Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with spreadsheet

Blind Spot in my Excel Formula Abilities

itsonreserve — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:32:55 -0800

Excel Idiot Filter: Is there some simpler way to calculate the averages of the same cell along multiple worksheets? For example, say I'd like to take the total box on every previous worksheet and average it on a final worksheet. It's the same box on every single one, but I can't seem to get it to work. I've tried letting Excel write the formula for me, but after all that clicking it says the formula doesn't work. Can the worksheets be ranged? For example Say I have =AVERAGE('Sep 09 Wk 2'!H20,'Sep 09 Wk 3'!H20,'Sep 09 Wk 4'!H20). Can I write =AVERAGE('Sep 09 Wk 2':'Sep 09 Wk 4'!H20)? Also is there a limit on the number of things you can have in the formula, which could be causing Excel to not understand it, even when I try writing it using clicks?

I've just spent 16 hours on a lab. Never again.

vogon_poet — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:30:33 -0800

What spreadsheet/graphing software should I use to do physics labs? I am a high-school student, enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program. I'm taking an IB Physics class, and there's a lab component that's pretty substantial. What's worse, my physics teacher has his own very high expectations for labs, and trying to fulfill the standards of both is pretty difficult. Typically the labs are between 50-100 pages, about 60% graphs or charts. There is always too much data to do anything manually and maintain my sanity.

IB has a lot of bizarre niggling requirements for these labs. Every number has to have a unit and uncertainty associated with it (I'm not allowed to just put "+/- .5 V" at the top of a column) and significant figures are vitally important. Indeed, even a single error on one datum will drop me by the IB equivalent of a full letter grade, at least according to my teacher.

So, I would like some spreadsheet/graphing software that can do what I need automatically.

As far as numbers and calculations go:
-- there needs to be a way to associate units and uncertainties to numbers and still use them in calculations
-- calculate while propagating uncertainties
-- perform calculations using the proper numbers of significant figures
-- easily export charts, with units and uncertainties printed next to each number, for insertion into a word-processing document

As far as graphing goes:
-- It needs to be able to handle error-bars on graphs, and perform at least linear regression.

Does anything like this exist? I've looked around for formulas to make Excel work the way I want it to, but most of them are unsatisfactory. I've also tried out R, but I don't have time to program all this myself, and R seems pretty difficult to learn anyway.

Plan B is amphetamines

Reverse my percentage?

JulianDay — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:25:28 -0800

How do you find a number that minus a percentage of itself is a certain number? What would be the formula (in a spreadsheet like pages.app) to find that 100 - 20% = 80, if you only know the percentage and the result (in this example 20% and 80)

I've tried googling this but I don't think I know the name or term of what I'm looking for, reverse percentage doesn't seem right...

Can you help with an Appleworks question?

citybuddha — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:15:43 -0800

For the last few years I have been using a spreadsheet in Appleworks . I am currently using appleworks 6 and for some reason now I cannot paste data into a field without getting an error message and any attempt to do a find in the document gives me a "could not find message" Anyone have any idea what is up?

Google forms auto-notification when updated

jmd82 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:36:51 -0800

Looking for a way to have Google forms/spreadsheet send an e-mail notification when a form has been filled out. We're thinking about using Google Forms to collect data from stakeholders. These forms would be updated at random intervals, completely unknown to those who needs the data. However, far as I can tell, there's no easy way to notify the form's owner that an update has been made. Anyone know of a way to make this happen? Bonus points for highlighting new responses.
--Yes, I know people can just manually check the spreadsheet for updates, but that doesn't always work out very well.

Evaluate the meaning of a string in Excel.

nickerbocker — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:24:21 -0800

How do I store a string in one cell in Excel and interpret it as a (or for a) function in another cell? More info inside. Simplified example:

Lets say I have random numbers in A1 through A15. In B1 I have the string "A1:A15". In B2, I want it to perform the MAX() function on whatever range is specified in B1. So if I change the string is B1 to something else, say "A10:A15", the maximum calculated in B2 is also reprocessed for the different set of data.

For some reason, I thought it would be something along the lines of:
=MAX(EVAL(B1))

But that is not the case. I seem to remember doing something similar before.

