Printable 2014 NFL Playoff Bracket

The 2013-2014 NFL Playoffs are set to begin on Saturday, January 4 six days after the end of the crazy 2013 regular season. Two games will be played Saturday, January 4 and two games will be played Sunday, January 5. Second round games will be played Saturday and Sunday, January 11 and 12. Third round games will be played Sunday, January 19. The NFL Super Bowl will be played Sunday, Febuary 2nd.

I've create a printable bracket for the 2014 NFL playoffs with helmets that you can download for free and use in your office pools. As a bonus, I've also included the complete 2013-2014 NFL Postseason Schedule within the bracket spreadsheet, including kickoff times and broadcast stations. Download the file below (hosted on box.com).

Printable 2014 NFL Playoff bracket.xls download

If you enjoy this spreadsheet, please use the share buttons to send to your family, friends, and coworkers. Also, be sure to check back after the playoffs are over and I’ll be posting my Superbowl squares spreadsheet.

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Top Excel Help Posts in 2013 and 2014 Goals

2013 is coming to a close so it’s that time of year to sit back and reflect about what transpired this past year and what is to come. I’m going to share my most popular Excel tips from the past year, my most popular Excel templates, and finally share what my goals and vision for next year is.

Top 5 Excel Tips from 2013

 

Listed below are the five most popular Excel tips I published on the Excel Help blog throughout 2013:

 

1. How to combine Excel files with a VBA macro
2. How to filter Data in Excel
3. How to create collapsible rows in Excel
4. How to embed Excel in a website
5. Excel pranks and practical jokes

 

Top 5 Excel Templates from 2013

 

Listed below are the top 5 most popular free Excel templates and spreadsheets I created and made available to download in 2013:

 

1. Printable Super Bowl Squares
2. Website Creation Checklist
3. Newborn Checklist for New Parents
4. Apartment Comparison Spreadsheet LITE version
5. NFL Helmet Schedule

 

Goals for 2014

I recently took a poll of my loyal followers by asking them what they would rather see more of on the blog: spreadsheet templates or tips/tricks/macros to improve spreadsheet creation efficiency? My most recent posts have primarily been spreadsheet templates I’ve made available to download for free, such as my newborn feeding schedule, college bowl prediction pool, etc. Something I’ve gotten away from lately is posting tips and macros to improve your Excel efficiency, like my earlier posts on how to create folders automatically, how to create hatching in Excel, etc.

The majority of my reader’s responses asked for more tips, tricks, and macros to improve Excel efficiency. I will still be creating and posting templates as I have been because I think a lot of people find them to be quite useful and you may pick up a few tips just by looking at them and examining the formulas I use. However, I promise to make a strong effort to post more tips and macros, especially for my email subscribers. In fact, I already have several rough drafts already written and am working on some new video tutorials. What would you like to see more of in 2014? Anything specific?

Have a great holiday season, thanks for your continued support, and see you in 2014!!!

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

2013 College Bowl Pool Spreadsheet

The NCAA college football bowl season is here again which means it’s time to make your picks and predictions about who you think will win each game. One of the best times of the holiday season (other than giving and receiving gifts) is gathering around the TV and rooting for your alma mater or hometown football team.

Upgrades from last year’s college football bowl pool manager spreadsheet include:

• New easy method to make each bowl game worth a different point value
• New leaderboard tab and stats
• New entry sheet to pass out to participants/co-workers
• Manager copies and pastes participants picks into the bowl pool manager file (will be automated with a macro sometime soon)
• Complete NCAA college football bowl schedule with game times and TV station
• The bowl prediction sheets include the football helmet designs for every team, their win-loss record, and the logo for all 35 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!

The beauty of this football bowl manager is you will not have to change or modify any formulas yourself (unless you want to of course).  Instructions are included within the Excel file and shows you exactly how to manually add more players. But if you were wondering about the nuts and bolts, my spreadsheet uses the rank without ties formula:
=RANK(num, ref) + COUNTIF(range,num)-1

To download the college bowl pool spreadsheets simply click the link below which will take you to the box.com, where the file is hosted. Next, click on the “Download” link in the upper right hand corner. That’s it!


2013 College Football Bowl Pool Manager.xls download (updated 12-9)
2013 College Football Bowl Prediction Entry Form.xls download (updated 12-9)


Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, find any bugs, or have any suggestions for improvement. If you like this spreadsheet then check out our NCAA Helmet Schedule spreadsheet. What team are you rooting for?

