Weighted Olympic Medal Count 2024

In honor of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games currently being held Paris, France, I've updated my Microsoft Excel spreadsheet template for the medal count as I did for the 2022 Winter Games, 2020 (2021) Summer Olympic Games, 2018 Winter Olympics, 2016 Summer Olympic Games, 2014 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics. 

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.

See the latest official medal count here.

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.

Download the 2024 Olympic Games medal count spreadsheet and see for yourself. 

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!

2024 March Madness Brackets and Basketball Squares

If you're looking for 2024 March Madness Brackets, no, I won't be posting any here or making my own. Once again, I will be using the best March Madness brackets in Excel, created by David Tyler (and I will continue to use his until he decides to no longer update them). They’re very polished and easy to use. There are only 68 teams in the field but the spreadsheet is already setup to handle up to 128 teams, if they expand in the future. There are two sheets: the bracket and the pool manager. Instructions are included but its very intuitive. Take a look:

 

As I’ve said countless times before, you can learn a lot by looking at Excel templates made by others. Here are 5 things I do when examining a new spreadsheet using David's March Madness brackets as example.

March Madness Squares

When I created my new Super Bowl Squares Unlimited spreadsheet for last month's football game, I had the goal in mind to be able to use the same sheet for other sports, like basketball. I tweaked my template a little and now you can use it for March Madness Squares!

There's multiple ways you could go about playing March Madness Squares:

1. Everyone keeps the same random numbers for every game
2. The random numbers change for every round
3. The random numbers change for every game

Here's a quick demo of how to use squares for basketball:



You can play either way with my spreadsheet. I designed it to be very versatile. Payout percentage can change per round as well. Update the settings how you want them then you click Generate Scoreboard once for every game, so 32 times in the first round. There are a lot of other options built in that can be ignored - it's all up to you!

Will you be playing 2024 March Madness Brackets, March Madness Squares, or both? Let me know in the comments below.

Super Bowl Squares 2023 - Unlimited Ways to Play

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.

Download 2023 Super Bowl Squares here

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!

Weighted Olympic Medal Count 2022

In honor of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games currently being held  Beijing, China, I decided to create a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet template for the medal count as I did for the 2020 (2021) Summer Olympic Games, 2018 Winter Olympics, 2016 Summer Olympic Games, 2014 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics. 

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.

You can update the chart yourself by download the Excel file here.

As of 2/14/22

 

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?

Download the spreadsheet and see for yourself. 

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!

2022 Super Bowl Squares Spreadsheet - one size fits all

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.

Get the Super Bowl pool template here.

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):

https://gumroad.com/l/superbowlsquares

*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!

2021 College Football Bowl Prediction Pool

The college football conference championships were played this past weekend which means the 2021 NCAA college football bowl season is here again! Therefore, 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 (other than giving and receiving gifts) is being able to talk trash to your relatives about their terrible bowl picks. This year has the added bonus of not just single bowl games but the eighth year of a four team playoff to determine the national champion.

Features for this year's bowl prediction pool over the previous college football bowl pool manager spreadsheets include the following:

• Easy method to make each bowl game worth a different point value, so the national championship game and semi-finals can be worth more points, or however you want to customize it.

• Updated leaderboard tab with new stats

• Separate entry sheet to pass out to participants or co-workers that can be imported automatically by a built-in macro

• Complete NCAA college football bowl schedule with game times and TV stations

• New stat sheet to track each conference's record during bowl season. Graph shows total conference teams and total conference wins

The bowl prediction sheets include the football helmet designs for every team (taken from the 2017 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!

Download the CFP Pool Manager and Single Entry Form here

I'm working on a new version where you could do confidence points that you can test out now and give me feedback.

Download the 2021 CFP Bowl Prediction Pool Manager.xlsm file here

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, find any bugs, or have any suggestions for improvement. I love that people are using this Bowl Prediction Game to help raise money for charity, that's so awesome to hear! What team are you rooting for?

Gantt Chart Template Pro Giveaway Contest

Gantt Charts are extremely useful tools for planning and  project management. These bar type charts are helpful when laying out schedules and tasks associated with a given project. A spreadsheet version of a Gantt chart is often a cost effective alternative over more expensive project management software (like Microsoft Project).

