It's the most wonderful time of the year - college football bowl season! The college football conference championships were played this past weekend which means the 2024 NCAA college football bowl season is here again. It’s time to make your picks and predictions about who you think will win each bowl game. One of the best times of the holiday season is being able to talk trash to your relatives about their terrible bowl picks.
This year has the added bonus of the new, expanded college football playoff - growing from four to twelve teams. As such, I've included a college football playoff bracket within this Excel file. There is the option to play just the bowls, just the playoff bracket, or both! If you've used my Super Bowl Squares template, you'll be familiar with how it works - there is a setup screen where you pick your options then click a button and the spreadsheet adjusts to how you want to play.
The bowl prediction sheets include the football helmet designs for every team (taken from my college football helmet schedule spreadsheet), their win-loss record, and the logo for all bowl games. I added the helmets so those players who aren't big college football fans can pick a winner based on their favorite helmet design!
There are multiple ways to play college football bowl pick'em. What I call "regular" is every game is worth 1 point. The other way I call Confidence Picks: each player "bet" points 1 to 35 on each game based on how confident they are their choice is correct. Player with the most points wins Example: player bets 35 points and gets it correct = 35 points. Bets 25 points on another game, gets it wrong = 0 points awarded.
For the college football playoff bracket, the pool manager can decide if each game is worth the same amount (1 point) or if each round the points increase: round 1 = 1 point, round 2 = 2 points, etc.
There are two primary methods most websites appear to be ranking the 2024 medal count. Most sites rank countries by the total number of Olympic medals won. Other sites, like the International Olympic Committee (or IOC) rank countries by their gold medal count. And others rank by other factors like per capita or GDP.
Pictured below is a bar chart showing all medals won for the top countries (as of the time of this posting on 2-14-22). The bar chart is created in Excel by highlighting the data then going to Insert>Bar>Stacked Bar chart. Change the colors of the bars by right clicking on them then use the drop down menu to select the data you want to change.
I’ve devised my own ranking system to give each Olympic medal a weight where the silver is worth half a gold medal and a bronze is worth only a quarter of the gold. Based on this new scoring system, previous Olympic results suddenly became quite interesting. However, for the 2024 Summer Games not too much actually changes (so far, will revisit after more events are completed). The first five countries ranking is unchanged. It gets really interesting in the 25-35 range.
I’ve shared my Olympic Medal Count spreadsheet and listed out the Olympic medals by country. How would you weight each medal against the others? Comment below and share any of your Olympic medal rating systems!
I've sold 227 items on Facebook marketplace. Here's what I've learned:
The day of the week when I make the most sales on Facebook marketplace is Wednesday, followed by Tuesday and Sunday. The worst day of the week for sales is Friday, followed by Saturday and Monday.
I've been selling on Facebook Marketplace since July 2020 and by far the best months for most sales have been November and December, with February and April being the worst.
56% of my sales have been picked up by the customer in-person, while 44% paid for shipping on top of the cost of the item.
The average length of time to sell an item on Facebook Marketplace is 112 days. The longest sale took 828 days (or 2.2 years)!
54% of customers will try to barter or negotiate a lower price than what you have initially listed the item for. On average, customers will try to reduce your price by 20%, so you should account for this when listing your items.
Example: if you want to make $50 off a product, list it for $60.
I recently updated my template. You can now use this one spreadsheet to track sales for various marketplaces, such as Mercari, Ebay, Craiglist, Whatnot, etc. Previously you had to manually drag down formulas and added new listings at the bottom. Now you simply click a button and a new row is automatically added via VBA macro at the top for you to add the listing info. All the data is in the Summary sheet and update automatically via Excel formulas.
Have you ever sold anything on Facebook Marketplace and if so do you track your sales? Have any tips for me or questions? Let me know via comment or email!
The 2024 NFL schedule was released yesterday and since I used my Excel skills to automate the creation of this spreadsheet I was able to create the NFL Helmet Schedule in less than a minute! All 32 teams, all 18 weeks of the season (now 17 games plus one bye week), all in one spreadsheet. But instead of looking like this boring mess:
Watch the video below to see just how easy it is to update the NFL helmet schedule spreadsheet since it has been automated:
As you can see, the NFL helmet schedule is printable too. You can save the spreadsheet as a PDF file or print it out and pin it up in your cubicle at work. If you do, please email or tweet me a picture of it hanging up - I'd love to see it!
