Excel and functionnames

While working with the Swedish edition of Excel we are constantly punished by having translated functionnames that is quite pointless. Finding the right one is like a needle in the haystack since they are probably translated by a non-Swede or just of the dictionary or something. Anyway I needed a substring and  the function is mid in Excel and after a bit of searching I found this resource: http://www.piuha.fi/excel-function-name-translation/index.php?page=svenska-english.html

It's just what I needed! I just wonder who thought up the "great" idea of translating functionnames! At least they could allow us to use the English version side by side. As a developer I can't see that would be too hard to implement... Anyway, back to work!

Paint.net and transparent background

I quite often have the need to remove a white background and make it transparent. I haven't really had time to dig into it but found a quite easy way using my favorite free image-tool (Paint.net).

Make sure you have Paint.net installed and then download the alpha mask plugin: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/1854-alpha-mask-import-plugin-20/

Then follow these simple steps (originally found on http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/19110-white-background-removal-preserve-transparency-2-steps/ ):

1. Open the image with a white background.
2. CTRL+A to select All.
3. CTRL+C to copy
4. Open Effect menu and click Alpha mask
5. Check the boxes Invert Mask, Mix Alpha and Paste from clipboard.
6. Click OK
7. The image should now be pasted into your image
8. Save as new file or overwrite the old one.

Sweet! Thanks to the original authors.