Corey Salzano

Category: Tools

  • Convert alphabetical Google Sheet column names to numbers

    Lately, I’ve been working with large Google spreadsheets that have many columns. When you write QUERY statements to pull data from one sheet into another, you have to use Col1, Col2, Col3 column names instead of A, B, and C. It’s hard enough to remember the letter O is the 15th letter of the alphabet. There is no chance that I am going to memorize that column BH is the 60th. I made this calculator to solve this conversion:

    [alphabet_number_calculator]

    One of my favorite tricks when a team member needs some data is to create a new Sheet, query data from the primary sheet, and share that subset of the data while protecting the A1 cell so the formula doesn’t get mangled. This method lets our friend get only the columns she needs and live updates in the form of new rows just like the huge primary sheet. It works by passing an IMPORTRANGE call into the first parameter of QUERY.

  • gif2frames.exe: Extract frames from an animated GIF

    I built a Windows 32 bit command line executable, gif2frames.exe. (Go to download)

    This tool will take an animated GIF image file and save a separate static image for each frame in PNG, BMP or JPG format.

    The reason GIFs are useful is because the files can be optimized to reduce the size on disk. If a frame is visible for 1 or 10 seconds, a single copy of the frame may be stored inside the image file and a frame delay can help the player coordinate the animation.

    For this reason, when you say “extract frames from a gif file” you could mean two things; each unique frame could be extracted just once, or each frame could be extracted for each unit of time it is visible. If you want the latter, you must then decide on a rate of frames per second.

    Also interesting: the timing is funny business. Minimum frame rates (per second) can be determined by the software displaying the GIF file (more info at the bottom of this page). This makes the number of frames in a film strip style export of frames hard to calculate. I workaround this problem by finding the frame with the shortest display time and divide all the other times by this number. This means animations where all frames are shown for three seconds will only produce one image for each frame. If this is not what you are looking for, try ImageMagick (convert.exe).

    Usage

    Here are a few cmd.exe examples showing basic calls.

    Animated GIF to PNG images

    C:\>gif2frames.exe at.gif

    Animated GIF to BMP images

    gif2frames at.gif -bmp

    Animated GIF to JPG images

    gif2frames at.gif -jpg

    Only unique frames

    gif2frames at.gif -png -unique

    Downloads

  • I made a Keyword Multiplier

    While revamping a PPC advertising account last week, I discovered the lack of a convenient keyword multiplier. I am sure there is some fancy pants way of combining keyword lists in a spreadsheet application, but I find no fun in writing macros for some piece of software.

    I installed the Google Adwords desktop editor because it has a built-in keyword multiplier. It sucks. The Goo’s multiplier only combines three lists at a time, and I wanted four. It also automatically removes keywords that have low Google search volume, so if you are using their tool for any other purpose it is rather useless.

    I made my own keyword multiplier, and you can use it, too. Please try it out, and let me know if you find it to be a useful keyword tool.

    Keyword Multiplier Features

    • Fast, easy and web-based
    • Apply PPC match types to result lists
    • No uploading your keywords to a third party

    Try it yourself!

  • Calculate days receivable

    The amount of time that elapses between a sale and receipt of payment for that sale provides information about the financial structure of a company, including how the company manages its receivables. Calculating days receivable, or the average number of days sales are outstanding, is easy now with this calculator:

    Days Receivable Calculator

    Days receivable = = Accounts receivable balance
    Average day’s sales = = Net sales
    365


    Efficiency ratios can indicate how efficiently a business manages its assets. Days receivable is the collect-ability of accounts receivable, answering the question “how fast can cash supply be built?” with a number of days.

    Calculating this number of days receivable helps determine if a change in receivables is a result of a change in sales. Comparing days receivable with the company’s credit terms indicates how customers obey the terms of credit.

    About the tool

    I built this tool with Flash in 2007. I rewrote it in JavaScript in 2011 since Flash is now of questionable compatibility. The reset button restores all values to defaults, and the about button launches this web page. If you have trouble or suggestions please leave comments here.