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 2024 - The BEST Excel Templates

It's finally time to play Super Bowl Squares! As the biggest sporting event of the year approaches, hardcore football and casual fans alike gear up for an unforgettable Super Bowl experience. To add an extra layer of excitement to your game day festivities, I'm here to introduce you to the magic of Super Bowl Squares and simplify the process with my specially crafted and powerful Excel template. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to this classic game of chance, my template is designed to make organizing and tracking your Super Bowl Squares pool a breeze. Let's get to it!

I’ve been making Super Bowl Squares templates available for you to download since 2012 and the latest versions are the most versatile yet. There are two templates to choose from, I'll explain the pros and cons of each.

2024 Super Bowl Squares - 54 Ways to Play

Released in 2021, this is the more "classic" and straightforward way to play. 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.

Download 2024 Super Bowl Squares here

Super Bowl LVIII Squares Unlimited

54 ways to play apparently wasn't enough as I still received numerous requests for customizations and more features. This lead to the creation of a new approach to the template: 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 based on the user's input; therefore there are an infinite number of ways to play.

This sheet offers the most flexibility but might take some getting used to. At first it may be a little difficult to understand how the scoring works, so I recommend you watch this video:

Girl Scout Cookie Tracking Spreadsheet Template

My daughter is in Girl Scouts and her troop wanted to sell Girl Scout cookies for the first time this year. In order to sell Girl Scout cookies you need an adult to be the TCPC: Troop Cookie Program Coordinate. Or as my daughter said, "We need you to be the Cookie Daddy!" I figured all this meant was they needed someone to manage an Excel spreadsheet for all the cookie sales so I agreed.

Little did I know what was in store as there is much more to it. First is all the training and webinars, background check, volunteer forms, etc. Then when it comes to finally sell cookies, there are no spreadsheets; they've got Digital Cookie online selling platform and eBudde management system. While the eBudde system and tools seem to have all the information needed on the backend, the front end is very confusing for a new user. It's very confusing and cumbersome and the key information the TCPC needs to know is spread out over different pages. Seriously, if you have to have numerous training sessions to explain how everything works and people are still asking tons of questions, your system is too complicated.

So I decided to make a spreadsheet!

Introducing the Girl Scout Cooking Tracking Template:

With this spreadsheet you still have to manually input all the cookie sale information from eBudde but now all the information you need to know is shown visually on just two sheets and is easy to understand. Here's how to use the cookie tracker:

On the sales summary page, copy and paste your Girl Scouts. Then input each of their Digital Cookie sales, which are broken into four categories: 

1. Cookies to be hand delivered (from the Initial Orders page in eBudde)

2. Donated cookies for Operation Salute

3. Any cookie sales from paper order forms that need to be input manually

4. Orders that will be shipped direct from the bakery (from the Girl Orders page)

Next, you can input each Girl Scout's goal for how many packages they want to sell. These will add up at the bottom to show the overall Troop Cookie Goal. There is a donut graph to show the troop's progress towards their goal.

On the right it shows the Instant Rewards and how many packages it takes to reach. Once a girl has reached the goal, the formula automatically shows as having achieved it.

On the next sheet, we have a breakdown of how many of each type of girl scout cookie has been sold (thin mints being the most popular, obviously). As the cookie daddy and the person responsible for picking up the cookies from the cookie cupboard to distribute to the troop, the most important info is the number of cases of each type of cookie I need to pickup. 

There is another sheet in my template that explains some of the terminology, the key being the word "box" is never used. The girls sell "packages" of cookies and 12 of those packages make up a case. The cookies are never mixed up in different cases and if you only sell one package of LemonUps, you have to pickup an entire case of LemonUps.

The Girl Scout Cooking Tracking Spreadsheet shows you exactly how many cases of each cookie you need and how many unsold packages in each case. The unsold cookies from the initial order can be used to sell in-person during the booth phase.

I added a sheet you can use as a template for booth signups.

Download the Girl Scout Cookie Tracking Spreadsheet Template here.

Elevate Your Sports Betting Game with Our Free Excel Tracking Tool

Sports gambling just became legal here in Ohio and we've been flooded with sign-up offers. Since just about every sportsbook will give you free bonus bets (around $200) for a small ($5 or $10) deposit, I decided to dabble a little bit into sports betting to see what all the fuss is about. I signed up for three different sportsbook sites and quickly realized I needed a way to organize and track all my bets.

