by admin | Oct 10, 2011 | Excel, Programming Notes
Now that you know something about how Microsoft Excel 2010 exposes its object model, you can try calling object methods and setting object properties. To do so, you must write your code in a place and in a way that Office can understand; typically, by using the Visual Basic Editor. Although it is installed by default, many users do not know that it is even available until it is enabled on the ribbon.
Developer Tab
All Office 2010 applications use the ribbon. One tab on the ribbon is the Developer tab, where you access the Visual Basic Editor and other developer tools. Because Office 2010 does not display the Developer tab by default, you must enable it using the following procedure:
To enable the Developer tab
- On the File tab, choose Options to open the Excel Options dialog box.
- Click Customize Ribbon on the left side of the dialog box.
- Under Choose commands from on the left side of the dialog box, select Popular Commands.
- Under Customize the ribbon on the right side of the dialog box, select Main tabs, and then select the Developer check box.
- Click OK.
After Excel displays the Developer tab, note the location of the Visual Basic, Macros, and Macro Security buttons on the tab.
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Security Issues
Click the Macro Security button to specify which macros can run and under what conditions. Although rogue macro code can seriously damage your computer, security conditions that prevent you from running helpful macros can seriously undermine your productivity. Macro security is a complex and involved topic that you should study and understand if you work with Excel macros.
For the purposes of this article, be aware that if the Security Warning: Macros have been disabled bar appears between the ribbon and the worksheet when you open a workbook that contains a macro, you can click the Enable Content button to enable the macros.
Also, as a security measure, you cannot save a macro in the default Excel file format (.xlsx); instead, you must save the macro in a file with a special extension, .xlsm.
Visual Basic Editor
This following procedure shows you how to create a new blank workbook in which to store your macros. You can then save the workbook in the .xlsm format.
To create a new blank workbook
- Click the Macros button on the Developer tab.
- In the Macro dialog box that appears, type, Hello under Macro Name.
- Click the Create button to open the Visual Basic Editor with the outlines of a new macro already typed in.
VBA is a full-featured programming language with a correspondingly full-featured programming environment. This article examines only those tools that you use to get started with programming, and that excludes most of the tools in the Visual Basic Editor. With this caveat, close the Properties window on the left side of the Visual Basic Editor, and ignore the two dropdown lists that appear above the code.
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The Visual Basic Editor contains the following code.
Sub stands for Subroutine, which you can define for now as “macro”. Running the Hello macro runs any code that is between Sub Hello() and End Sub.
Now edit the macro so that it looks similar to the following code.
Sub Hello()
MsgBox ("Hello, world!")
End Sub
Go back to the Developer tab in Excel and click the Macros button again.
Select the Hello macro in the list that appears and then click Run to display a small message box that contains the text, “Hello, world!”
You just created and implemented custom VBA code in Excel. Click OK in the message box to close it and finish running the macro.
If the message box does not appear, check your macro security settings and restart Excel.
by admin | Oct 10, 2011 | Excel, Programming Notes
Using Code to Make Applications Do Things
You might think that writing code is mysterious or difficult, but the basic principles use every-day reasoning and are quite accessible. The Office 2010 applications are created in such a way that they expose things called objects that can receive instructions. You interact with applications by sending instructions to various objects in the application. These objects are many, varied, and flexible, but they have their limits. They can only do what they are designed to do, and they will only do what you instruct them to do. Below are some of the important concepts that you must learn to start writing VBA Codes:
Objects
Programming objects relate to each other systematically in a hierarchy called the object model of the application. The object model roughly mirrors what you see in the user interface; for example, the Excel object model contains the Application, Workbook, Sheet, and Chart objects, among many others. The object model is a conceptual map of the application and its capabilities.
Properties and Methods
You can manipulate objects by setting their Properties and calling their Methods. Setting a property changes some quality of the object. Calling a method causes the object to perform some action. For example, the Workbook object has a Close method that closes the workbook, and an ActiveSheet property that represents the sheet that is currently active in the workbook.
Collections
Many objects come in both singular and plural versions—Workbook and Workbooks, Worksheet and Worksheets, and so on. The plural versions are called collections. Collection objects are used to perform an action on multiple items in the collection. Later on, this article discusses how to use the Worksheets collection to change the name of each worksheet in a workbook.
Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/
by admin | Oct 8, 2011 | Management, Soft Skills
Research has always recognized and emphasized the role of teams as they are viewed to be important agents for obtaining change (Porras and Robertson, 1992). Teams are also considered essential to overcome and supplement individual skill weaknesses and promote values such as co-operation, increased communication and multi-skilling (Robbins and Finley, 1997). An effective staff works as a team, and teamwork results in higher productivity than employee working alone (Johnson & Johnson, 2000). When employees are treated as a resource they bring to the organization a variety of ways to solve problems and to increase productivity. Within the production function mentality, the literature embraces the concept that for districts to improve student achievement, schools will need to define: a clear, measurable goal; provide sufficient resources; and empower school with the authority to allocate their resources. The critical element within this management scheme is to improve human capital to the point whereby the staff performs as a team thus, generating social capital. Improved social capital, or utilization of group knowledge or skills to solve problems (Driscoll & Karchner, 1998) thus becomes a policy concern. Schools are comprised of a highly educated work force and management’s task is to mold them into a high performing team focused on accomplishing a common goal.
The concept of teamwork existed already long time ago. Only, it was not given a significance in the field of education. It was the business sectors that utilized it and considered it as a factor that surely affect their organizational goal. Lipnack and Stamps, (1997) have reported that two thirds of business organizations are making use of teams.
If teamwork helped in the success of any business establishment that uses it, then it will surely provide as well instructional competence for the learners if ever teachers will be using it effectively. Every school system must adopt a new trend of managing the school, that is, to apply teamwork among faculty so as to achieve school’s vision.
by admin | Oct 8, 2011 | Management, Soft Skills
Most school managers have undoubtedly persuade many organizational leaders into a belief that democratic management – achieved through the use of groups of individuals – is the path to effectiveness. Such a belief is consistent with an attraction to collaboration and co-operation as opposed to competition and isolation, and it is almost universally unchallenged. While team effort may find more favour than individual achievement – in the organizational rhetoric, at least – there is little firm evidence to support the productivity and effectiveness gains of the former. Yet, intuitively, management by teams seems to make sense. The tide of “teamism” is unlikely to be stemmed, certainly in the foreseeable future. Indeed, Belbin (1993) predicts:
A well-educated population is less likely to accept the word of the big boss. Decisions increasingly demand consultation, a process best accomplished through peer-group relationships. Hierarchy becomes less respected and compliance more difficult to enforce.
 The preceding paragraph emphasizes the needs for collaboration among faculty as to ensure effective school system which possibly make instructional competence and learning process. This will surely give an idea to school managers who are constantly looking out for strategies that will help them to cope with complexity and competition. Ingram, et. al. (1997) have sounding comment on this matter as they emphasize that the most effective linkages between school activities are forged by people and the way in which they work together in groups is a key concern for management.
by admin | Oct 8, 2011 | Management, Soft Skills
Faculty teamwork has grown dramatically over the course of this century. Conventional stereotypes, which convey the image of professors conducting research in the isolation of a laboratory or teaching alone in front of a room of passive students, overlook important aspects of modern academic life. Many professors now do much of their work like teaching, conducting research, and writing in partnership with colleagues.
Faculty teamwork occurs in a variety of settings and takes different forms, depending on the nature of the collaborative team and the goals of its members. Essentially, faculty teamwork is a cooperative endeavor that involves common goals, coordinated effort, and outcomes or products for which the collaborators share responsibility and credit. A characteristic common to all effective schools is staff members that work together on shared goals or a common mission they help to establish.
Effective schools require a professional partnership between the principal and the teachers (Berry, 1990). An effective organization works together as the high performing team bound together with a clear direction, a system of accountability, and strong group norms to maintain the organizational focus.
The underlying assumption is that for meaningful school improvement to take place there is a need for greater teacher involvement both inside and outside the classroom (Fullen and Hargreaves, 1998). Current school reform is focusing on decreasing bureaucratic control and including teachers as active decision makers to improve student outcomes (Rowan, 1994). School improvement is dependent on teacher empowerment (Bullard and Taylor, 1993). A University of Maryland Study (1996) finds that effective schools do many good things simultaneously within a dynamic and open school climate that encourages flexibility, collaboration, and risk-taking among staff.