Please note, an email is required to download it. I do this so you will be automatically updated you if changes or additions are made and will update you when the next year’s schedule is ready. I do not use your email for anything else.
As always, I welcome any comments or suggestions about how to fix or improve the sheet! How can I improve this football spreadsheet into something you’ll use all the time during pro-football season? What future features would you like to see?
It's finally time to play Super Bowl Squares! As the biggest sporting event of the year approaches, hardcore football and casual fans alike gear up for an unforgettable Super Bowl experience. To add an extra layer of excitement to your game day festivities, I'm here to introduce you to the magic of Super Bowl Squares and simplify the process with my specially crafted and powerful Excel template. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to this classic game of chance, my template is designed to make organizing and tracking your Super Bowl Squares pool a breeze. Let's get to it!
I’ve been making Super Bowl Squares templates available for you to download since 2012 and the latest versions are the most versatile yet. There are two templates to choose from, I'll explain the pros and cons of each.
2024 Super Bowl Squares - 54 Ways to Play
Released in 2021, this is the more "classic" and straightforward way to play. When you first open the sheet, it has a nice clean look with only one sheet visible. You select the options for how you want to play, click Generate Squares, and it sets up the sheet exactly for the version you want to play.
The way it works is all the scoring systems are already built into the sheet. If you go to the Squares or the Manager sheet you will find many hidden rows or columns. The Generate Squares macro simply hides or unhides the data based on the user’s selections.
54 ways to play apparently wasn't enough as I still received numerous requests for customizations and more features. This lead to the creation of a new approach to the template: Super Bowl Squares Unlimited. The main difference in how it works is there are no pre-built scoring systems. Instead, they are built on the fly by macros based on the user's input; therefore there are an infinite number of ways to play.
This sheet offers the most flexibility but might take some getting used to. At first it may be a little difficult to understand how the scoring works, so I recommend you watch this video:
My daughter is in Girl Scouts and her troop wanted to sell Girl Scout cookies for the first time this year. In order to sell Girl Scout cookies you need an adult to be the TCPC: Troop Cookie Program Coordinate. Or as my daughter said, "We need you to be the Cookie Daddy!" I figured all this meant was they needed someone to manage an Excel spreadsheet for all the cookie sales so I agreed.
Little did I know what was in store as there is much more to it. First is all the training and webinars, background check, volunteer forms, etc. Then when it comes to finally sell cookies, there are no spreadsheets; they've got Digital Cookie online selling platform and eBudde management system. While the eBudde system and tools seem to have all the information needed on the backend, the front end is very confusing for a new user. It's very confusing and cumbersome and the key information the TCPC needs to know is spread out over different pages. Seriously, if you have to have numerous training sessions to explain how everything works and people are still asking tons of questions, your system is too complicated.
With this spreadsheet you still have to manually input all the cookie sale information from eBudde but now all the information you need to know is shown visually on just two sheets and is easy to understand. Here's how to use the cookie tracker:
On the sales summary page, copy and paste your Girl Scouts. Then input each of their Digital Cookie sales, which are broken into four categories:
1. Cookies to be hand delivered (from the Initial Orders page in eBudde)
2. Donated cookies for Operation Salute
3. Any cookie sales from paper order forms that need to be input manually
4. Orders that will be shipped direct from the bakery (from the Girl Orders page)
Next, you can input each Girl Scout's goal for how many packages they want to sell. These will add up at the bottom to show the overall Troop Cookie Goal. There is a donut graph to show the troop's progress towards their goal.
On the right it shows the Instant Rewards and how many packages it takes to reach. Once a girl has reached the goal, the formula automatically shows as having achieved it.
On the next sheet, we have a breakdown of how many of each type of girl scout cookie has been sold (thin mints being the most popular, obviously). As the cookie daddy and the person responsible for picking up the cookies from the cookie cupboard to distribute to the troop, the most important info is the number of cases of each type of cookie I need to pickup.
