Byg Utilities Lite

1)   Introduction

  • Welcome to the Byg Utilities Lite, a series of add-ins designed by Excel specialists to help you most out of your investment in Excel.

2)   Installing The Byg Utilities Lite

  • Download and run the .exe file. This will install the files either in the default directory or one of your choice.

  • In Excel, on the Tools menu, click Add-Ins.

 

 

 

 

  • If “Byg Utilities Lite” is not listed in the Add-Ins dialog box, click Browse and locate where you installed the program (see above)

  • Select the “Byg Utilities Lite" check box.

  • Click on "OK"

3)       Managing your memory

You can load any tool by selecting it from the "BygLite" menu.

The Management Centre gives you additional control over utilities. During an Excel session it tells you which utilities are in memory, and lets you decide which:

  • are automatically loaded when you launch Excel,

  • you want to keep in memory,

  • you want to remove from memory.

a)       Screen shot of the Management Centre dialog

 

b)       Description of choices

Left Check Boxes

  • At the side of each tool name there are two check boxes. By checking any of the left boxes, those utilities will load automatically when you launch Excel.

Right Check Boxes

  • By checking or clearing the right boxes, you can load and unload utilities during an Excel session.

  • By removing the check from the "Auto Open" box, no utilities will automatically load when Excel is launched.

The Byg Utilities Lite Toolbar
 
 

 

The Byg Utilities Lite Menu

 

The Byg Utiliites Lite Tools
 
Fill
 
This increases Excel's Data Fill functionality by adding some new options, one of which allows you to fill ranges in one go without doing any mental arithmetic.

Series in
With these two new options, filling a rectangular range in now a single process.

  • xRows fills the highlighted area sequentially by row.
  • xColumns fills the highlighted area sequentially by column.

Start Value
If you did not put a start value in the source cell, no problem. Byg Utilities Lite - Data Fill will default to zero. What's more, if you do not like zero, or whatever number was in that cell, then just change it in the start value box.

Selected range
Adjust the range you want to use without losing any settings you may already have made.

Clear selected range
Check this box if you want the selected range cleared before the new data is inserted. The default is an unchecked box which lets you retain data in the selected area if your Data Fill choice would not otherwise overwrite everything.

 

Range Select
You can select a rectangular range of cells, which can be the:
  • current region, bounded by any combination of blank rows or blank columns, or
  • any area where the active cell becomes the corner of the range, and the other extremes are bounded by blank rows or blank columns.

 

Range and Text
Select an area and change the case of the text to:
  • UPPER CASE,
  • lower case,
  • Proper Case,
  • Just make the initial letter upper case, or
  • Do not make any changes at all.
     
  • If you have to do some word-processing within a speadsheet, here is easy access to Excel's text justification.
  • Toggle Wrap toggles the "Wrap Text" value found in Format, Cells, Alignment. If you have selected a range of mixed "Wrap Text" values i.e., some TRUE and some FALSE, then they all become TRUE.
  • Selected Formula Recalc recalculates only the cells in the pre-selected range.
  • Force Blanks and Numbers is especially useful where data has been imported and been incorrectly interpreted by Excel, e.g., it insists on reading a date as text.

 

Split Titles
  • Interactively split or freeze your windows vertically, horizontally or both.
  • Gives you far more control than Excel's menu option allows.
  • The current position is not changed until you select one of the buttons.

 

Width
Watch as you make those fine adjustments to row heights and column widths.
  • Use the Standard button to set the width and height to the sheet's standard settings.
  • With the Reset button, restore the settings you started with.

Changes to widths and heights are made in

  • "0.125" unit increments when you click on an arrow, or by
  • "10" unit increments when you click in the scrollbar body region.
     
  • The "Reset" button sets everything back to where you started.
  • The "Standard" button changes the row height and column width to the default, or standard, settings.

This utility only deals with the row and column where they intersect at the active cell.

 

Interactive Zoom
With Byg Utilities Lite - Interactive Zoom you can see what your screen will look like while you're adjusting it! No more guessing what it will look like after you've adjusted the zoom setting.
  • You can use the pre-selected ratios from 25% to 400%, or fit your selection to the screen.
  • The scroll bar to the side of the selections allows you to adjust the zooming at 1% intervals by clicking on the arrows, or 10% intervals by clicking in the body.
  • The horizontal scroll bar, to the left of the "End" key, lets you move the screen left and right, and the vertical scroll bar, above the "End" key, lets you move the screen up and down.
  • Just in case you decide you don't want to change anything after all, just press the "Original" button, and everything is as it was.

 

Byg Ben
What's the date and time? This handy clock is only a click away.

 

Notelets
Place reminder notes on your work.

They are placed wherever your active cell is.

They can be traditional yellow, warning red, discrete white, or totally transparent.
By default, they all include the date and time, all have a shadow border, and are printable. Any of these can be changed by removing the check from the appropriate box.

If you've got lots of these notes placed over your work, and your boss wants a copy of it immediately, no problem. Just click on the Byg Utilities Lite - Notelets button and click on the "Hide all notes" option button. After printing, click on "Show all notes" and they are back again.