Thanks for your input!

How can I use a spreadsheet to track my accounts?

reenum — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:16:25 -0800

I want to start using a spreadsheet to track and reconcile my various accounts. How do I start? I've been using MS Money for years. Due to switching to the Mac, MS Money being discontinued, and generally hating the fact that my financial data is trapped in a proprietary program, I feel like I should use a spreadsheet to track my finances.

I have a savings account, two checking accounts, two credit card accounts, and a Roth IRA.

There are a couple of things I'm curious about: How does one reconcile accounts in a spreadsheet and are there any templates that have that checkbook entry system that MS Money has?

I've looked at some of the older posts on this topic and none seemed to answer my questions satisfactorily.

Links to templates, blog posts, howtos, general anecdotes, and anything else relating to this question are requested and appreciated. Thanks!

Excel can do this, right?

The Deej — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:21:22 -0800

Can I set up an Excel spreadsheet so the user is presented with a series of fields, like a form, instead of having to enter data directly into the cell? [I'm having a hard time even wording this question properly, so I haven't been able to find the answer anywhere. I turn to AskMe. Further explanation follows...] I'm working on a project for a corporate client which requires collecting data on a regular basis from dozens of employees spread throughout the property. Many or most of these people do not work with Excel (or possibly even computers) on a regular basis, so I'm trying to simplify the process for them as much as possible. Ideally, I'd like the user to be presented with a series of prompts or labelled fields and an entry box for thier data. Hitting "enter" would take them to the next field. All the fields could be on one screen. There would only be 5 or 6 fields. I want to prevent the user from having to find the right cell to enter the data.

So, is there a macro, or some way to hide the underlying spreadsheet? Security is not an issue; the sheet doesn't have to be hackproof, just as idiot-proof as I can reasonably do it.

Possibly pertient details: I'm working with Excel 2003. I can't upgrade to a newer version, and my ability to add software is limited. (Think Big Oil corporate network on-site at a refinery where security is high and the IT department is very strict.) Thanks MeFites!

Know any good mini-spreadsheets for XP?

No-sword — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:03:17 -0800

Can you recommend a mini-spreadsheet program for Windows XP, preferably freeware? It will be running on a tiny laptop in a place with no internet access, so OpenOffice is too big and online solutions are too... online. I'm imagining a sort of super-stripped-down Excel: No macros or fanciness, just the ability to enter numbers and strings in a table, add them up, and export to a real-Excel-readable format for later collation on a desktop PC.

I'm hoping for recommendations of specific software and places to get it from, rather than "Here's the 'spreadsheet' section of VersionTracker, there are hundreds" — I'm an OS X guy, I have no intuitive feel for choosing and obtaining Windows software. Thanks in advance.

Fast functional iPhone Spreadsheet App?

DavidJ710 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:08:34 -0800

Fast functional iPhone Spreadsheet App? I'm looking for the best way to manage the conditioning progress of my volleyball players. Things like Google Docs, EditGrid, and Documents 2 are all too slow and clunky to be effective at practice. I need to be able to quickly add columns, and being able to lock first column (Player Names) so that I can see whose information I'm plugging in would be a huge plus. I've Googled, Yahooed, and AppStored. All of the free and web-based offerings are either too slow, or they don't allow simple features such as creating new column labels. In a best case scenario, I could export data (csv, or xls) to print for the girls, but this really is not necessary. I just don't want to deal with notebooks, and transferring data for 30 girls and 20 exercises four days a week. Thanks in advance.

How do I link excel spreadsheets to create an inventory breakdown?

Seeba — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:16:11 -0800

How do I create an inventory database using Excel? My mother is an artist, and computer challenged. (Often, her broken CD/DVD player requires turning the disc right-side-up to "repair".)
(I say this, not to be cruel or mean-spirited, but to emphasize that I'm trying to set something up that I can lock so she can't create more troubles for herself by accidentally highlighting the wrong cell in a spreadsheet)

Her work, a steel-and-magnetic-tile composite is priced based on size (area) and component makeup. (i.e. 10$/inch^2, plus 20% when made of copper, 25% stainless steel, etc)

Each "Piece" of artwork is composed of between 4-10 "Tiles" which are a breakdown of the individual componants. (Tile 1 is usually a large piece of plate steel used as backing, then tiles 2-X are the actual magnetized tiles that affix to it.)

