Spreadsheets

… every freedom fighter’s best frenemy

Organizing made me “better” at spreadsheets & spreadsheets make me better at organizing. Let’s build our toolbox together!

Browse themed blog posts

• supercharging election organizer spreadsheets with zapier and google sheetsOctober 16, 2024
  In this post, I write about multi select drop down menus in Google Sheets, how to automate creating spreadsheets, and when automation might not make sense.
• I merged two thousand duplicates in Salesforce manually, AMAOctober 1, 2024
  When faced with thousands of duplicates in Salesforce, what is the best way to merge them? Here’s my reflection of merging them manually, and what I learned in the process.
• 5 user onboarding tips from Animal CrossingDecember 27, 2023
  This is NOT sponsored by animal crossing (lol) but would I say no… ??? [absolutely, I would say no. This blog is 100% unsponsored and I plan to keep it that way!] For Chanukah, Mr. Spreadsheet Whisperer and I purchased a new videogame device (the kind that you play animal crossing on!!! they don’t need my help … Continue reading 5 user onboarding tips from Animal Crossing
• 5 special properties of Microsoft Word for Mail Merge projectsMay 10, 2023
  Formatting tips for complex Mail Merge templates in Microsoft Word including conditional logic, hidden text, controlling page breaks, and more!
• are you there, adrienne maree brown, it’s me, SamDecember 19, 2022
  Shoutout to adrienne maree brown, and to all of you who sent me her spreadsheet post!
• volunteer management, civil rights styleJune 12, 2022
  A peak at several ways of organizing real data about volunteers in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement and how to embrace a civil-rights-movement-informed data culture in your work today!
• love letter to abortion adminsSeptember 3, 2021
  As we recognize the labor and risk that abortion providers take on, let’s also remember that office managers, fund distributors, advocacy coordinators, digital organizers, and behind the seen admins are also acting with fierce courage and dedication, protected from some types of public scrutiny but slammed by trolls, protesters, and a huge volume of work. … Continue reading love letter to abortion admins
• smol, medium, largeMay 6, 2020
  Not knowing if a given scenario is easy or hard, or if there’s an easier work-around to avoid a super-hard thing, feeds the overwhelm/impostor machine. It’s so clarifying and liberating to just know what you’re getting yourself into. PLUS, baby animal memes!
• breadcrumbs trail / matzo mealApril 16, 2020
  I think it’s a best practice to design ALL spreadsheets as if they will be manipulated by other people, which means leaving a strong “breadcrumbs trail” of your assumptions, formulas, variables, data sources, and more. In my case, it’s a matzo meal trail until tomorrow evening when Passover ends and I will devour pizza with all my might!
• shape shifterApril 10, 2020
  From a downloaded file with weird fonts and titles, wacky colors, no wrapped text, superwide columns, and repeating header rows, I was able to create a useable, sortable, shareable, printable, filterable, not-make-you-want-to-throw-your-computer-out-the-window spreadsheet. And you know what the best part is? You can too!