There is another sheet in my template that explains some of the terminology, the key being the word "box" is never used. The girls sell "packages" of cookies and 12 of those packages make up a case. The cookies are never mixed up in different cases and if you only sell one package of LemonUps, you have to pickup an entire case of LemonUps.
The Girl Scout Cooking Tracking Spreadsheet shows you exactly how many cases of each cookie you need and how many unsold packages in each case. The unsold cookies from the initial order can be used to sell in-person during the booth phase.
I added a sheet you can use as a template for booth signups.
Since 54 ways to play still wasn't enough, I've created a new version of my Super Bowl Squares template that should allow nearly limitless ways to play. I'm going to show you how to use it and what make it awesome. But first, let's take a quick look back at the evolution of my football grid game template.
I’ve been making Super Bowl Squares templates available for you to download for over 10 years now. The first version in 2012 was very plain and simple and was basically just meant to be printed.
I started adding more features and automation in 2014, beginning with a button you would click that runs a macro to generate the random numbers.
The problem I soon discovered is there are countless ways to play Super Bowl Squares. Initially, I tried to account for different ways to play by having multiple sheets within the workbook. But this got very messy very quickly. A new user would open the template and could be very confused by all the sheets. I wanted a better solution.
In 2021, I released a new version that featured 54 different ways to play Super Bowl Squares all contained within one easy to use spreadsheet. When you first open the sheet, it has a nice clean look with only one sheet visible. You select the options for how you want to play, click Generate Squares, and it sets up the sheet exactly for the version you want to play.
The way it works is all the scoring systems are already built into the sheet. If you go to the Squares or the Manager sheet you will find many hidden rows or columns. The Generate Squares macro simply hides or unhides the data based on the user’s selections.
54 ways to play is a lot – but it is still not enough. Over the years I continued to receive countless requests for different ways to play. I don’t have time to make very specific sheets for each individual request – I needed a solution to account for unlimited ways to play.
That’s when I had the idea for Super Bowl Squares Unlimited. The main difference in how it works is there are no pre-built scoring systems. Instead, they are built on the fly by macros.
If you’re using iOS or cannot enable macros you will not be able to use this sheet, sorry. The is a simple printable PDF in the download and here is a Google sheet.
The first thing you’ll want to do is go to the Manager sheet and complete columns B and C by inputting all the player names and using the drop down to select how many squares for each. You can type the names manually into each square but you would also have to list the names on the Manager sheet and make sure they match (no typos).
Back to the Squares sheet, the buttons in the Grid Tools box are pretty self explanatory. On the squares sheet, click the Random Names button to populate the grid with the player names in random positions. Click Randomize Numbers to generate the list of random numbers. Similar to previous sheet.
The main difference that gives this sheet more flexibility is the score boards are not built in, they are generated when the user clicks the Generate Scoreboard button every time there is a scoring event. Meaning, the settings can be changed. Let’s look at some examples.
So that’s how you use the Super Bowl Squares Unlimited spreadsheet template. I’m excited to hear your thoughts. Is it better than the previous sheet? This is brand new and hasn’t been tested too much so there could be some bugs. But I’d love to know your thoughts on which sheet you will use and why so leave me a comment or email. Thanks for watching and have fun playing Super Bowl Squares!
Sports gambling just became legal here in Ohio and we've been flooded with sign-up offers. Since just about every sportsbook will give you free bonus bets (around $200) for a small ($5 or $10) deposit, I decided to dabble a little bit into sports betting to see what all the fuss is about. I signed up for three different sportsbook sites and quickly realized I needed a way to organize and track all my bets.
Naturally, I decided to make an Excel template to track which bets I'd made, track my earnings, and make sure I was still making a profit. First, I created a Lists sheet for all my drop down lists including which sportsbook, which sport, result, and so on. Personally, so far I've only stuck to football because that's what I follow the most and already have some interest and knowledge in it.
The Bet Tracker sheet is used to track every individual bet including the odds, wager amount, and formulas to determine the potential winnings and the actual result.
When you bet with your own money, if you win the bet you get the winnings plus your original bet back. But when you use Bonus money to place your bet, that "fake" money is not added to the winnings. I had to account for this in my Potential Winnings column formula.
