Excel

Office Web Apps, Google Docs go head-to-head

Microsoft's first true browser-based versions of the venerable Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications won't make you abandon the programs' full-featured counterparts installed your hard drive. But if you splurge for Office 2010, you may find yourself spending a lot more time working in your browser.

You probably already do some word processing and spreadsheet work using Google Docs, Zoho, or another such service. (I described the Web's best desktop-app replacements in a post last month.)

These services have offered first-rate word processing and spreadsheet programs that run in a browser and let you create, open, and store … Read more

Masterful merging

Excel can be a very useful tool for managing large quantities of information, but it's not always easy to combine data from different tables in a meaningful way. Merge Tables Wizard for Microsoft Excel is a handy add-on that automates the merging process, making it easy for even novice Excel users to merge tables like pros.

The program installs easily and appears as its own easy-to-find tab in the Excel menu. The program is designed to work as a wizard, guiding users through each step of the set-up process. Users simply select the relevant cells in the master table … Read more

Microsoft Office 2010 now available to the public

Microsoft Office 2010 is now available for purchase. We wrote our review for the Office 2010 Professional RTM version, which is identical to the final public release, when Microsoft released it to businesses on May 18. If you didn't get a chance to check out the beta version or an earlier release of Office 2010, you can now download a 30-day trial version to see which version best fits your needs.

Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student ($149.99) includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft OneNote.

Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business ($279.99) includes … Read more

Microsoft Office 2010 Web apps revealed

One of the biggest new additions to Microsoft Office 2010 (review) is the ability to use Web apps to access your work anywhere. Though they're not as feature-rich as their counterparts in the desktop version, we think many will find them useful for edits, changes, and even sketching out ideas while away from the office.

Microsoft made Web versions of the most used apps in the office suite including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. All offer enough basic features to work on the go, and you can always transfer a document back to your desktop for further tweaks when … Read more

Blog news coverage differs from mainstream press

Technology has made it possible for more of us to not only read the news but also write it via blogs and social-media sites. But do stories on the blogosphere differ from those in traditional media, and if so, how?

To peek behind the world of new media versus old media, the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) spent about a year looking at the top news stories covered on blogs and social-media pages. It also kept tabs on seven months' worth of tweets on Twitter and a year's worth of news-related videos courtesy of … Read more

Microsoft Office 2010 reviewed

The bottom line: Microsoft Office 2010 is a worthy upgrade for businesses and individual users who need professional-level productivity apps, but it will take some time to get acclimated with the reworked interface. Users looking for bare-bones, dead-simple office software should stick with Google's and other online offerings or continue using older Office versions they have already mastered.

The world has changed plenty since Microsoft introduced Office 2007. In that time, Google has become a major player, with its suite of online tools, and even Apple has made inroads with its iWork office suite, though admittedly within a smaller … Read more

Office 2010 is almost here

Microsoft Office 2010 is available today for business licenses, with the public release coming in June. According to Microsoft, the focus of this major overhaul was on three things: to make workflows more efficient; to effectively use Web applications to make your work available anywhere; and to make collaboration with others much easier. In this CNET First Take for Microsoft Office 2010, we'll take a look at some of the notable feature changes across many of the applications. Microsoft says Office 2010 will let you use your PC, smartphone, and the Web to make your projects come together more … Read more

Easy to use

QI Macros SPC Software for Excel allows you to analyze data in a variety of formats, including histograms with Cp and Cpk, Pareto charts, scatter plots, box whisker plots, and all variable and attribute control charts.

Since this program integrates itself into Microsoft Excel's interface, you should have no problem using it. It appears as an extra tab at the top of your Excel window. The tab itself is broken into seven categories: Statistical Tools, Fill-in-the-Blanks Templates, Data Transformation, Capability Charts, Control Charts, Improvement Charts, and Other Charts. Each transforms your inputted data for the best analysis. We entered … Read more

The 404 565: Where we get drunk off Ben & Jerry's (podcast)

We've arrived at another Del Conte Thursday and we're all getting Buzzed to celebrate, which could mean one of three possible scenarios:

1. We use Google Buzz to see what our West Coast friends are up to at 8 a.m. on a Thursday morning.

2. We log on to AT&T's new Buzz.com to find the closest bodega that carries Yerba Mate, aka "weed tea."

3. We plan to get sloshed on Bonnaroo Buzz, a new coffee-flavored ice cream with English toffee pieces and whiskey caramel swirls.

Which one is it? I'm not just going to tell you; you have to listen to find out, dummy.

Speaking of food, there's plenty to complain about as we run down the 10 most irritating types of restaurant patrons, even though I've been known to pilfer a few free saltine crackers in my time. Natali also confesses that she's constantly asking waiters to help her make a decision only to go with the dish that they don't recommend, and Jeff can't seem to understand the difference between fake Mexican and authentic Puerto Rican food.

Hulu just announced plans to roll out its new subscription-based service starting as soon as May 24. For $9.95 a month, you'll gain access to premium content called Hulu Plus that could include the entire back catalog of popular shows like "Lost," "Glee," and "Saturday Night Live," to name a few.

The room agrees that we'd all happily pay $10 for the extra episodes, especially considering it costs that much for a monthly unlimited text messaging plan. The only visible downside to consider is the gross amount of time I already spend in Hulu's capable hands, so I'll take this opportunity to say a fond farewell to my co-workers, friends, and family. If you need me, I'll be in my room.

We're getting a lot of quality Calls From the Public, but we still need more callbacks! That's when you give us a ring at 1-866-404-CNET and say, "This is (your location) from (your name) and you're listening to The 404, the show where (insert random comment here)." It's quick, easy to do, and if it's good we'll definitely play it on the air!

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Juicing your files

If you're a graphic designer or you otherwise work a lot with images, File Juicer can be an extremely useful (if narrow in purpose) utility. Like a kitchen juicer extracts juice from fruits and vegetables, this application "juices" a wide variety of image formats and even audio and video out of almost any kind of file, from browser caches to Microsoft Office docs--so for example, you can drop a PowerPoint onto File Juicer, and the app will extract any images, text, and even Flash and ZIP files from the presentation.

File Juicer excels at its core purpose, … Read more