Naturally, I decided to make an Excel template to track which bets I'd made, track my earnings, and make sure I was still making a profit. First, I created a Lists sheet for all my drop down lists including which sportsbook, which sport, result, and so on. Personally, so far I've only stuck to football because that's what I follow the most and already have some interest and knowledge in it.

The Bet Tracker sheet is used to track every individual bet including the odds, wager amount, and formulas to determine the potential winnings and the actual result.

When you bet with your own money, if you win the bet you get the winnings plus your original bet back. But when you use Bonus money to place your bet, that "fake" money is not added to the winnings. I had to account for this in my Potential Winnings column formula.

If your own money then: Winnings = ((Odds/100)*Wager)+Original Wager

If bonus money then: Winnings = (Odds/100)*Wager)

=IF(E2="My$",((G2/100)*F2)+F2,((G2/100)*F2))

If you get lucky and win a bet, you'll be able to withdraw the money into your own bank or Paypal account. There's a summary sheet to track exactly how much money you've put in versus what has come out. The most important stat to me is my running total, and making sure it is well in the positive otherwise it's time to quit. 

How have I done? In the past two weeks, I placed 33 bets and won 8 of them. I've only had to input $27 of my own dollars, while I've gotten to bet $650 bonus bucks. I'm not huge into taking risks, so instead of betting on crazy parleys with larger payouts, I've bet on safer, more likely outcomes but with smaller rewards. What do I plan to do with my winnings? Probably invest in an AI company since they're changing the game.

In all my years of making sports related Excel spreadsheet templates, I've never really gambled on sports. I'm not sure I'll keep gambling once my free funds run out, but it is a fun experiment while it lasts. Like playing fantasy football or Super Bowl Squares, it gives you an extra incentive for watching the game. Hey, speaking of Super Bowl Squares, I've got a new version coming out this weekend and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it...

.Download Sports Bet Tracker.xlsx file here

Using OpenAI's ChatGPT to Update My Year in Pixels Excel Template

I've been seeing more and more videos on TikTok about this mysterious new artificial intelligence program called ChatGPT. People are saying it will eventually replace Google search. But what really got my attention was a demonstration of ChatGPT writing VBA macros for Microsoft Excel. Now I knew I had to try it for myself. 

I made a Year in Pixels Excel template to track my daily mood back in 2018 but haven't updated it lately. Since it's the start of a new year, I recently received some new comments and questions about how to use and modify the spreadsheet so I figured now would be a great time to update it and add a few new features. Then I had an idea - why don't I use this opportunity to update my mood tracking Excel template to try out ChatGPT? Let's give it a go!

How to have cell fill color conditional formatting change based on the color of another cell?

The request from a user that got me thinking was "how to easily change the colors in my year in pixels sheet?" An experienced Excel user could probably ascertain the colors are applied by conditional formatting formula rules. However, for users who are not Excel savvy, it's not very obvious and there should be an easier way to change the colors. As far as I know, there is none, or at least no easy way in my current version of Excel, to have the fill color in the conditional formatting reference another cell's color. So instead, I will have a macro update the conditional formatting rules at the click of a button. Let's jump over to ChatGPT.

How does ChatGPT work?

Here's the answer after asking it directly: 

GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a type of language model developed by OpenAI that uses a transformer neural network architecture to generate text. GPT is trained on a large dataset of text and uses this training to generate new text that is similar in style and content to the training data.

ChatGPT is a variant of GPT that has been fine-tuned on a specific task, such as having conversations with humans. To fine-tune GPT for this task, ChatGPT is trained on a large dataset of conversation data and learns to predict the next word in a conversation based on the words that came before it.

When you input a message to ChatGPT, it processes the message and uses its knowledge of language and conversation patterns to generate a response. It does this by predicting the next word in the conversation based on the input it has received and the context of the conversation so far. The output of ChatGPT is then a response that is generated based on this prediction.

One thing to keep in mind right off the bat: ChatGPT is not always right. It says it right there on the main page under limitations: may occasionally generate incorrect information; may occasionally produce harmful instructions.

For example, I asked "list the ten tallest roller coasters in the world" which should be fairly easy and instead it produces a list that is incorrect and doesn't even make sense.

Not a great start but let's see how it does creating a macro from scratch.

Creating Custom VBA Macros Automatically with ChatGPT

I wasn't sure how specific I needed to be so I decided to err on the side of caution, plus I thought the more detailed I am the less modification I'll probably need to do later. Now I ask ChatGPT: "create a vba macro to make a new conditional formatting rule where range is C4 to N34, if cell value = 5 then change the fill color to the same color as in cell P12." Then it began typing and my jaw dropped.

