Monthly Archives: December 2010

Dec 31 2010
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Personal

Work Hours Tracker

I would not be my boss’ favorite person if he got wind of this post…but have you ever wondered exactly how many hours you were actually logging in at the office? Why not maintain a nifty spreadsheet that helps keep track of this inforation? After all, the boss can’t be mad at you for using data to make better decisions – can she? The spreadsheet could have a simple macro that records the time when you come in, and then another for when you’re leaving. This can be tracked day after day and then set up to automatically present your chrono-investment in a neat little graph with trends and/or pie charts. Perhaps this information could be used to negotiate higher pay at some point in the future. The boss will certainly be impressed with that, hopefully in a good way. What do you think?

Excelville.com currently had one free Work Hours Tracker available. Check it out for yourself!

Remember that you can also Sell Spreadsheets Online using Excelville.com

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Dec 30 2010
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Personal

Baby Activity Log

We have babies in our house.  I don’t remember all the details around how they got there but they have managed to completely overtake the establishment and deplete all available resources. But then they do that “one thing” and its all worth it. Anyway, my wife is a little bit obsessive about when and how much they eat, their sleep patterns, etc etc… She had downloaded a form in the past that she printed off and filled in the fields for the corresponding activities as the day progressed. How much simpler it would be to have a digital spreadsheet version of the chart that laid out the hours of the day and she typed in  a number into each cell to represent the activity of that hour. For example, 1 – sleeping, 2 – eating, 3 – playing, etc. Then the chart could be conditional formatted to display a color for each activity. Then she could easily see patterns developing from day to day, week to week. An advanced level activity log could even graph the baby’s activity over time to show trends and daily pie charts and so forth.

Availability: This tool is currently available at the following locations:

Profile: Marian

File: Deluxe Baby Activity Log

Excelville.com Launch Countdown: 5 Days (1/4/11). Sell Spreadsheets Online

What do you think about Excelville.com’s decision to launch right after New Years? Anyway, check out this quick video plugging the site.

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Dec 29 2010
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Educational, Personal

Using a Spreadsheet – To Teach Spreadsheets

The other day, I stumbled upon a most fascinating use for spreadsheets. A guy by the name of Sean created a product called Excel Everest that teaches you how to develop spreadsheets. The kicker is that the training coarse is all done in a spreadsheet itself. Its one of the coolest things I’ve seen done in a spreadsheet before. Thats the type of thing this blog exists for, to challenge people to think beyond the spreadsheet and consider the many ways this technology can be applied in real life situations. I’ve linked the video for Excel Everest below for your enjoyment. Also check out his website for more information.

http://www.excelville.com/profile/exceleverest/

http://www.exceleverest.com


Excelville.com Launch Countdown: 6 Days

Its getting close. Get your spreadsheets ready!


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Dec 28 2010
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Educational, Government, Large Business, Personal, Small Business

Action Items List – Simple, Practical, and Effective

As we transition from holiday life back into real life, there is always a million things to do to get reorganized and add a sense of structure back to our lives. How nice would it be to have a spreadsheet tool that helped us keep track of all the things that absolutely need to get done? Then allows us to designate who is going to do it and by when. And then alerts us when a due date is approaching or is overdue with conditional formatted color coding. And then allows us to add rows, sort, and hide rows simply by pushing buttons. A simple application like this can be used for anything from a household “to do list” or could be used by an organization with many people and complex processes as a project management tool. Then if you really want to show off, you can set the spreadsheet up to email all the people who have items that are due on the list. Great tool for improving accountability and driving execution. Nothing falls off the radar.  Its a simple and awesome tool; and its effective!

My friends at Excelville.com are telling me that they are giving one away for free at the following link:

www.excelville.com/profile/mrxlvil

Check it out after the site launches early next year.

Excelville.com Launch Countdown: 7 Days

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Dec 27 2010
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Personal

Exercise Coach Spreadsheet

Just an idea for those of you gearing up to kick the exercise regimine in high gear. Its one of the things that lots of folks make number 1 on the list of new years resolutions. Who here does not need to get back in shape? I’m guilty as well of putting this off for the last few months and now desperately needing to work off all that extra turkey and holiday ham. Why not make it official with a spreadsheet that lets you enter your exercise regimine and goals, then tracks your performance as you progress toward, or away from, your goals.  This would be like your own personal trainer. And if you’re really feeling fancy, the spreadsheet can be made to give you pep talks and words of encouragement based on your performance. What do you think?

Excelville.com Launch Countdown: 8 Days

In case any of you are anywhere near as excited as I am about the Excelville.com launch, here’s a video that provides a sneak peak at the site and how people can make money with Excel or other spreadsheet development skills.

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Dec 26 2010
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Personal

Happy Birthday Spreadsheet

I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day. She said she had created an Excel spreadsheet that plugged into the start-up menu of her computer. Everytime she turned the computer on, a window would pop up telling her whose birthday was approaching and exactly when those birthdays fell. The spreadsheet ran off of a macro that fired up automatically at computer start-up, produced the birthday report, and then shut the spreadsheet back down once the report was generated. How cool is that. I can only image other applications for this technique, such as anniversaries or any important dates for that matter. What do you think? How else could this technique be applied?

Excelville.com Launch Countdown: 9 Days

Excelville.com - Sell Spreadsheets Banner

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Dec 25 2010
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Uncategorized

Getting Started

Hi,
This is a brand new blog designed to raise awareness about unique, interesting, and practical ways that spreadsheets can be used in real life. I’ve used spreadsheets pretty seriously for the past 6 years since I started work as an Industrial Engineer for a major corporation. Since then, I’ve been a huge advocate for the use of spreadsheets and have built many for a wide range of uses. I don’t even think that I’ve scratched the surface of the potential application of this tremendous resource but would like to share ideas for how spreadsheets could be applied in your life. I welcome your ideas and examples of how you use spreadsheets as well. I believe that others might find this information invaluable as they become more aware of the power of a tool that they may have had at thier fingertips all along.

FYI…I’m also very excited about the launch of Excelville.com on January 4th, 2011. This website is a marketplace for pre-designed spreadsheets where both spreadsheet designers and seekers can find one another. I can see this site becoming a great resources for people to make money from Excel or other spreadsheet skills, and it will help to expand people’s understanding of how they can apply spreadsheets in their lives.

Excelville.com Launch Countdown: 10 Days

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