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 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!

Downloadable 2013 NCAA Tournament Bracket

The downloadable 2013 NCAA Tournament Brackets are here! It's finally time to download and print your 2013 March Madness Brackets. I’ve made my own tournament brackets for almost every other major sporting event (see them all in the downloads page) but I’ve never attempted to make my own March Madness brackets. Why? Because for the last several years I've used David Tyler's spreadsheets, which I consider to be the best NCAA Excel brackets out there and are nearly flawless in my opinion. They're free to download too!

David has created two separate files: the actual tournament brackets where you predict the winners of each game and a separate bracket manager for office pools. You must use his brackets in order to use the pool manager (and make sure macros are enabled).

Download the 2013 NCAA Tournament Bracket.
Download the 2013 March Madness Pool Manager

Instructions are included with the spreadsheets. To learn more about how the brackets are created read our interviews with David from 2010 and 2011. Also, be sure to visit David’s website, When the Whistle Blows.

My Buckeyes won the Big Ten Tournament and are one of the hottest teams in the nation right now. Who do you have winning the big dance? Let us know in the comments below!

If you would like to you can join my basketball pool on Yahoo's Tourney Pick'em.

 

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