If your own money then: Winnings = ((Odds/100)*Wager)+Original Wager
If bonus money then: Winnings = (Odds/100)*Wager)
=IF(E2="My$",((G2/100)*F2)+F2,((G2/100)*F2))
If you get lucky and win a bet, you'll be able to withdraw the money into your own bank or Paypal account. There's a summary sheet to track exactly how much money you've put in versus what has come out. The most important stat to me is my running total, and making sure it is well in the positive otherwise it's time to quit.
How have I done? In the past two weeks, I placed 33 bets and won 8 of them. I've only had to input $27 of my own dollars, while I've gotten to bet $650 bonus bucks. I'm not huge into taking risks, so instead of betting on crazy parleys with larger payouts, I've bet on safer, more likely outcomes but with smaller rewards. What do I plan to do with my winnings? Probably invest in an AI company since they're changing the game.
In all my years of making sports related Excel spreadsheet templates, I've never really gambled on sports. I'm not sure I'll keep gambling once my free funds run out, but it is a fun experiment while it lasts. Like playing fantasy football or Super Bowl Squares, it gives you an extra incentive for watching the game. Hey, speaking of Super Bowl Squares, I've got a new version coming out this weekend and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it...
I've been seeing more and more videos on TikTok about this mysterious new artificial intelligence program called ChatGPT. People are saying it will eventually replace Google search. But what really got my attention was a demonstration of ChatGPT writing VBA macros for Microsoft Excel. Now I knew I had to try it for myself.
I made a Year in Pixels Excel template to track my daily mood back in 2018 but haven't updated it lately. Since it's the start of a new year, I recently received some new comments and questions about how to use and modify the spreadsheet so I figured now would be a great time to update it and add a few new features. Then I had an idea - why don't I use this opportunity to update my mood tracking Excel template to try out ChatGPT? Let's give it a go!
How to have cell fill color conditional formatting change based on the color of another cell?
The request from a user that got me thinking was "how to easily change the colors in my year in pixels sheet?" An experienced Excel user could probably ascertain the colors are applied by conditional formatting formula rules. However, for users who are not Excel savvy, it's not very obvious and there should be an easier way to change the colors. As far as I know, there is none, or at least no easy way in my current version of Excel, to have the fill color in the conditional formatting reference another cell's color. So instead, I will have a macro update the conditional formatting rules at the click of a button. Let's jump over to ChatGPT.
How does ChatGPT work?
Here's the answer after asking it directly:
GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a type of language model developed by OpenAI that uses a transformer neural network architecture to generate text. GPT is trained on a large dataset of text and uses this training to generate new text that is similar in style and content to the training data.
ChatGPT is a variant of GPT that has been fine-tuned on a specific task, such as having conversations with humans. To fine-tune GPT for this task, ChatGPT is trained on a large dataset of conversation data and learns to predict the next word in a conversation based on the words that came before it.
When you input a message to ChatGPT, it processes the message and uses its knowledge of language and conversation patterns to generate a response. It does this by predicting the next word in the conversation based on the input it has received and the context of the conversation so far. The output of ChatGPT is then a response that is generated based on this prediction.
One thing to keep in mind right off the bat: ChatGPT is not always right. It says it right there on the main page under limitations: may occasionally generate incorrect information; may occasionally produce harmful instructions.
For example, I asked "list the ten tallest roller coasters in the world" which should be fairly easy and instead it produces a list that is incorrect and doesn't even make sense.
Not a great start but let's see how it does creating a macro from scratch.
Creating Custom VBA Macros Automatically with ChatGPT
I wasn't sure how specific I needed to be so I decided to err on the side of caution, plus I thought the more detailed I am the less modification I'll probably need to do later. Now I ask ChatGPT: "create a vba macro to make a new conditional formatting rule where range is C4 to N34, if cell value = 5 then change the fill color to the same color as in cell P12." Then it began typing and my jaw dropped.
I copied and pasted the code into Excel VBA editor and it worked! One thing I forgot is this macro will just add new rules applied to the same range. I need to delete all the existing formatting rules before adding new ones, so I ask ChapGPT:
I added the above code to the earlier response and linked it to a newly added button on my sheet. Now a user can change the fill color of a cell, click the button, and the fill colors update automatically to match.