I copied and pasted the code into Excel VBA editor and it worked! One thing I forgot is this macro will just add new rules applied to the same range. I need to delete all the existing formatting rules before adding new ones, so I ask ChapGPT:

I added the above code to the earlier response and linked it to a newly added button on my sheet. Now a user can change the fill color of a cell, click the button, and the fill colors update automatically to match.

If you want to see all this play out in real time, watch the video I recorded below:

Thoughts on the Future of ChatGPT

It's awesome that it doesn't just spit out the code, but it also suggests how you might need to modify it AND tells you how to run the macro as well. Even though I've only asked it to make simple macros, I already see how this program could save a lot of time.

I'm not done experimenting but so far ChatGPT seems like a much better option over Recoding macros or Google searches that might take you a few tries to find exactly what you're looking for. Especially when you can get custom code on the fly. On one hand, I feel a little obsolete, but on the other I also don't think ChatGPT will completely be replacing programmers just yet as you can see I still had to understand the code and modify it to fit my exact needs.

Download my Year in Pixels template for free here and try it for yourself. Open the macro editor to view the final codes written by ChatGPT.

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!

Unique Excel Uses: Drum Machine

As someone who was a drummer in high school and college, this might be my favorite unique use of Excel yet. Dylan Tallchief has made an actual drum machine in an Excel spreadsheet. How cool is this?!

Who knew we'd be able to make music in Excel? It really is a miracle program. Watch the video below to see the drum machine in action.

The part of the video where Dylan gets into the description of getting the VBA code to work is especially interesting to me.

sleepTime = 60 / Range("C23").Value * 1000 / 4   '2 will need to change to 4 when i add more resolution
swingL = sleepTime + ((sleepTime / 5) * Range("C26"))
swingS = sleepTime - ((sleepTime / 5) * Range("C26"))

Below is a video of myself messing around with the sheet and showing you how to change the beats per minute (BPM aka tempo) or how to add a swing groove to the sequence.


This is one template you'll definitely want to try and play around with yourself. Download the drum machine spreadsheet for yourself using the link in Dylan's video.

I'll have to add drum machine to my list of unique uses for Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. If you have your own unique use of Excel please do let me know!

2018 Holiday Gift Guide for Microsoft Excel Users

The 2018 holiday season is officially upon us here in the United States which means it’s time for my annual gift giving guide. I used to panic every year whenever my spouse, parents, and siblings asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I needed to give them an idea otherwise I’d end up with an ugly sweater or some random gadget I would never use.

So to help alleviate some of my stress I started compiling my own holiday gift guide. It’s kind of like the big toy catalog you used to get as a kid, only this is for adults. I’ve made a list of items I think would be very useful or exciting for your fellow Excel users, sorted by different categories. Some of these items I already use on a daily basis and others are things that are on my own personal wish list. It's my biggest and best gift guide yet! Enjoy!

MY GO TO EXCEL BOOKS

Excel 2016 Bible - The complete guide to Excel 2016, from Mr. Spreadsheet himself! Whether you are just starting out or an Excel novice, the Excel 2016 Bible is your comprehensive, go-to guide for all your Excel 2016 needs. Whether you use Excel at work or at home, you will be guided through the powerful new features and capabilities by expert author and Excel Guru John Walkenbach to take full advantage of what the updated version offers. Learn to incorporate templates, implement formulas, create pivot tables, analyze data, and much more.

Excel 2016 Power Programming with VBA is fully updated to cover all the latest tools and tricks of Excel 2016. Encompassing an analysis of Excel application development and a complete introduction to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), this comprehensive book presents all of the techniques you need to develop both large and small Excel applications. Over 800 pages of tips, tricks, and best practices shed light on key topics, such as the Excel interface, file formats, enhanced interactivity with other Office applications, and improved collaboration features.

If you’ve ever thought to yourself “there has to be a better way to do this,” while using Microsoft Excel, then know you're probably right. There probably is a better way to complete your tasks you just don't know what it is and you don't have time to read a boring, expensive, thousand page manual on how to use Excel. 76 Excel Tips to Increase Your Productivity and Efficiency is for you. No fluff, just Excel tips and tricks you can put to use right away.