In my experience, one of the best Excel Gantt charts I’ve used is the Gantt Chart Template Pro from Vertex42. This easy to use tool will make your project planning more efficient. Helpful instructions and an FAQ section are included within the spreadsheet.

You can test drive the free version of the Gantt Chart but you will need the Pro version to unlock all of the features, such as grouping rows. Fortunately, I have a copy of the Pro version to giveaway for free - a $39.95 value! 

Entry into the giveaway contest is simple:

1. Visit Vertex42’s website.
2. Leave a public comment with your name on this blog post about how the Gantt Chart Template Pro will help you manage your project and what you will do with it.

That’s it! But wait. You want even more chances to win? Increase your chances of winning by doing any or all of the following:

1. Subscribe to our free email newsletter to hear about future contests
2. Share this post via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Be sure to include in your comment how you shared the post so I can credit you for the additional entries.

The contest period starts today and ends Wednesday, September 12th. I will use Excel to randomly selected a winner. Enter now for your chance to win the free Gantt chart Excel template and improve your project planning.  Thanks and good luck!

-Nick
Efficiently Planning Projects

Updated 2011 NCAA College Football bowl sheet

With the help of David Tyler (creator of one of the best NCAA college basketball Excel brackets) I have made some modifications to my 2011 college football bowl sheet.

·         By using the sumproduct formula and conditional formatting we have replaced the VBA COLORFUNCTION, making the spreadsheet much more user friendly. No need to press crtl+alt+f9 to update the formulas!

·         I moved the scoreboard to its own individual sheet and included a few new stats, such as the bowl game picked correctly by the most number of players.

·         I expanded the default number of players to twenty but there’s still the issue where new players beyond the first twenty added to the pool are not automatically accounted for in the leader boards.

Please keep in mind; this is just the beginning of the evolution of this spreadsheet. The end goal is to automate inserting the exact number of players along with all of their picks. There will also be some sort of tie-breaking function, like guessing the score for the BCS championship game or using a confidence interval to rank each pick.

And hopefully by the time this new spreadsheet is completed we can throw the whole thing out because we’ll finally have a college football playoff!

Download the previous version here.
*******UPDATE Dec 27 - latest version has been uploaded

Download the latest Excel file here

Mileage Reimbursement Template Download

Are you looking for a mileage reimbursement form? Instead of making your own from scratch you can download my free template. This is a good place to start for individuals managing their own business. You can adjust the mileage reimbursement amount for yourself. Currently I have it set at forty-five cents per mile. This request form takes into consideration the fact that you may have to subtract your normal commuting miles from your total miles traveled before getting paid out for your mileage. Feel free to make any changes or suggestions. I am always looking for ways to improve my Excel spreadsheet template. Download the mileage reimbursement request form template here.

Also, don't forget to participate in our contest for a chance to win $100! Contest ends August 1st.

Mileage Reimbursement Expense Form.xls download

WIN $100! Follow my blog for a chance to win

 Welcome to Excel Spreadsheets Help's very first contest! It's easy to enter and you could win $100 (via PayPal). To enter the contest you MUST do two things:

(1) Become a follower of my blog by pressing the "Follow" button on the right hand side
(2) Leave me a comment on this post letting me know you are now a follower


But wait, there's more! You can earn more chances to win by sharing my blog to others, including but not limited to:

1. Tweeting the post and following me on Twitter
   
2. Signing up for RSS feed
3. Sharing on Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.
4. Mention this post on your blog
5. Subscribe to my YouTube page
   

That's it! Simple, isn't it? To win you MUST have a PayPal account. I will then post a list of who joined and how many entries each person gets into the contest. The winner will be announced Friday, 7/22/2011.

IMPORTANT!! - Make sure you leave a comment here so I can add you to the drawing. Each action you take will give you one entry into the drawing which will take place on July 31, 2011.  (I do take bribes for extra entries, but they must be over $100 You don’t have to do all of this stuff to get an entry but I’d REALLY like it if you do and if you don’t and you win you will feel extremely guilty!!  When you leave your comment just let me know what you did so I know how many entries your name gets.

Thanks and good luck!

(Due to an apparent lack of interest I have increased the prize to $100 and extended the contest until the end of July. Must have a minimum of ten participants in order for a prize to be awarded. I will give each current follower an entry into the contest for each friend you refer).