If you want to see all this play out in real time, watch the video I recorded below:
Thoughts on the Future of ChatGPT
It's awesome that it doesn't just spit out the code, but it also suggests how you might need to modify it AND tells you how to run the macro as well. Even though I've only asked it to make simple macros, I already see how this program could save a lot of time.
I'm not done experimenting but so far ChatGPT seems like a much better option over Recoding macros or Google searches that might take you a few tries to find exactly what you're looking for. Especially when you can get custom code on the fly. On one hand, I feel a little obsolete, but on the other I also don't think ChatGPT will completely be replacing programmers just yet as you can see I still had to understand the code and modify it to fit my exact needs.
You may have used the HYPERLINK function in Excel before but what you may not have released is your links can be either relative or absolute (or sometimes called exact or specific). What does this even mean? And how do you change from relative to exact?
As I explained last year, I finally automated this spreadsheet so I was able to create the 2022 NFL Helmet Schedule in less than a minute! All 32 teams, all 18 weeks of the season (now 17 games plus one bye week), all in one spreadsheet:
A job that used to take hour by moving helmets manually is now so easy to do. Yes, that's why I love the power of macros and automation. See how fast the sheet can be created by watching this clip:
On previous versions of the sheet I divided out the two conferences on separate sheets: NFC and AFC. This year, I’ve put all the teams into one sheet. However, there is a new filter option where you can filter by NFC or AFC or even by division: AFC North, AFC South, etc.
Watch the video below to see how the filter works. I also so a tip in Excel how to select multiple objects at once with the mouse. And I walk through the populate helmets macro code as well. Lots of good stuff here!
As you can see, the NFL helmet schedule is printable too. You can save the spreadsheet as a PDF file or print it out and pin it up in your cubicle at work. If you do, please email or tweet me a picture of it hanging up - I'd love to see it!
Please note, an email is required to download it. I do this so you will be automatically updated you if changes or additions are made and will update you when the next year’s schedule is ready. I do not use your email for anything else.
As always, I welcome any comments or suggestions about how to fix or improve the sheet! How can I improve this football spreadsheet into something you’ll use all the time during pro-football season? What future features would you like to see?
PS. I will not be rooting for the dumpster fire known as the Cleveland Browns this season so if any fanbases want to recruit, now's your chance to pitch me on your favorite team!
How often do you ask friends, family, or coworkers which day is the best to get together? Whether it’s a meeting, party, trip, or some other occasion I find myself in these situations all the time. There are several apps and online calendars available to help you coordinate which day works for everyone involved. I used to use a site called Doodle all the time.
The problem with these services is they are not always free, they’re constantly changing and you have to keep relearning how to use them, you have to make an online account, and so on. So I did what I always do – I decided to make an Excel template to determine which day works best for meetings and events!
I used a lot of the same concepts and macro code from my Super Bowl Squares spreadsheet. When you first open the spreadsheet you are greeted by a simple, clean setup page. Here you’ll manually input the number of participants, meeting subject and description.
Next, you’ll enter the start and end dates of the days you want the participants to choose from. It’s very important that these two cells ONLY contain dates. To restrict a user to only being able to enter a date in a cell, go to Data > Data Validation. Under Allow select Date. Be sure to enter a custom error message so if a user makes a mistake they understand what needs to be entered.
When the user clicks Generate Schedule the Schedule sheet is unhidden. The schedule can handle up to 100 participants and up to 365 days. However, you probably won’t need all that so the macro will automatically hide all the rows and columns not needed to make it easy for the user to input their information.
A lot of good Excel tips can be gleaned from examining the event timing spreadsheet. Here's a quick summary of what can be learned by dissecting this free Excel template:
How to add and use Option buttons
How to use data validation to restrict entry in a cell to a date
How to use data validation to restrict entry in a cell to an email address
How to get the day of the week from a date
How to use command buttons and assign specific macros to them
How to send emails from Excel with hyperlinks
How to use a formula to show only weekends in Excel
How to use conditional formatting to change cell color based on cell value
There are two primary methods most websites appear
to be ranking the 2022 medal count. Most sites rank countries by the total
number of Olympic medals won. Other sites, like the International Olympic
Committee (or IOC) rank countries by their gold medal count. And others rank by
other factors like per capita or GDP.