OTHER BOOKS WORTH READING

Will It Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money by Pat Flynn. I’ve been following Pat’s blog and podcast for a number of years, and you might have seen some of his tips at work on my site. If you’re new to the online business world, this book is fantastic. Lots of practical steps to take to prove whether your idea has validity or not. Over 700 reviews and a five star rating, that's impressive!

The Martian by Andy Weir. If you only read one (fiction) book this year, The Martian has to be the one. I absolutely love this book (and it’s even better than the movie). As soon as I finished it the first time, I immediately re-read it – something I’ve never done before. It’s about an astronaut (with a great sense of humor) who gets left behind on a mission to Mars and has to figure out how to survive. If you’re interested in space exploration, problem solving, engineering, chemistry, botany, or disco + 70s TV shows, I highly recommend you read The Martian. Maybe the best book I’ve read in the past five years.

Another quick, shameless self-plug. Where are the most terrifying roller coasters found? Who designs them? Which park builds the craziest rides? Find out by reading my book 50 Groundbreaking Roller Coasters. Another reason for including this book on this list is to show you a real life usage of Excel. How's that? Because this is one of the books I wrote using an Excel spreadsheet!

Nowhere in the world is there a more bizarre theme park than Happy Fun Land. Nike Farmington’s twelve years of thrill-seeking and roller coaster riding has brought him to exotic locales like Perth, Australia, Kaatsheuvel, Netherlands, and Santa Claus, Indiana. He's marathoned a roller coaster for ten consecutive hours and conquered the world’s tallest and fastest. Yet nothing has prepared him for the insanity of Happy Fun Land and it’s mind blowing attractions: a drop ride with no brakes and a death simulator, just to name a few. Will Nike survive his hilarious adventure through the world's craziest theme park? I thought this book was hilarious and I think you will too!

Tools for the Job

Excel Quick Reference Sheets - Laminated quick reference showing step-by-step instructions and shortcuts for how to use Microsoft Office Excel 2016 (Windows Version). Written with Beezix's trademark focus on clarity, accuracy, and the user's perspective, this guide will be a valuable resource to improve your proficiency in using Microsoft Excel 2016. This guide is suitable as a training handout, or simply an easy to use reference guide, for any type of user.

TechSmith Snagit takes the hassle out of creating images and videos. Capture your screen, edit images, and deliver results. Snagit is also the only screen capture tool with built-in advanced image editing and screen recording. So you can easily create high-quality images and videos all in one program. Quickly explain a process, build visual-based documentation and be more engaging by adding images and videos to your communications. It's the tool I use to create all the images for Excel Spreadsheets Help and well worth the price.

Microsoft Surface Tablet. Need to use Excel on the go put don't want to lug around a larger laptop? A Surface tablet is great way to go.

Dimmable Eye-care LED Desk Lamp. A great lamp and exactly what I was looking for in a new clip on lamp for my drafting desk. It has six different light settings so I can find the right lighting for all of my needs. It is well built, works great besides being stylish.Besides using at work can use at home as a reading lamp too.

Keyboard Case for Tablets. How do I get so much done, especially when I’m traveling on the road a lot? I use a combination of a Samsung Galaxy Tablet and my new Keyboard case. They’re small so I can take it almost anywhere and the keyboard allows me to do things like type out this blog post, reply to your email questions, and write Excel macro code.

USB Heated Mouse / Hand Warmer. I'm not sure about you but the office at my day job can get really cold during the winter, especially after weekends or holidays. One solution I've found that helps is a heated mouse to keep you hand warm while not impacting my ability to get things done.

Laptop Privacy Screen Protector. Whenever I visit a customer I always take my privacy screen protector for my laptop. It keeps your personal or confidential information safe from prying eyes as you’ll see the information on your display while people on either side only see a darkened screen. If you’re ever on an airplane or in a coffee shop and feel like your neighbor is constantly looking over your shoulder at your screen then you need to get one of these today!

A good quality laser point. This laser pointer always comes in handy when it’s time for a meeting or presentation. Plus, it doubles as a toy to keep your cats entertained.

Rocketbook Smart Erasable, Reusable Wirebound Notebook with Penstation – the last notebook you’ll ever need!

Krieger Plug Adapters (Most of Europe (type C)) - If you're going to do some international travel I highly recommend taking this adapters with you. They come in a pack of four so you can share when your travel buddy forgets his.

Toys, Tech, Gadgets, and Others

Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer for Smartphone – Outside of this website, in my spare time I like to make and edit videos and montages (mostly of my family). It’s easiest just to use a cellphone but the video is often shaky due to my unsteady hands. So I decided to get a gimbal and I’ve had fun playing around with it.

