Assesment tool in Excel..!

admin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:50:12 +0000

I just wanted to create a self-assesment tool in excel with an easy user-interface. The basic features I wanted are

i. The user should have a list of dimensions and attributes against them to select
ii. He should be able to select the set of attributes, he fits in by just double-clicking on it and get the final score.
iii. As a evaluator, I should be able to add any number of dimensions with any number of attributes against them.
iv. I should also be able to scale the scoring to anything I want.

In the Example (provided in the downloadable sheet), I’ve taken a self-evaluation of a Software-tester. I’ve chosen the following dimensions
Years of Experience(10)
Time/Job Ratio(6)
Testing Concepts(5)
Domain Knowledge(4)
Analytical Ability(5)
Automation Tools(5)
Perl Scripting(9)
Shell Scripting(7)
Certifications(4)
Soft-Skills(5)

Each dimension is available with different number of stages as given above. I’ve chosen the scale as 10 for all the dimensions. For example, if you rate yourself in the 4th stage in ‘Testing Concepts’ you will score 8 in scale of 10. Please feel free to use this sheet for your evaluation purpose..Download the sample here…

In my next post, I’ll explain how to add a dimension and the code behind.

Please note, I developed the above in MS Excel 2007….

Extract a Embedded Flash from Word / Excel Doc…

admin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:58:23 +0000

I’ve received lot of Excel / Word documents with a embedded flash in it…Today I received one.. It had a puzzle in it. It’s quite interesting ( atleast to me… ) I thought, I’d put the puzzle in my site. But I wanted to put it as a flash file not as a excel file. I started my search for the way to do it. Here it is….

i. Save the word / excel file to a local folder
ii. Open MS Excel, probably a new workbook (blank one)
iii. Open the VBA Editor. (Press Alt + F11) and type the following code there


Sub ExtractFlash()
    Dim tmpFileName As String,FileNumber As Integer
    Dim myFileId As Long
    Dim myArr() As Byte
    Dim i As Long
    Dim MyFileLen As Long, myIndex As Long
    Dim swfFileLen As Long
    Dim swfArr() As Byte
    tmpFileName = Application.GetOpenFilename("office File(*.doc;*.xls),*.doc;*.xls",_
                         , "Select Excel / Word File")
    If tmpFileName = "False" Then Exit Sub
    myFileId = FreeFile
    Open tmpFileName For Binary As #myFileId
    MyFileLen = LOF(myFileId)
    ReDim myArr(MyFileLen - 1)
    Get myFileId, , myArr()
    Close myFileId
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    i = 0
    Do While i < MyFileLen
        If myArr(i) = &H46 Then
            If myArr(i + 1) = &H57 And myArr(i + 2) = &H53 Then
                swfFileLen = CLng(&H1000000) * myArr(i + 7)+CLng(&H10000)*myArr(i+6)+ _
                CLng(&H100) * myArr(i + 5) + myArr(i + 4)
                ReDim swfArr(swfFileLen - 1)
                For myIndex = 0 To swfFileLen - 1
                    swfArr(myIndex) = myArr(i + myIndex)
                Next myIndex
                Exit Do
            Else
                i = i + 3
            End If
        Else
            i = i + 1
        End If
    Loop
    myFileId = FreeFile
    tmpFileName = Left(tmpFileName, Len(tmpFileName) - 4) & ".swf"
    Open tmpFileName For Binary As #myFileId
    Put #myFileId, , swfArr
    Close myFileId
    MsgBox "SaveAs " & tmpFileName
End Sub

iv. Now run the code. (Press F5)
v. It’ll ask for the document to process, Select the previously saved doucment.
The basic logic behind this code is to
i. Open the file in binary mode
ii. Look for the embedded flash file in it. It’s done by searching for the signature of the SWF file within the binary data
iii. Extracting the data and storing it into a file with extension SWF.
That’s it…Your are done…! You get your Flash file extracted and saved in the same folder with the same name with .SWF extension.

My Learnings - Markish Personal Blog » VBA

Assesment tool in Excel..!

Extract a Embedded Flash from Word / Excel Doc…