Pictured below is a bar
chart showing all medals won for the top countries (as of the time of this
posting on 2-14-22). The bar chart is created in Excel by highlighting the data
then going to Insert>Bar>Stacked Bar chart. Change the colors of the bars
by right clicking on them then use the drop down menu to select the data you
want to change.
I’ve
devised my own ranking system to give each Olympic medal a weight where the
silver is worth half a gold medal and a bronze is worth only a quarter of the
gold. Based on this new scoring system, previous Olympic results suddenly
became quite interesting. However, for the 2020 Summer Games not too much
actually changes (so far, will revisit after more events are completed).
If you’ve
been reading my blog for awhile, you’ll probably know I’m a roller coaster enthusiast, so you probably won’t be surprised that the Olympic event that
intrigues me the most is the bobsled and luge. As they said on the broadcast of
the monobob following the Super Bowl, “this track more than any other is
similar to a roller coaster” as it has 4 uphill sections and a helix. It’s over
4,000 feet long, has a total elevation difference of 117 meters (383 feet), and
bobsleders were hitting 75 miles per hour while sustaining 4gs up to 7 seconds
at a time. That’s intense! A ride on a bobsled would scare me more than any
roller coaster that’s secured to the rails, as you could legit crash! What
Winter Olympic sport do you like to follow?
I’ve
shared my Olympic Medal Count spreadsheet and listed out the Olympic medals by
country. How would you weight each medal against the others? Comment below and
share any of your Olympic medal rating systems!
I’ve been creating Super Bowl Squares spreadsheets for over ten years now but this is just the second year of using my new and improved one-size fits all generator sheet. When you first open my free grid game template, you’re met with a simple setup screen where the user will decide how to play the game:
How do you want to assign names to the boxes: manually pick and choose or automatic randomized?
Do you want to use the same numbers of the Super Bowl score, rotate by quarter or by each half?
Do you want to earn points per quarter, per minute, or every time the score changes?
No matter what you choose, after you click the “Generate Squares” button the sheet automatically updates the Super Bowl boxes and the leaderboard to reflect only the version of the game you want to play. There 54 different ways to play, all contained within this one template.
After the Super Bowl, you can keep using this sheet for regular season NFL games. Simply use the drop down lists in the Squares sheet to select the team from the list (broken up by AFC and NFC) and their helmets will update automatically! Or make a few modifications and use this template for other sports. The possibilities are endless!
Watch me demo the new Super Bowl board in the video below. Also be sure to subscribe to my email list and YouTube channel as I'll be showing off all the tricks and tips I used to make this spreadsheet work.
As you can see, the new sheet allows more ways to play than a fixed style but is simple and easy to setup and is automated as much as possible.
Even if you’re not into football, you can still use the template to learn how to do all of these cool Excel tricks:
Lookup pictures based on cell values
Generate random numbers
Use the NameManager
Create drop down lists
Use index and match formulas
If you dissect the macros in the spreadsheet you’ll learn how to:
Hide rows and columns
Hide or unhide sheets
Generate random numbers between 0 and 9 with no duplicates
How to hide command buttons by VBA
How to change cell fill color
How to send an email from Excel
How to attach an image to an email using VBA
New Features for 2022
A new feature I added for 2022 is the ability for Outlook users to easily share the Super Bowl squares via email. Enter all the player’s emails in Column A on the Send Scoreboard sheet. Just click the button and an email will automatically be composed from Excel complete with an image of the grid. I explained how to insert images into emails from a spreadsheet in a previous article.
Another way to share, copy and paste the board into a Google doc. This sheet won’t work in Google due to the macros but once you’ve got the grid filled in and the score numbers have been randomly generated, you could share it with your colleagues by copying and pasting as an image into a Google sheet. The manager would still keep score in the template but that way everyone can see what numbers they have. Let me know if you use this feature or if it isn't useful for you.
Get the Super Bowl squares spreadsheet here (enter a 0 into the price box then input an email address):
*Intended for PC/Microsoft Office/Excel. I don't think it will work in Mac Numbers or Google sheets as macros are not supported*
Let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you. Is this version as much of an upgrade and easy to use as I think it is? I welcome any and all questions, comments, suggestions, cuss words, and compliments. Let me know using the comments below or via email. Enjoy playing Super Bowl Squares!