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

2013 Holiday Gift Ideas for Excel Users

Looking for holiday gift ideas for Excel users? The holiday season is right around the corner and it’s never too soon to start thinking about what presents you are going to get your friends, family, or coworkers. To help you out, I’ve made a list of items I think would be very useful or exciting for Excel spreadsheet users. Some of these items I use on a daily basis and others are things that are on my own personal wish list. Enjoy and feel free to suggest items by leaving a comment below!

Excel Books

Excel 2010 Bible by John Walkenbach: This is by far the best Excel book I have ever found for anyone who uses Microsoft Excel spreadsheets on a daily basis.

Excel for Scientists and Engineers: Numerical Methods: With this text as your guide, you can significantly enhance Microsoft Excel's capabilities to execute the calculations needed to solve a variety of chemical, biochemical, physical, engineering, biological, and medicinal problems. If only Excel could solve world peace too!

Microsoft Excel 2010 In Depth by Bill Jelen. Known as Mr. Excel, Bill Jelen is a Microsoft Excel MVP. This book literally covers everything you’d want to know about Excel 2010.

101 Secrets Of AMicrosoft Excel Addict - Discover little-known Excel secrets that have been hiding right under your nose that will help boost your Excel skills and productivity far ahead of everyone around you.

VBA and Other Books
Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Step by Step by Michael Halvorson: A lot of hands-on work-by-examples will further the development of your Visual Basic programming skills.

　

Best Excel Apps

Kingsoft Android Spreadsheets: A powerful spreadsheet application for quickly calculating data, view graphs and filter data, and also a great tool for editing Excel files and save them to xls, xlsx, csv, pdf and etc.

Simple Spreadsheet: Great little program for putting together some quick calculations on the go. Much easier to use than Google Docs spreadsheets.


Best Tablet for Excel Spreadsheets

Microsoft Surface 2: For my needs, Surface 2 is perfect. This device comes preinstalled with a "touch enabled" Microsoft Office which includes Outlook. Basically, all I was looking for was a tablet to check my email, do some word processing, edit spreadsheets, browse the web, and pay bills online.

Excel Software

Microsoft Office Home & Student 2010: Includes the latest and greatest version of Microsoft Excel, among others.

Other Tech, Gadgets, and Toys

Google ChromeCast HDMI Streaming Media Player. Stream my Excel YouTube videos right to your TV using your smartphone, tablet, or laptop!

R/C Helicopter. This Brand New 3 Channel mini rc helicopter is the world's newest, most durable and stable helicopter. The item comes with the latest gyro system for precision control. The metal frame has proven to withstand dozens of crashes.

HDMI Pocket Projector. Projects up to 1080p HD images up to 60" diagonal. Rechargeable and portable. Connects via HDMI to most smartphones, tablets, computers, video players, cameras and more.

Breaking Bad: Complete Series. All seasons plus tons of amazing extras for the greatest show on television. The episode titled "Ozymandias" is my favorite episode of any TV show I've ever seen.

Amazon Prime

I highly recommend joining Amazon Prime. If you order something off of Amazon on average once per month then it pays for itself, or if you're ordering a bunch of gifts this holiday season it probably will too. The FREE two day shipping is awesome and everything I've ordered really has come in two days or less. You can also stream movies, TV shows, and get a Kindle book every month. Great alternative for Netflix or Hulu and well worth the investment in my opinion. Cheers!


What gifts are you getting your fellow percussionist for the holidays? Please let me know by commenting below!

　

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Newborn Feeding Schedule Spreadsheet Template

I am happy to announce I am now a proud father! I'm never been so tired yet so happy in my entire life! While at the hospital we had to keep a Newborn Feeding and Diaper Log. As soon as we got home and the baby was napping I decided to recreate the log as a usable spreadsheet and have made it available to all you other new parents for free. Use the log to keep track of feeding and diaper changing times; whether it was breastfeeding or bottle; if it was just urine or stool plus any other notes and observations. Keeping track of your baby's feeding and changing schedule is a great way to make sure they are growing and thriving as they should be. Take the log to your doctor's office during checkups and you won't have to rack your brain to remember any of these details.

 

Newborn Feeding Schedule Template.xls download

I suggest printing it off and keeping a copy next to the changing table or rocking chair like I have. I just can’t wrap my head around how something so small creates so much poop! Thank goodness I signed up for Amazon Mom and setup a weekly diaper delivery at a discounted rate. Download my newborn checklist for new parents and other spreadsheets related to health, babies, parenting, and more.

