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!
lipstick on a pig
What do pigs, horses, donkeys, formulas, and tables have in common? Read more to find out, plus GIFs and best practices for formatting spreadsheets for optimum share-a-bility.
Reuse, Recycle, Retain your Volunteers
A challenge to calculate "Returning Volunteers" has me waxing poetic about re-gifting, digging deep into the Meme Stache, and writing some gnarly formulas. Join me!
encountering a real, live Excel bug
I think I stumbled upon an Excel "bug" (gasp!!) when I was combining SUMIF formulas plus sorting alphabetically. @___@ This is a new one, grasshoppers and honeybees! Sit down, buckle in, and enjoy the ride - we're gonna get technical with some formulas and explore what to do when you get real confused.
If only
Slicers, Subtotals, Tables, Ranges, Sort criteria, OH MY. We've got it all in this post about dealing with frustration, solutions, and spreadsheet empowerment.
spreadsheet bliss
Isn't it great when spreadsheets just WORK, making your repetitive tasks faster and more accurate? Here are two examples of spreadsheet tools I've built with a combination of Salesforce exports and spreadsheet prowess. Using them makes me feel proud and blissful!
strawberry shortcut cake
I wanted to share a set of tips that could supercharge ANY spreadsheet maker's work. So what could be better than SHORTCUTS? For repetitive functions, selecting cells, and navigating around a spreadsheet, keyboard shortcuts will make a heck of a difference. Here are 5 Excel shortcuts you shouldn't live without!
much ado about nothing
Today's post is all about how to find empty cells in your spreadsheet. You might be giving me a blank stare from behind your computer screen, but if I were you, I wouldn't a-void this post! #PunsIntended This post is chock-full of useful tips that you can apply to projects like data cleaning, volunteer on-boarding, and even getting better donation stats.
Predicting the future
Students in A's North Philly classroom are studying population growth.
The problem? The rate of population change has reached an inflection point so we can't really rely on the past to make a population growth model. In this post, a few perspectives on predicting the future, aka making population projections!
Not more than the sum of its parts
When you're setting up Sums, Subtotals, SumIfs (and more...) in Google Sheets - you might end up with more than you bargained for. Here to help you make sense of it all, the Spreadsheet Whisperer.