Anker PowerCore Fusion - This is a portable power charger that plugs directly into the wall so it works as your regular charger, but is also a battery so you always have power on the go.

In my little free time from working and being a dad, I like to play around with my Samsung Gear VR headset. Virtual Reality is really taking off and the technology is getting much better. Though be warned it may cause motion sickness if the app you’re looking at doesn’t perfectly track your head movement.

Solar Powered Christmas Lights. I love putting up Christmas lights and trying to out-do my neighbors, but I have to admit I feel a little guilty about using the additional electricity. Luckily I found these solar powered Christmas lights and they actually work very well! They’re environmentally friendly and they automatically turn on and off each night. They also don’t have to be attached to a power source so I can put them in areas I normally couldn’t string lights.

Dash and Dot – programmable robots. If you’re into programming things like Excel macros and you want to teach your kids the joys of programming then I’ve found the perfect gift for you. These cute robots are designed to help introduce children to the wonderful world of programming. Oh, and they’re fun for adults too! Can’t wait to use this with my son in a few years. For now he just likes watching me drive it around with my phone.

Fitbit Alta. Let’s face it – us engineers nowadays sit in front of a computer a lot. I didn’t realize how much I wasn’t moving until I started wearing a Fitbit. It now helps me to stay motivated by tracking all-day activity like steps, distance, calories burned and active minutes so I can stay healthy for my family. When I’m sick I can’t answer your Excel questions and help you out, so I use Alta to help stay in shape and on top of my game!

Amazon Prime Membership. If you haven’t joined Amazon Prime yet, why not? I do almost all my shopping online and I get free two-day shipping on nearly everything. You can also borrow books, watch movies, and stream music. Get your Prime Discounted Monthly Offering here.

YOUR SUGGESTIONS?

Are you putting any of these items on your holiday wish list? If so, let me know which ones in the comments below. Do have anything you’d like to recommend to me?

Year in Pixels 2018 Mood Tracking Template

Year in Pixels is a cool idea I recently saw on Pinterest and decided I would make an Excel template for it to help save you the time of having to make your own using pencil and grid paper. Each day of an entire year is given one square or “pixel” and after every day you color in what your mood was for that day. It’s a great way to track your well-being to get a visual representation for how your year is going.

At the end of the year you’ll be able to answer the questions: How many days a year am I really happy or how many bad days do I experience in a year? Too many bad days in a row means it’s time to make a change.

During a day you may experience a wide variety of feelings. This chart doesn’t go that deep, it’s more what the culmination of everything is: was it a good day, an OK day, or a bad day?

The template is modifiable. You can change the colors if you want: I’ve decided to go with warm for happy feelings and cold for sad feelings. You can also change the number of colors/moods you want to track. I’ve gone with just five for now.

There are multiple sheets included within my template: a printable version, an Excel (electronic) version, and an example.

The printable version is for you old fashioned folks who want to print it out and color in the squares by hand with markers, crayons, or colored pencils. Feel free to hang it on the fridge or somewhere visible where you won’t forget to fill it out every day.

Personally, I prefer the Excel version because then I can do other things with it, like automatically sum up the total number of good versus bad days to know exactly what my percentages are.

See how easy it is to use the Year in Pixels template by watching the video below:

This template uses drop down lists, conditional formatting, and nested IF formulas. If you’re not sure what any of those are, I highly recommend downloading the sheet and taking a look at how it works.

Download Year in Pixels Excel Mood Tracker.xlsm

--Year in Pixels 2023 Update--

Happy New Year! I've made a few updates to the Pixel Year spreadsheet. First, I switched the format from xlsx to xlsm so I could add a macro. This way you can change the colors from the default to whatever you want at the click of a button. I also added a Yearly sheet so you can track your average and number of days for each category for each year and compare your years. See how I made the updates in the video below. Download link is the same.

 

Now you can track your mood in Excel with the Year in Pixels spreadsheet. Let me know in the comments below if you’re going to use it this year!

2017 Holiday Gift Guide for Microsoft Excel Users

The 2017 holiday season is officially upon us here in the United States which means it’s time for my annual gift giving guide. I used to panic every year whenever my spouse, parents, and siblings asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I needed to give them an idea otherwise I’d end up with an ugly sweater or some random gadget I would never use.