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

Newborn Checklist for New Parents

Sorry for the lack of posts recently (besides sports spreadsheets) but the reason is because I’ve been getting ready for something big, something exciting, something life-altering: my wife and I are expecting our first child next month! We’re super stoked to be having a son but anxious at the same time. We’ve been working hard at getting everything ready but I can’t help thinking, “what if we’ve forgotten something important?” There have been so many things to do and there are so many things yet to do. How does a new parent keep it all organized? My solution is to use an Excel spreadsheet of course!

 

 

In order to keep myself organized and to help other future parents I’ve put together what I hope is the ultimate newborn checklist in Excel. This master file is composed of four separate sheets (I imagine I'll probably add more in the future too):

Things to do BEFORE the Baby is Born

The first sheet is a getting ready for baby checklist. It includes a list of things you should do before your baby is born and how soon before the due date they should be completed by.

Baby Registry Checklist

The next sheet in the file is the baby registry checklist. You can use this for a baby shower checklist or for a list of things you need before the baby arrives.

Hospital Bag Checklist

A list of what to pack for the hospital that you can easily print off if you would like.

 

Things to Do After the Baby is Born checklist

Another checklist of things that need to be done after the baby is born.

Behind the scenes so to speak, the newborn checklist spreadsheet uses named ranges, data validation to create lists, conditional formatting to color cells based on text, IF formulas, concatenate formulas, data filtering, and more. You’re free to poke around the spreadsheet if you want to see how it works or you don’t have to deal with any of that if you don’t want to and simply fill in the information or print it off.

My goal is to make this the ultimate resource for new parents. I’ve tried to include everything such as what to pack in hospital bag for mom. Tasks can be assigned to husband or wife. I also included some links to some services that can help you save money, like Amazon Mom. Believe me guys, your wives will be very impressed and happy if you use this list and actually help her prepare (yay brownies points). Download the spreadsheet for free using the link below.

Newborn checklist.xls download

Please let me know in the comments if you enjoy this newborn checklist and if you would like to see more parenting Excel templates like it.

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

2013 MLB Playoff Bracket

October is here which means it’s time for the 2013 MLB playoffs to begin! The major league baseball regular season concludes on Sunday, Sept. 29 unless there are any necessary regular-season tie breaker games (Rays versus Rangers). The MLB playoffs are set to begin on Tuesday, October 1st. The Division Series returns to a 2-2-1 format this fall. Game 1 of the World Series is scheduled to be played on Wednesday, Oct. 23, in the ballpark of the American League champions.

 

My 2013 MLB playoff bracket includes the schedule and TV coverage lineup. As an Ohio guy I'll be rooting for the Reds and Indians, though I am happy for Pirates fans to see their tea finally make it to the playoffs. Who do you have winning your 2013 MLB playoff bracket?

2013 MLB Playoff Bracket.xls

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

Downloadable 2013-2014 NHL Schedule in Excel

The 2013 NHL season is about to begin and to help get you excited for it I’ve made an NHL schedule spreadsheet available to download for free. The spreadsheet contains the logo of every NHL team and is similar format to my NCAA football helmet spreadsheet and NFL helmet schedule (but I didn’t put logos for every game due to the sheer number of games compared to the football seasons).

2013-2014 NHL Schedule.xls download

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

How to Combine Excel Files

There have been countless times during my day job when I’ve had to combine multiple Excel files into one. I used to do it the old fashioned way of copy and paste but after doing this tedious and time consuming task I decided to write a VBA macro to help me out. I’ve now made the template available for you to use for free. This version of the combine Excel workbooks macro allows you to choose the directory of the Excel files to copy without having to change the code in the Visual Basic Editor. The steps to use the Combine Workbooks tool are as follows:

 

1. Place the Excel workbooks you want to combine into a single folder that contains no other files
2. Go to View>Macros
3. Select "Combine Workbooks" then click Run
4. Select the File where the spreadsheets you want to combine are located
5. Save the newly created file

Instructions are provided with the spreadsheet

Please note that this code will not work on protected sheets and it will automatically skip any blank worksheets in any of the workbooks saved in the folder. See how it works for yourself by watching my short demo video below:
 

 

Download the Combine Excel Files spreadsheet that contains the VBA code to copy all the worksheets from all the workbooks in a folder into the active workbook using this link:
 

Combine Files.xlsm download

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Download a Wordpress Website Creation Checklist Spreadsheet

In the past two years I’ve created eight websites for various hobbies and niches I am interested in and that I felt were underserved in the online world. I use Wordpress as my content management system because it allows you to quickly create a website with no HTML or other coding experience. The steps to setup a new website are pretty much the same so I put together a Wordpress website creation checklist to help me remember to do everything. I’ve made this checklist into an Excel template which you can download for free by clicking the link below.

