Downloadable 2012 NBA Playoff Bracket

The 2012 NBA playoffs are here and that means it's time it fill out more brackets! Download the 2011-2012 NBA Playoff Excel Bracket I whipped up from Google docs. Once I find a complete schedule I will go back and add it to the Excel file. I'm also trying something new for Excel Spreadsheets Help by utilizing Google Docs. So who do you have winning the NBA crown? I'm a Cleveland fan, so I don't really care as long as it's not Miami.

I can also email you the spreadsheet if you join our mailing list.

NFL Mock Draft Creator Interview

I was able to contact the creator of the NFL mock draft spreadsheet, a sports fan known as “Beerfish” whom I’d like to thank for answering a few of our questions about his fantastic spreadsheet, which you can download from Google docs.

ESH: How long have you been using Excel? 

B: Probably about 8 or 9 years.

ESH: Where did you get all the player data from? 

B: If you ‘unhide’ Columns K to T you will see web sites where I got the player data from.

ESH: How did you populate the names?

B: In most cases I copied from web sites and then pasted as ‘text’ into a clean sheet.  I then used ‘text to columns’ to stick the text data into columns and then transfer to the main player sheet.

ESH: How were players ranked?

B: By averaging all of the site rankings that I have (once again the hidden rows, some are pure player rankings some are mock draft rankings.)

ESH: What formulas were used?

B: Well, “Average” formulas for the averages but mostly I used the “VLookup” formula to populate the mock draft sheet from the player data sheet. 

ESH: What aspects of the spreadsheet are macro driven?

B: The only parts that are macro driven are the buttons on the pages and all they do is make it easier to move from page to page and to filter.  You really don’t need to use macros at all.  You can do everything the macros do manually fairly easily by just moving from sheet to sheet with the tabs on the bottom and buy using the filtering arrows on the player data sheet.

ESH: How long did it take you to put all this information together? Your spreadsheet is a literal mock draft database.

B: It varies, the 1^st year which was about 5-6 years ago it took quite a while fiddling with formulas and such. Now that I have the spreadsheet in place I just populate it.  I usually update the rankings a couple times.  Might take 3 or 4 hours to populate now that I have the sheet all ready.

ESH: Who do you think will be picked top five and in what order?

Wow this is a tough one, my voice wouldn’t carry any more than anyone else but I’ll wing it:

1)      Andrew Luck

2)      Robert Griffin III

3)      Matt Kalill

4)      Trent Richardson

5)      Morris Claiborne

ESH: As a Browns fan, I would love Griffin but I’ll take Richardson too. Do you make any other sports related spreadsheets?

 B: Yes, I do the same thing for the NHL draft as well. 

ESH: Thanks again for answering our questions and for making such an awesome spreadsheet. I know it will help my NFL fantasy mock draft strategies this fall. All this talk about the NFL draft is getting me excited for the fall, especially since the 2012 NFL schedule has just been released (and I'll be working on a 2012 NFL helmet schedule soon).

Download the 2012 NFL Helmet spreadsheet.

Downloadable 2012 NFL Mock Draft Spreadsheet

The NFL draft on Thursday, April 26th is quickly approaching. Many pro football fans, including myself, like to create "mock" drafts to try and predict the team each player will go to and in which round. I recently found a very awesome and extremely detailed spreadsheet for creating your own mock draft. The Excel spreadsheet includes all 325 players who are eligible for this year's draft including their rankings and NFL Combine results. The spreadsheet is macro driven and is easy to negotiate; instructions are included. Believe me, any piece of information you could ever want or need to create a mock football draft is included with this spreadsheet.

If you're planning on participating in a fantasy football league this fall you better start getting to know the players now, so you're more than prepared for your fantasy football draft. Join our email list to receive a copy of the Excel file as an attachment. How does your mock draft compare to ESPN's Mel Kiper?

View and download the 2012 NFL Mock Draft spreadsheet from Google Docs (go to file then download). Visit our downloads page for more sports templates.

Fantasy Football Advice - Learn the 10 Commandments of Drafting!

