Saturday, February 26, 2011

Excel Spreadsheets Project Management Templates Download

Throughout my engineering career I've compiled a nice collection of project management style spreadsheets as well as other document to help with the development and process flow of a project. I have decided to make this documents available for download. These management help documents include: a work plan template, a risk assessment log, a log for keeping track of potential issues which may slip up a planned project, a project change log, an Excel Gantt chart, and a master project management template (great to use if you don't have access to Microsoft project). Enjoy the download links:

Work Plan Template.xls download
Risk Log Template.xls download
Issue Log Template.xls download
Change Log Template.xls download
Excel Gantt Chart.xls download
Project Management Template.xls download

As always, suggestions for improvement are welcome and very appreciated!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Split the Rent Complement Spreadsheets

I stumbled across a really great website yesterday - Split The Rent. Splitting rent with your friends shouldn't be stressful. If your rooms are different sizes or different levels of niceness, my calculator will give you a neutral and objective opinion on how to share the rent. I really like the SplitTheRent calculator. I wish I would've found it a few years ago because it really would've been very useful when I was in college.

I think the Split the Rent calculator is a great complement to my apartment related Excel spreadsheets. Before you begin splitting the rent you have to find a place to live. You can use my apartment search spreadsheet while you and your friends are apartment hunting and looking for a place to live. Next, use the Split the Rent calculator to figure out exactly how you are going to split the rent between roommates. After that decision is made you need a way to keep track of which friend you owe money to. My shared apartment expenses spreadsheet (now modified for 5 roommates) does just that- keeps track of what each roommate owes the other roommates. I think these three items are great complements to each other and hopefully make life easier for some of you!

Update 6/11/12: Check out new and improved apartment search spreadsheet.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Excel Spreadsheet Help Android App Suggestions

I'm currently learning how to write apps for Android phones. However, I need a goal to work towards. I was wondering if any readers had any ideas or suggestions for an Excel Spreadsheets Help phone app (or any other related apps). I'm trying to think of something somewhat simple to start off with but could be added onto later or inspire new ideas. I think the ideal model is the have a basic version which is free to download but more advanced users could then download a "pro" version for a small fee.

Maybe I could do an app for my Apartment Search Spreadsheet where you could enter the info into your phone while you are touring an apartment complex and that info could then be used to easily complete the spreadsheet later. What do you think? Any suggestions?

Also, how many Android user vs. iPhone users are out that which use this site?

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

How to Stop Cell References from Changing When Inserting Columns or Rows

We have a special treat for you today. Our second guest blogger is Yoav Ezer, who is going to share with us a technique of how to stop a cell reference from changing when inserting a column or row.  I really appreciate Yoav taking the time and sharing his insight, experience, and wealth of information with us today. Now, on to the article!

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One of the great things about Microsoft Excel is you can copy and paste formulas and they still work relative to where the formula now lives.
You can get around this behavior if you want to also. When you create a formula and reference a specific cell, and you want that reference to remain correct even when the formula is moved, or you add or delete columns or rows, then you should use an absolute cell reference.
But there is one situation where even absolute cell references won't help. In most cases when you add a row or column you would want the formula to reference the original (now moved) cell, but there are some cases you don't want the cell reference to change even when inserting a row or a column. This article shows how to work around this Excel behavior so you can force it to reference the exact cell you choose.

A Working Example

Imagine you are a swimming coach wanting to keep a track of your swimmer's recent average swim times.


We could have columns to record the last nine swim times then calculate the average timing of the last three swims and the average time of all the swims.
Every time we monitor a swimmer their latest swim time is inserted as the first column of the spreadsheet, and the ninth time column is deleted.
Obviously want the formulas in the last two columns where we calculate the averages to always remain the same, even after all the deletions and the insertions.

An INDIRECT Solution

Our solution is to use a little-known Excel function called INDIRECT.

Indirect allows you to specify an exact cell and Excel will go and fetch the contents of that precise location.
What would you normally use?
=AVERAGE(B5:J5) 
As you can see in the screenshot below, once you have added and deleted columns, this no longer works as a solution:

We would instead use:
=AVERAGE(INDIRECT("B" & ROW() & ":J" & ROW()))

Summary

Sometimes Excel seems to work so hard to be helpful that it works against what you want, but there is almost always a way to get the result you need. Lucky for us in this case the INDIRECT() function is an easy solution!

About the author

Yoav Ezer co-authors the technology and productivity blog Codswallop. He is also the CEO of a company that produces PDF to Excel conversion software.
For more Excel tips from Yoav, join him on Facebook or Twitter

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Trip Cost Estimator Spreadsheet Template Download

I recently had to estimate the cost of going on a trip to attend a conference for my day job. This lead directly to the creation of a total trip cost estimator spreadsheet, which I have transformed into an easy to use template. It's not totally complete yet. I am looking for suggestions for more categories to add but I will still upload the template as is and make it available for download. If the link doesn't work please let me know and I can email the spreadsheet to you.



If you're looking to estimate the cost of traveling on vacation or need a honeymoon planner then this spreadsheet template is a good place to start. How do you compare airline tickets to determine the best price of flights? What's an easy way to compare hotel or car rental services? Need a brief idea of what the price range of a major trip is going to cost? Use the Trip Cost Estimator Spreadsheet template. Create your own or download mine today.



Trip Cost Estimator Spreadsheet Template.xls Download Here