
This specific functionality (searching the library of congress) is so specific, that it makes no sense for Microsoft to add it to Excel. There would be probably 3 people in total that would EVER use it.
A more generic functionality (take an arbitrary webpage and look for some arbitrary information in it) would on the other hand be too vague. Either it would be useless or it would need to have a bazillion parameters to get it to do what you need to. And you'd need to spend months trying to configure it just right.
Actually, Excel does kinda offer this generic functionality - it's called the VBA. You can write custom programs there that can do pretty much anything under the sun. The downside - it's programming. If you know what you're doing, you can probably get it done in a couple of days, maybe a week. If you don't know... good luck. You'll need it!
I have a friend that is working on a company without any real IT people, and they've gone the classical corporate route of stringing things together with Excel macros whenever they need something. I was trying to figure out what alternatives are available for someone that isn't a programmer by trade.
What is an easy alternative to Excel when you want to distribute data offline together with forms for manipulating it, that doesn't have a steep learning curve? I was going to suggest he learn Python and SQL-lite, but I'm hoping StackOverflow can come up with a wiser answer.
Honestly, for non developers (and if you do not have a dev staff in-house) there really isn't anything wrong with Excel.
That being said, Lightswitch is a new and fairly interesting option for basic forms over data work (although it's still a bit green).
IMO once you go down the route of languages like Python, etc. you're really looking at someone who is going to have to be a programmer (and they may be shooting themselves in the foot on a regular basis).
In that type of environment users end up with Excel or Access to manipulate data. Excel is convenient where cells in row are calculated the same way, but with exceptional cases. Access is better for calculating over multiple rows easily, data management forms (yes Excel can do it too, but Access is easier) and formatted reports.
The best situation I've arrived at in this type of environment is standing up read only "data warehouse" that Excel and Access users can link or download data from to manipulate on their own. For this situation SQL Server is probably the right choice and I use quotes around "data warehouse" because I don't mean it in the technical sense, but rather just a convenient repository. That way you have one definitive system of record. Then any report generated in either tool repeatedly becomes a candidate for incorporation into that warehouse.
I flatter myself that I'm a good programmer, and can get away with graphic design. But something I'm incapable of doing is coming up with good names - and it seems neither are the people I work with. We're now in the slightly ludicrous situation that the product we've been working on for a couple of years is being installed to customers, is well received and is making money - but doesn't yet have a name.
We're too small a company to have anything like a proper marketing division to do this thing. So how have people tended to choose names, logos and branding?
When it's for something that "matters", I plop down the $50 and have the folks at PickyDomains.com help out. That also results in a name that's available as a .com.
For guidelines, here's an extract from my own guide on naming open source projects:
If the name you're thinking of is directly pulled from a scifi or fantasy source, don't bother. These sources are WAY overrepresented as naming sources in software. Not only are your chances of coming up with something original pretty small, most of the names of characters and places in scifi are trademarked and you run the risk of being sued.
If the name you're thinking of comes straight from Greek, Roman or Norse mythology, try again. We've got more than enough mail related software called variations of "Mercury".
Run your proposed name through Google. The fewer results you get the better. If you get down to no results, you're there.
Don't try to get a unique name by just slightly misspelling something. Calling your new Windows filesystem program Phat32 is just going to end up with users getting frustrated looking at the results of "fat32" in a search engine.
If your name couldn't be said on TV in the 50s or 60s, you're probably on the wrong track. This is particularly true if you would like anyone to use your product in a work environment. No one is going to recommend a product to their co-workers if they can get sued for sexual harassment just for uttering its name.
If your product name can't be pronounced at all, you'll get no word of mouth benefit at all. Similarly, if no one knows how to pronounce it, they will not be very likely to try to say it out loud to ask questions about it, etc. How do YOU say MySQL? PostgreSQL? GNU? Almost all spoken languages on Earth are based on consonant/vowel syllables of some sort. Alternating between consonants and vowels is a pretty good way to ensure that someone can pronounce it.
The shorter the better.
See if the .com domain is available. If it's not, it's a pretty good indicator that someone has already thought of it and is using it or closer to using it than you are. Do this even if you don't intend to use the domain.
Don't build inherent limitations on your product into the name. Calling your product LinProduct or WinProduct precludes you from ever releasing any sort of cross-platform edition.
Don't use your own name for open source products. If the project lives on beyond your involvement, the project will either have to be renamed or your name may be used in ways you didn't intend.
for a product, first read Positioning, the Battle for Your Mind and think really hard about what mental position you want to occupy
then find a word or two that conveys that position, and make up an acronym for it
for a (self-serving) example: my most recent product is a fine-grained application monitor for .NET applications. I want to convey the feeling of peace that you have when you know that your apps are behaving because they are continuously monitored, so 'no news' really is 'good news'. I chose CALM after a lot of false starts, and decided that it stood for Common Application Lightweight Monitor - which just also happens to be a very technically accurate description of the basic implementation
also, you might be amazed at how much 'better' users perceive an application to be when it has a name and a logo attached to it.
You should try BustaName. It basically combines words to create available domain names. You are able to choose similar words for the words that you previously entered.
Also try these links out:
Naming a company
77 ways to come up with an idea
Igor Naming Guide (PDF)
Names -- you can try yourselves or ask friends/customers about what they are thinking about when listen/use your product (I don't know correct English word for that -- if two things have something in common they are associated?).
Or, depends on what kind of product is it, ask someone with unlimited imagination -- kids are very good at it.
Logos and branding -- you need professionals.
And of course you need layer :).
I second the recommendation of the Igor naming guide. Stay away from meaningless strings of alternating vowels and consonants: altana, obito, temora, even if it seems easy and the domains are readily available. Pick something with soul and meaning. Best example: "Plan B" (also known as the morning-after pill).