Following MacWorld, Reg Developer started a rumor [1] that VBA would be going away from future versions of Microsoft Office for Windows. The speculation was based on Office 2008 for Mac dropping VBA (a big blunder by Microsoft, IMHO) and on Microsoft dropping their licensing program for 3rd parties to incorporate VBA into their applications.
Sometimes […]

In my last post I kind of took a pot shot at Microsoft’s focus on SharePoint Services, insinuating that the internal push was driven in part by competition from Google Docs and Spreadsheets. But I don’t think that Microsoft really has much to worry about. Yeah, Google Spreadsheets are still kind of kludgey. But I’m […]

It’s late Saturday night and before hitting the sack I decide to catch up on a little web reading. On a lark I went over to the MSDN blogs home page and searched for Excel. After all, I make Excel add-ins, and who better to find out the latest Excel news than from the Microsoft […]

Without much fanfare, BreezeTree Software released FlowBreeze v1.4 the other day. I’ll get to the fanfare bit later. The following is a summary of the changes.
New Features

Apply Styles: Applies the default styles to all the flowchart symbols and lines in the drawing.
Toggle Gridlines: By default FlowBreeze hides the gridlines. This simply lets you toggle them […]

Need to create some simple web graphics? A Buy Now! button or a Download link, perhaps?
If you have Office 2007, look no further because you can create simple yet stylish graphics in just a few minutes. The new styles available for the built-in AutoShapes make it easy to drop a simple rounded rectangle, oval, circle, […]

FlowBreeze 2.0 gets a new Start Flowcharting prompt. The old Start Flowcharting prompt only allowed you to set the start Terminator symbol text and location. The new window makes that optional, plus it allows you to create a set the page properties, show/hide the Excel grid lines, and either create a simple grid or […]

As version 2.0 of FlowBreeze nears release I will preview new features. This first feature preview is the save as Picture function in the new Export tool. The Save As picture tool allows you to save just the flowchart as a picture or select both the flowchart and a range of cells. Actually, there doesn’t […]

FlowBreeze build 1.3.42 was released today with the following fixes:

FlowBreeze now supports symbols with over 255 characters.
One character prefixes were being interpreted as node labels for circular Connector symbols. So, prefixes such as Q:, T:, and P: were incorrectly generating Connectors. The order of evaluation has been changed so prefixes are detected before applying other […]

FlowBreeze build 1.3.40 has been released. The following bugs were fixed:

Bug: Turning off prompt for start terminator still resulted in being prompted. Fixed.
Bug: Turning off prompt for stop terminator still resulted in being prompted. Fixed.
Bug: Clicking Cancel on terminator prompt locked up Excel. Terminator prompt turns off Excel screen updating for faster rendering. Clicking Cancel […]

If you’re one of the early adopters of Excel 2007, then FlowBreeze is ready for you. The flow chart add-in for Excel is now Excel 2007 compatible. Excel now has a Ribbon replacing the classic menus and toolbars, but the FlowBreeze toolbar is still accessible under the Add-Ins tab of the Ribbon.
More info (and pictures!) […]

The FlowBreeze 2.0 incorporates a flowchart template loader. Since the flowchart templates are separate from the main body of software, I’ve decided to release some of them them for free download now.
The complete flowchart template package that ships with FlowBreeze 2.0 are Excel template files (*.xlt) and come in the following flavors:

Cross-functional / deployment flowchart […]

Looking back at some of my earlier flowcharts, I can only think to myself, “Man these things are ugly”. So I hand selected some of my uglier flow chart symbol formats. Hopefully the image below conveys why the Flow Chart Symbol Style Sheet is a must for flowcharting in Excel:

Do you…

Like colorful flow charts but hate the time it takes to make them?
Know good looking color schemes when you see them but have the artistic skills of a caveman?
Want a free and easy way to spruce up your Excel flow charts and process maps?

Yeah, me too. So I created the Flow Chart Styles Cheat […]

Sometimes you need a drawing shape that isn’t included in the standard Microsoft Office set of shapes. Maybe you need to add header blocks to all your process shapes. Maybe you need to need to add one of those little speed bumps to your flow lines to tell intersecting lines apart. Or, maybe you’d like […]

In the past I have written a number of articles on how to flowchart with Excel. While I will continue to do so in the future, I will be switching more and more to creating flowcharting video tutorials, which I’ve dubbed “Flowtorials”.
Since I’m no USC Film School grad, the Flowtorials will be rough cut in […]

I have a back log of articles I’ve written that mostly just need screen shots and some final polishing up. So once again, I’m blogging about new Excel flowcharting articles I’ve posted.
The first article is How to Make Flow Charts in Excel. It provides a good overview of the basics to creating flow charts in […]

Hyperlinks are one of those things you love even when you don’t realize it. Click a link and bam! - you’re there. Open a document, browse to a web page, or launch your email. Did you know you can even use them to hop around an Excel flowchart?
You can and it’s pretty easy to do.
This […]

A flowchart is a great way to visually depict a process, but if you want to analyze it, step it up to a process map. What are process maps? They’re a Six Sigma version of flowcharts that add attributes to each flowchart process step. Typical attributes include cycle time, defects per unit, delay time, ownership […]

Inspired by a new Excel add-in developer, I’ve decided to create a list of Excel developer resources. It’s sparse now, but I will upate it periodically.
Books
I’ve only found 2 that are even worth mentioning.

Professional Excel Development by Bullen, Bovey, and Green is the best book on the market for .xla and COM add-ins.
Microsoft .NET […]