UPDATE: NFL 2012 Schedule spreadsheet

Excel Talk with Sunil from the Extra Money Blog

Here at Excel Spreadsheets Help we're always looking for new and exciting uses of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. We recently had the opportunity to talk with Sunil, author of the Extra Money blog, about how he uses Excel in regard to his personal finances, entrepreneurship, and internet marketing. I'd like to thank Sunil for taking the time to answer a few of our questions.

ESH: Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself – who are you and what do you do?

Sunil: I am the author of the Extra Money Blog (www.extramoneyblog), a blog that discusses expedited wealth building through entrepreneurship, solid personal finance and internet marketing. I strongly feel true financial abundance can only be achieved when solid personal finance principles and discipline is/are combined with entrepreneurship.  Saving will only get you so far, but creating additional income streams will get you anywhere you’d like as fast as you'd like.

I wear several hats. I own over 20 profitable niche sites, 20+ ebooks on various platforms online and currently in the process of establishing a local SEO firm. I am in the process of developing several iPhone applications as well. Outside the online platform, I am involved in real estate investments as well as small business investments (brick and mortar).

ESH: When did you first begin using Excel and how often do you use it?

I've been using excel since University. I used it extensively early in my professional career working in mergers and acquisitions (heavy number crunching and analysis).  Today I use it for various purposes, including recording, tracking and analyzing income from various online endeavors. Heck, sometimes I use it for note taking as silly as it sounds. I am addicted to spreadsheets :)

  

ESH: I know exactly what you mean! Could you please describe your income or expense tracking spreadsheet and processes?

Sunil: I designed the spreadsheet I use today and started using it myself. Today I have trained a VA to compile it for me monthly/quarterly.  The sheet/workbook has several tabs, each representing a "business".  All tabs roll into the main tab (through formulas / links).  The main tab also has general expenses which are apportioned to each business (based on formulas). I plan on discussing this in depth on my blog. I may also share this spreadsheet for those interested in a relatively hands off business model.

ESH: Wow, great. You’ll have to let us know when you make your spreadsheet available for download. How important to your businesses is it to track all sources of income and expenses?

Sunil: It's important. Without tracking you don't know how you are truly doing. Tracking also enables the calculation of ROI, which influence future decisions involving projects to pursue. Finally, regulatory compliance and laws mandate clean and clear tracking (think income taxes, statutory reporting, etc.)

ESH: Do you prefer using Google doc's spreadsheets or Excel files? What are advantages of using one or the other?

Sunil: Both. Excel is good when I am toying around on my own. Google docs is great for share use and project management purposes. It's also available anywhere you have internet access. Docs can be clunky at first if you are used to Excel, but it's a great tool. Excel on the other hand is a lot more powerful than many believe or know.  You don't know what you don't know at the end of the day.

ESH: Have you ever created or encountered any unique uses for an Excel spreadsheet?

Sunil: Yes, I have embedded macros into them and developed small programs. I have used excel to value mutli million and billion dollar companies utilizing several evaluation models. These involve complex formulas.  This is as "unique" as I have gotten.  I have seen some very robust / intense workbooks that are linked to massive data warehouses. The workbooks download the information/data from the warehouses, and automatically slice and dice the data based on user preference (sometimes macros are involved - the click of a button allows the workbook to fly with it) 

ESH: Thanks again to Sunil and be sure to check out the Extra Money blog and Facebook page to learn more.

2011-2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Printable Bracket

The 2011-2012 NHL regular season has ended and the Stanley Cup playoffs are here which means it's time to download, print, and fill out your bracket. I have created a downloadable Excel spreadsheet with the complete NHL playoff bracket. Fill it out on your computer or print it out. Maybe next year I'll get around to adding a bracket manager in order to keep score in a pool. Download the 2012 NHL bracket here or sign-up for my Excel tips newsletter to receive the .xls file as an email attachment (you can unsubscribe at any time).

One note about the Stanley Cup playoffs - unlike March Madness the top seed always plays the lowest seed so you may have to reshuffle the picks on your bracket after the first round.

Also included with the Excel spreadsheet is the date, location, time, and TV network for all the games in the first round of the playoffs.

If you would like to receive the spreadsheet file through email please join my free Excel email tips newsletter.

Download the spreadsheet then find out how to make the best picks in order to win your pool!

2011-2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Printable Excel Bracket.xls download

2012 NHL Mock Draft Creator spreadsheet.xls download