MS Excel is our friend here; I created a spreadsheet invoice template that lets her insert a picture of her piece, then below it, list the components, so as to give the customer a breakdown of the price. Then, I locked all the formulas so that she didn't have to come up with a price herself-- it's calculated as the end-result of the price/area*area*materials-markup equation.

An example:

::picture::

Description ------- Width ----- Height ----- Area ----- Materials Markup---- Total Price
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

:: now, at the end, a formal-looking grand total, section for notes, etc::

Now, my question: She needs to be able to create a complete inventory database, but at the same time, keep it pretty simple.
This is what I'm trying to set up:

MASTER.xls (a master sheet)
Piece 1.xls
Piece 2.xls,
etc.

The Master sheet is where I have my question.
I want to be able to link each of the "Piece X.xls" sheets to the Master, so that the master is basically a compilation of all the information from each of the Piece sheets, plus the a note on which piece it came from.

This way, the master sheet'll look basically like this:
Description ------- Width ----- Height ----- Area ----- Materials Markup---- Total Price ---- Piece Location
1.
2.
3.
...
(The list'll keep growing every time she adds a new Piece sheet to the folder)

The Master sheet will be a long list of every tile in every piece, so that she can keep track of them.
How do I link this information?
When I link it, I want to make sure that when she adds a tile to any of the individual "Piece" sheets, it updates the "Master" sheet.
(for example, "Piece 1" was originally 6 tiles... she created a seventh, and added it to the composite Piece. As it stands now, all she'd have to do is take a new picture, and enter the description, width, height, and select a markup from a dropdown box I put in there--- I want to make sure that this would be reflected on the Master sheet)

The "Piece X.xls" sheets will be the same format I've posted up above. They're printable, editable invoices that she can print out and mail with the piece to a client.

If at all possible, I'd like to be able to, in the master, include a link to a folder where I have a picture of individual tiles-- so she can link to a picture. (But that's the next hurdle)

Thank you for your assistance!

How do I select the last number in a column in Open Office Calc?

tomble — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:41:09 -0800

How do I select the last number in a column in Open Office Calc? I have a column of numbers which I add to daily. I would like the bottom, most recent number to be automatically shown in a cell on a different tab.

So, on tab 2 I have column A filled with numbers, with today's number being the very bottom number.

On tab 1 I would have a field which would show that latest number.

The versions of this that I found online, such as

=INDEX(A:A,MATCH(1E+30,A:A))

give me a 508 error. What am I doing wrong? I have very little understanding of formulas like this as I've never really dabbled with them before.

I need a list of all the countries

billtron — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:55:49 -0800

I'm looking for a randomized list of every nation state in the world, preferably in spreadsheet column form. Is there anything like this?

How do I work out an average spend?

Gisela — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:07:22 -0800

ExcelFilter: I want to calculate an average food spend, but the days I buy food are irregular throughout the month. How can I draw up a table/graph that gives an average based on a date and amount (for OpenOfficeCalc)? My best idea was to divide each spend by the days in between, but surely there is a better way to do this?

I'd like to end up with a graph with the date along the bottom too, but even that defeats me.

Please hope me!

Better than vi versus emacs!

perrce — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:23:04 -0800

Please help settle a bet: Is a spreadsheet a simple type of database, or are they fundamentally different things? A friend emailed me today with this:

i am having a spirited discussion about what is a database and what is a spreadsheet. i claim that a spreadsheet is a simple non-relational database. i need an unimpeachable source. do you know of any? thanks.

As his resident computer geek, I have an opinion, but I wouldn't say its a authoritative. So please help my buddy out. Links to relevant web pages are welcome (I couldn't find any that were spot on), as well as informed opinions.

