2003 to 2007 Structured References
Working with formulas and functions has not always been the most intuitive process. In Microsoft Office Excel 2003, multiplying gross revenue by the profit margin might mean typing something like =B7*E14. In Microsoft Office Excel 2007, structured referencing enables you to use the column headers in table data to build your formulas. Instead of cryptic cell locations, you can simply multiply =[Gross Revenue]*[Margin].
To use structured referencing, you first need to format your data as a table.
1. Click Format as Table in the Styles section of the Home tab.
2. Select the My table has headers check box.
3. After you have a table, click the cell where you want to insert the formula, and then type the left bracket ([).
4. Select the column that you want to use from the list that appears, press the TAB key, and then close it with the right bracket (]).
5. Repeat as you build out your formula.
With summer just around the corner Microsoft and the EEA today announce 2009 'Eye on Earth' - helping holidaymakers to find out everything about Europe's favourite beach at the touch of a fingertip.
How is the water quality at your favourite bathing spot? What do other beachgoers think? What does the beach look like? The European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft's environmental information portal 'Eye on Earth' shows not only the latest information on the water quality, but also user ratings and comments, pictures and live webcam streaming. 2009's data is now live, helping beachgoers across Europe decide where to take their summer vacation.
Every year, millions of Europeans spend their summer holidays by coastal or inland waters. The quality of the bathing water can be a key factor in deciding where to go. The bathing water application 'Water Watch' displays the latest information on bathing water quality from more than 21,000 monitoring points across Europe. For some countries, including Malta, Portugal and Slovenia, the latest data is in fact from the current bathing season and could be the results of analyses sampled only days before.
Eye on Earth, first launched in 2008, allows users to search for a specific beach or zoom in on a given section of the coast or riverbank. The selected area or beach could be viewed both in street map or bird's eye formats. A 'traffic-light' evaluation (red, amber, green) of water quality based on scientific monitoring methods is complemented by similar ratings and comments reflecting the experiences of people who have visited the site. The portal also allows registered users to upload pictures and link to webcams.
2009 sees the addition of two new features, to further extend Water Watch's capabilities, which include the ability to add pictures from beaches further enhancing the comment function and web cam functionality for local authorities to link to their beach web cam services. These additional features make Water Watch more interactive and allow the public to directly influence the reviews and information about their favourite beaches.
Further to these additions to the capability of Water Watch the EEA have made several changes including the website layout, group icons for user ratings, links to all language versions (it, de, nl, pt, en), a spam control field in "Tip a Friend" and the possibility to delegate the approval of citizen comments and uploads to member states and local authorities. These features all aid the sites ease of use.
The EEA and Microsoft plan to develop the Eye on Earth portal by adding new sets of environmental information over the coming years.
Rob Bernard, chief environmental strategist at Microsoft believes "Eye on Earth is a great example of how technology has the power to help governments, business and individuals understand what is happening to our environment. By combining environmental data with mapping technologies, it is possible for people to see where changes are happening. Eye on Earth provides people with information which has historically been difficult to find. With this new application, people will be more informed and be able to take appropriate actions to help ensure a cleaner environment."