 

Monthly Diary
  • Produce diary page inserts for your personal organiser.
  • Pre-populate the diary with your own important dates (wife's birthday, secretary's birthday) in bold or light format.
  • Julian dates counting up and down.
  • Add your own footer message.
  • As there are so many shapes and sizes of organiser available, the page is not formatted for any particular page size.

For a sample diary page, click here

 
To add dates and the footer message you will need to edit the bu_lite.ini file. Ini files are text files that you can edit with Notepad. Below is an extract from the supplied file.

Change the footer message by editing the "Message" variable in the Diary section.

Add, remove or amend anniversary entries in the "Anni" section. The format for the variable is mm-dd.

[Diary]
Message=Change this message in the Diary section of Bu_Lite.Ini

[Anni]
01-01=New Year's Day
02-14=Valentine's Day
03-01=First of March
04-01=All Fools Day
05-01=May Day
06-21=Midsummer's Day
11-05=Guy Fawkes Night
12-21=Mid-Winter's Day
12-25=Christmas Day
12-26=Boxing Day
 

 

Lucky Lotto
Just when you thought you weren't going to win, along comes this timely utility that could change your luck. But remember, if you win and haven't registered your copy of the Byg Utilities Lite, it belongs to the BYG.

This will help stop all those arguments in the office lottery pool about which combinations of numbers to use. In the dialog box just enter the number of numbers you want to pick, then the highest number, and finally how many selections you want to make. Then choose whether you want the results on the current sheet, a new sheet, or in a new workbook. Finally, decide whether you want the numbers sorted (it helps when you are checking the results, trying to find your winning line).

 

Perpetual Calendar
From year 1 AD to 30,000 AD, with Pope Gregory's correction made in 1752.

The Gregorian calendar was adopted in Great Britain when the day after September 2, 1752 became September 14, 1752. The same Act of Parliament saw New Year's Day change from April 1st to January 1st.

A special note for Americans concerning Pope Gregory and George Washington. According to the new calendar, George, the eldest son of Augustine Washington, a Virginia planter, and Mary Ball Washington, was born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia,. Under the old calendar he was born on February 11, 1731. This sounds like a good excuse for two parties.

A special note for Brits concerning Pope Gregory and the British tax year. Britains paid their taxes on the last quarter day of the year which, until the change in calendar, was 25 March. The Brits didn't like the idea of paying their taxes 11 days early, so the government moved the end of the tax year, by 11 days, to 5th April, which has meant that since then the new tax year has always begun on 6th April.

British companies can also spend £75 per annum on employee entertainment free of tax - this sounds like an excuse for several parties.

 

Display Options
View how these changes affect your work as you change the check boxes. You control all these features, interactively, from one dialog box.
  • Formula Bar
  • Status Bar
  • Note Indicator
     
  • Gridlines
  • Change the gridlines colour
  • Row and Column Headings
  • Outline Symbols
  • Zero Values
  • Horizontal Scroll Bar
  • Vertical Scroll Bar
  • Sheet Tabs

Tip You can select, or deselect, all these settings by using the 'All on' or 'All off' buttons.

 

Odds and Sundries
This is a collection of tools that have been useful over the years.
  • Background. Add a background picture to any Excel 7 or 8 worksheet.
  • Clear Caption. Reset the title bar area in the main Excel window.
  • Clear Print Area. Set the print area to the entire sheet.
  • Clear Statusbar. Restore the default status bar text.
  • Copy Current Sheet. Makes a duplicate of the current sheet, and prompts you to confirm or change the default name.
  • File Open; but without running any "auto_open" macros.
  • Hairline Border; the same size as gridlines - useful when they are turned off.
  • Header and Footer; replaces a sheet's header and footer with your choice. It's not always possible to add new sheets with the headers and footers you want, for example, if you are using someone else's PC. When you get back to your own machine, this utility can insert your preferred choice.A dialog box lets you input your own header and footers which you can then apply to the current page. There is also a save option so you can store choices for future use.
  • Remove Menus; use this when the menubar gets cluttered with lots of e.g. test menus, then…
  • Restore Menus; puts back the Excel default.
You can include these codes as a part of the header and footer properties. Check out the examples.

Format Code Description
Aligns the following characters
&L Left
&C Center
&R Right

Toggle printing effects
&E Double-underline
&X Superscript
&Y Subscript
&B Bold
&I Italic
&U Underline
&S Strikethrough

Include document information
&D Current date

&T Current time
&F Workbook name
&A Tab name
&P Page number
&P+number Page number plus number
&P-number Page number minus number
&N Total number of pages

&& Prints a single ampersand

Change font names and sizes
& "fontname" You must include the double quotation marks
&nn Use a two-digit number to specify a size in points

Examples - These are the default settings that come with the Byg Utilities Lite. Try them out and see the result.

  • &UUnderlining&U &XSuperScript&X &YSubScript&Y
  • Produced using the &B&I&"Times New Roman"Byg Utilities Lite&I&B
  • Page &P of &N
  • Tab name is "&A"
  • &"Times New Roman,Italic"&8Source: &F on &D at &T

 

Shadow Text
Create great-looking titles using shadow texts, or just because you like them.

 

Registration Information
When you enter the registration details here the introduction reminder screen no longer appears when you load this addin.

Published: 15-Mar-2003
Last updated: 02 March 2011 20:59