Getting Google Spreadsheets to interpret string as formula

Akeem — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:53:28 -0800

I have hundreds of text strings entered through a form in a Google Spreadsheets which look like 4*3 9*2 17*3 22 37*4 52. I can easily substitute " " for "+" and concatenate a "=" in front =4*3+9*2+17*3+22+37*4+52. Now I have a text string which looks like a formula but isn't one. How can I make Google Spreadsheets interpret this string as a formula? These Excel solution don't apply because I'm not always around when someone makes a new form entry.

With =sum(split(A1,"+")) it's possible to interpret a string like 4+9+17+22 and get a correct result.

However =multiply(split(A1,"*")) does not work for 17*3 ("Wrong number of arguments", even though split should create 2 arguments here). So a combination of splits, multiply and sum also fail.

Is there another solution?

Column limits suck

ROU_Xenophobe — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:02:29 -0800

Editor for very large flat files? I'm assembling a large flatfile dataset to feed into another program*. Assembling it is almost entirely just a matter of pasting together existing matrices in a sort of checkerboard pattern and marking the rest of the cells as missing.

When it's done, the file will be approximately 7500 rows by 42000 columns. I'll be using csv as an intermediate format. Editing in a spreadsheet (or something identical to me as a user) would be the most convenient.

But Excel 2007 tops out at 16K columns. Is there anything out there that can open and edit a file like that? Ideally cheap or free as always.

I do know some workarounds:

(1) Transpose the matrix so it will fit in Excel 07, and re-transpose the final product in R or something else.

(2) Cobble it together out of multiple files/sheets and then paste it all back together in a text editor or with perl.

But in both of those cases, I'm left with a "final" csv that I can't open in anything to check that everything went okay.

*Estimating legislators' ideal points in a common ideological space.

Compare and output greater value.

guptaxpn — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:57:05 -0800

Spreadsheet question: Display Greater Value? I know this is one of those "you-either-know-it-or-you-don't" situations, and I just don't know. Hokay, so here's ze situation:

There are two columns of numbers, A and B

A1 has a value of 10, and B1 has a value of 15.

What do I type into C1 to compare A1 and B1, and display the greater value of 15?

Sort Me Out

Rubythursday — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:27:15 -0800

I need to create a database in Excel, with clickable column headers (clicking on them will sort by that column). More inside, of course. I know Access is better for databases, but I'm creating this for a user group with very limited PC skills. Frankly, getting them to look at Excel scares them a little. The idea of Access brings on the deer-in-the-headlights reaction.

Ideally, I'd like each category (column header) to be clickable. By clicking on that header, it sorts by that column. (Like Google Docs does automatically).

Is there a way to do this without diving into VB?

Best solution for spreadsheet to track monthly usage statistics

mkny — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:58:14 -0800

What's the optimal design for a spreadsheet to track statistics for events (performer, type of program, location, attendance) and pull out various monthly totals? (Details follow) I can hack my way through a basic excel file and work with simple formulas, but I find I'm a bit out of my depth here. Advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm in the process of setting up a spreadsheet to track monthly statistics for my library: programs, transactions, meeting room usage, etc. Let's start by talking about programs, since I should be able to apply whatever solution I come up with to the other categories (which will have slightly different fields.)

The key fields we want to track for each program are the date, description, program type, name of the staff member responsible, location, and attendance. From this raw data, I need to be able to pull out monthly and yearly summaries, all keyed to attendance: how many patrons attended storytimes this month, how many people attended computer classes. I'd also like to pull out counts: Staff Member X had this many programs this month, for example. And then overall and yearly totals as well.

The model I have to base this on (from our HQ library) is a monthly spreadsheet--that is, there's a master spreadsheet with just headers and a new sheet is created at the beginning of each month, and that's month's stats are recorded in it. My biggest issue with this solution is that I'm not a fan of creating a new spreadsheet each month. I think the more elegant solution is to have staff members enter all the info via a form into a continuous sheet of raw data, then have another sheet with formulas showing just the sums and counts we need. Do you think my way is a smart way to do it? Would you just stick with the existing simple solution? Is there a better alternative I'm overlooking?

The biggest snag I've hit so far with my preferred solution from the previous paragraph is creating formulas that filter by date. I think Excel and google both might be able to handle this, but I haven't had success yet.

