TWC Today Forums

Weather Discussion => General Weather Chat => Topic started by: seminolefanboy on October 31, 2011, 02:02:15 PM

Title: MS Excel + updated data from NWS website
Post by: seminolefanboy on October 31, 2011, 02:02:15 PM
So has anyone else here (besides me) tried doing anything like this? Automatically inputting & updating data from the National Weather Service's website into MS Excel (or Open Office.org)? I finally found out how to do this about a week and a half ago, and I actually use OpenOffice.org's spreadsheet to do it. I find it to be a convenient way to update the current conditions in my area without actually going to the NWS or TWC website to get that info that way.

The reason why I was trying to do this was so I could link it to my TWC emulator so I wouldn't have to enter the info into the presentation program manually, like I do now. It would save me a lot of time, because now it takes me up to 3 hours, if not more, to make the TWC emulator videos. It's very time consuming. But I haven't gotten to that point though yet (where I can just link the data from the spreadsheet into the presentation).
Title: Re: MS Excel + updated data from NWS website
Post by: Mr. Rainman on October 31, 2011, 02:26:26 PM
Actually sounds interesting. Do you have an instruction sheet or any link to a page that tells you how to do it?
Title: Re: MS Excel + updated data from NWS website
Post by: WeatherWitness on October 31, 2011, 03:00:25 PM
This would be extremely helpful and such a cool idea if it could work. I did not realize you could somehow put automatically updating NWS info. into an MS Excel spreadsheet. :blink: If this is possible, you're going to have to show us how this is done. Very cool idea. :thumbsup:
Title: Re: MS Excel + updated data from NWS website
Post by: seminolefanboy on November 03, 2011, 12:32:36 PM
Quote from: WeatherWitness
This would be extremely helpful and such a cool idea if it could work. I did not realize you could somehow put automatically updating NWS info. into an MS Excel spreadsheet.  If this is possible, you're going to have to show us how this is done. Very cool idea.


This website's help tip for Excel (http://www.mrexcel.com/tip103.shtml (http://www.mrexcel.com/tip103.shtml)) provides a good overview of how to do it. It uses getting up-to-the-minute stock quotes as an example. Instructions are pretty basic & easy to follow, and it has tips on how to format the chart, how to set it to automatically refresh the data, etc. I think it's a pretty cool feature.  :thumbsup:

Now if I could only link the data from the Excel spreadsheet into PowerPoint, it would make creating the emulations far less time consuming....
Title: Re: MS Excel + updated data from NWS website
Post by: Mr. Rainman on November 03, 2011, 12:49:21 PM
Thanks for the link! This is perfect!