Pro Tip – Don’t sign up for TikTok! It’s a giant carnival, filled with hypnotic music, shiny objects, travelling medicine shows, and fortune tellers. You stop in for 5 minutes, and stagger out hours later, dazed and confused. Sure, there’s helpful info on TikTok too, but you’ll probably get sidetracked while you look for it!
TikTok Trends
Trends are big on TikTok, so you might hear the same music over and over again, with different people dancing to it.
Lately, I’ve seen several videos for this trend:
- “Tell me something that’s an absolute flex to a niche group, but means nothing to the majority”
That made me think of Excel, and all the non-business things that we use it for. You know, those one-of-a-kind spreadsheets you’ve built, that nobody appreciates except you. And maybe three people in that Excel forum you visit.
Flex Uses for Excel
So what’s your “absolute flex” in Excel? Something fun? Something dark and mysterious?
I’ve shown a few Excel flexes, here on the blog, and over on my Contextures site. For example:
— convert IPv4 address to IPv6
— timeline for holiday dinner preparation
— seating plan for special events
Excel Radio Streaming
One of “flexiest” Excel projects I’ve seen is a web radio streaming workbook, created by former Excel MVP, Harald Staff. Besides being an Excel expert, Harald also worked in broadcasting, in his home country, Norway.
Harald’s web radio Excel workbook is small (47 kb), and easy to use.
- Open the Web Radio file, and enable macros.
- Double-click on one of the radio station names in column A
- That runs a few lines of code, to play that station, in the embedded Windows Media Player.
- You can add or remove stations in the list, to suit your musical taste (or lack of taste)
Download the Radio Streaming File
You can click this link to download Harald’s Web Radio sample file. The file is zipped, and in Excel xls format. There is VBA code in the workbook, so you’ll see a warning if you open the file.
More Info on Radio Streaming
You can read more about Harald, and his radio streaming workbook, on my Spreadsheet Day blog.
Sadly, Harald passed away in December 2020, much too soon. I first met Harald at a Microsoft event in 2001, and it was always a pleasure to see him.
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Fun With Microsoft Excel: Streaming Radio
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