 

 

Two skills I encourage everyone to learn that I’ve found invaluable in my career is how to program VBA macros and how to build a simple website. In fact, in one of my most recent projects these skills were used hand-in-hand. I built the majority of the Observation Wheel database with an Excel spreadsheet and a few custom macros. Every row in my sheet contained all the information for a single observation wheel. I then had the macro export the data to Microsoft Word in the HTML format I needed for the site. I then simply copied and pasted that text into Wordpress and published it. I created pages for over eighty dfferent observation wheels almost instantly!

 

There are countless positive benefits for learning how to make a website. I’ve included a link to all the resources I use within the template and I've tried to include as many tips as I could think of. I begin with registering a domain name and take you all the way through setting up an email list. Download my Wordpress website creation checklist below and please feel free to ask me any questions you may have!

 

Wordpress Website Creation Checklist.xls download

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2013 NCAA College Football Helmet Schedule Spreadsheet

Finally! After hours of work I've finally updated the entire 2013 NCAA College Football Helmet Schedule spreadsheet - just in time too! It was pretty difficult because it has not been updated in quite some time and, as you're probably aware, the landscape of college football has shifted dramatically the past couple of seasons (and will continue to do so for a few years).

The 2013 college football helmet schedule in Excel includes every team from all eleven conferences. Every game is listed as either home, away, or neutral site (denotated at the bottom of each sheet). The only thing I haven't completed is linking all the helmets to their teams, so when you click on a helmet it takes you to that team, but I am still working on it. A college football helmet schedule schedule may be available on other websites but, to my knowlegde, this is the only downloadable Excel version and unlike some of the others is 100% FREE!

Download the 2013 NCAA College Football Helmet Schedule Spreadsheet.xlsx

It's hard to believe that College football begins in just a few days! Will the SEC continue their dominance? Will the MAC surpass the Big Ten? Will Johnny Manziel sign any autographs for free this season?

You can also grab the 2013 NFL Helmet Schedule in Excel too.

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

2013 NFL Helmet Schedule Spreadsheet

It’s time to get your NFL 2013 schedule. The new football season is nearly upon us after a murderous off-season. It’s finally time to get back to playing ball! This NFL 2013 schedule in Excel includes indicators for all special Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday games. If you’re looking for a picture for every football helmet in the NFL you can find them all in this spreadsheet. Each helmet is in fact a hyperlink, not to an outside website but to a “Place in This Document.” It uses Cell References so if you click a team’s helmet it will take you to that team’s schedule in the spreadsheet.

 

The 2013 NFL helmet schedule spreadsheet can be incorporated into fantasy football leagues. And if you love fantasy football, you should check out the Fantasy Football Commissioner from CBS Sports.  Feel free to modify the spreadsheet as you see fit but please share the result with us so everyone can see what cool things you come up with! Download for free here:

2013 NFL Helmet Schedule Spreadsheet.xls download

I can't wait to see how all the storylines play out this year. Will Peyton Manning finally get a second Super Bowl ring? How will the New England Patriots fare after this crazy offseason? Will this be the year for my Cleveland Browns? I doubt it but you never know what will happen.

Update: Now you can get the 2013 NCAA helmet schedule spreadsheet here.

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!

2012-2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Printable Bracket

The 2012-2013 NHL regular season has ended and the Stanley Cup playoffs are here which means it's time to download, print, and fill out your NHL Playoff Excel 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 2013 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. I just updated the spreadsheet and added the 2013 NHL playoff schedule including the date, location, time, and TV network for all the games in the first round of the playoffs.

2012-2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Printable Excel Bracket.xls download

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2013 NBA Playoff Bracket Download

The NBA Playoffs start on Saturday, April 20th (two days after the end of the regular season), thus you don’t have a lot of time to complete your 2013 NBA Playoff bracket. All the first games of the eight first round match-ups will take place on either April 20 or 21st.

The NBA playoff structure is a bit unique in that there are no first round byes, all sixteen teams (eight from each conference) compete in the first round of the playoffs. The format of the NBA playoffs consists of each team needing to win four out of seven games in order to advance to the next round. In the first three rounds of the playoff the series follow this home and away format: HHAAHAH.  The Finals follow the format: HHAAAHH.

Miami has clinched the number one seed in the East while Oklahoma City wrapped up the West. My Cleveland Cavaliers will be watching from home again. Who do you think will win the title? Miami has looked nearly unstoppable this season and I think it will be a major shock and upset if they do not win it all. What about you?

2013 NBA Playoff Bracket.xls download

Visit me at Excel Spreadsheets Help and leave a comment. Would love to see you there!