I can use either excel (2003) or google, though I'm leaning towards google b/c the web form entry is so nice. Way less opportunity for staff entering data to stray from the controlled vocabulary.

Thanks,
Mike

Calc: how to work out what I'm being paid

Solomon — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:40:58 -0800

I need some help finding/creating a Calc/Excel formula that will help me track my breaks at work, depending on how long I work per day. I work shift of varying different lengths. One day I might work 3 hours, 7 the next and 4h30m the following day. I get a break time dependent on how long I've worked, which means I'm not paid for that period of time.

For example, if I work 3 hours, I get paid for 3 full hours. If I work 7 hours, I get a 45 minute unpaid break, which means I only get paid for 6h15m. If I work 4 hours, I get a 15 minute unpaid break, which means I get paid for 3h45m.

I want to be able to track in Openoffice Calc (by preference, though Excel will do) what hours I'm at work & what hours I get paid for, every week. I've uploaded a working copy of the spreadsheet here.

What formula do I need to put into F2, F3, etc, to work out how many hours I've been paid, and then return that number as a percentage (so I can easily multiply that number by my hourly wage, and get an idea of how much I'll actually be paid)?

I hope this is clear. I don't use spreadsheets very often.

What are good options for cheap data entry of scanned documents?

fdhidalgo — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:06:57 -0800

What are good options for cheap data entry? I have about 500 pages of scanned historical election data that I need turned into a spreadsheet. I know there are over-sea firms (i'm in the US) that do this cheaply, but I don't know where to start besides basic google searches. Any recommendations, tips, or past experiences? Any rough estimates on how much it will cost per page? Background: Each page has a table of Brazilian municipalities, with election returns for each party. The quality is decent, but probably not good enough for OCR.

Tools for a simple staff directory on PBwiki

lillygog — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:53:18 -0800

I need to transform a big HTML table into something easier to update and maintain. Bonus: I'd like to put it (or its display widget) onto our staff wiki page. I've got a staff wiki and would like to put our staff directory up on the wiki. We're using free PBwiki hosting, since that's our best option for web space right now. Unfortunately, any sort of database-driven solutions requiring actual web coding are beyond us -- I fiddled with style sheets years ago and understand some things in a conceptual sense, but am not a web developer. So think easy, painless web tools that would be easy for a small, non-technical shop to maintain, and easy for staff without HTML knowledge to update.

The staff directory is currently a gigantic (over 175 entries) HTML table. Yay. Simply pasting the HTML into the wiki doesn't work because editing those giant tables is notoriously difficult, and I'd like to make this as easy for staff as possible. I'm not entirely a fan of wiki table formatting, either, because I feel like you're still sticking your data into a hard-to-update, un-transformable format.

So I decided that a spreadsheet would be easiest, based largely on Google Docs' ability to embed in web pages and export to .xls, .cvs, .html, .pdf, and so on. Plus everyone's familiar with Excel, and you can change rows and columns all you want. However, some don't want to use Google Docs because that requires setting up yet another account and password -- a legitimate concern.

Is there something I'm missing? Have you heard of any other web tools, shortcuts, simpler ways to do this? I guess what I'm trying to do is create a PBwiki table without being stuck in table formatting, if that even makes sense.

Detect bold text in MS Excel

beniamino — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:36:39 -0800

I have a very large MS Excel spreadsheet in Mac Office 2008 (yuk). I want to find every cell that contains bold text and append an asterisk to it -- i.e. "bold cell text" becomes "bold cell text*". I can probably find a Windows machine if necessary. How can this be done automatically?

How to export Outlook email to a spreadsheet, including Date/Time fields?

geekgirl397 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:34:02 -0800

How do I export email messages from Outlook into Excel (or CSV) while retaining the date/time stamp on each message? I'm troubleshooting an issue which involves me tracking the receipt of various emails. Unfortunately the only copy of the emails is in Outlook 2003. I need to figure out a timeline of what arrived when, and it would be much easier to do in a spreadsheet than within Outlook.

However, Outlook's "Export to Excel" and "Export to CSV" options don't allow you to select the date/time field.

Any ideas would be gratefully received.