So to help alleviate some of my stress I started compiling my own holiday gift guide. It’s kind of like the big toy catalog you used to get as a kid, only this is for adults. I’ve made a list of items I think would be very useful or exciting for your fellow Excel users, sorted by different categories. Some of these items I already use on a daily basis and others are things that are on my own personal wish list. Enjoy!

MY GO TO EXCEL BOOKS

Excel 2016 Bible - The complete guide to Excel 2016, from Mr. Spreadsheet himself! Whether you are just starting out or an Excel novice, the Excel 2016 Bible is your comprehensive, go-to guide for all your Excel 2016 needs. Whether you use Excel at work or at home, you will be guided through the powerful new features and capabilities by expert author and Excel Guru John Walkenbach to take full advantage of what the updated version offers. Learn to incorporate templates, implement formulas, create pivot tables, analyze data, and much more.

Excel 2016 Power Programming with VBA is fully updated to cover all the latest tools and tricks of Excel 2016. Encompassing an analysis of Excel application development and a complete introduction to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), this comprehensive book presents all of the techniques you need to develop both large and small Excel applications. Over 800 pages of tips, tricks, and best practices shed light on key topics, such as the Excel interface, file formats, enhanced interactivity with other Office applications, and improved collaboration features.

If you’ve ever thought to yourself “there has to be a better way to do this,” while using Microsoft Excel, then know you're probably right. There probably is a better way to complete your tasks you just don't know what it is and you don't have time to read a boring, expensive, thousand page manual on how to use Excel. 76 Excel Tips to Increase Your Productivity and Efficiency is for you. No fluff, just Excel tips and tricks you can put to use right away.

OTHER BOOKS WORTH READING

Nowhere in the world is there a more bizarre theme park than Happy Fun Land. Nike Farmington’s twelve years of thrill-seeking and roller coaster riding has brought him to exotic locales like Perth, Australia, Kaatsheuvel, Netherlands, and Santa Claus, Indiana. He's marathoned a roller coaster for ten consecutive hours and conquered the world’s tallest and fastest. Yet nothing has prepared him for the insanity of Happy Fun Land and it’s mind blowing attractions: a drop ride with no brakes and a death simulator, just to name a few. Will Nike survive his hilarious adventure through the world's craziest theme park? I thought this book was hilarious and I think you will too!

Will It Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money by Pat Flynn. I’ve been following Pat’s blog and podcast for a number of years, and you might have seen some of his tips at work on my site. If you’re new to the online business world, this book is fantastic. Lots of practical steps to take to prove whether your idea has validity or not. Over 700 reviews and a five star rating, that's impressive!

Another quick, shameless self-plug. Where are the most terrifying roller coasters found? Who designs them? Which park builds the craziest rides? Find out by reading my book 50 Groundbreaking Roller Coasters. Another reason for including this book on this list is to show you a real life usage of Excel. How's that? Because this is one of the books I wrote using an Excel spreadsheet!

Tools for the Job

Laptop Privacy Screen Protector. Whenever I visit a customer I always take my privacy screen protector for my laptop. It keeps your personal or confidential information safe from prying eyes as you’ll see the information on your display while people on either side only see a darkened screen. If you’re ever on an airplane or in a coffee shop and feel like your neighbor is constantly looking over your shoulder at your screen then you need to get one of these today!

A Good Quality Laser Pointer. This laser pointer always comes in handy when it’s time for a meeting or presentation. Plus, it doubles as a toy to keep your cats entertained.

TechSmith Snagit takes the hassle out of creating images and videos. Capture your screen, edit images, and deliver results. Snagit is also the only screen capture tool with built-in advanced image editing and screen recording. So you can easily create high-quality images and videos all in one program. Quickly explain a process, build visual-based documentation and be more engaging by adding images and videos to your communications. It's the tool I use to create all the images for Excel Spreadsheets Help and well worth the price.

Keyboard Case for Tablets. How do I get so much done, especially when I’m traveling on the road a lot? I use a combination of a Samsung Galaxy Tablet and my new Keyboard case. They’re small so I can take it almost anywhere and the keyboard allows me to do things like type out this blog post, reply to your email questions, and write Excel macro code.

Excel Quick Reference Sheets - Laminated quick reference showing step-by-step instructions and shortcuts for how to use Microsoft Office Excel 2016 (Windows Version). Written with Beezix's trademark focus on clarity, accuracy, and the user's perspective, this guide will be a valuable resource to improve your proficiency in using Microsoft Excel 2016. This guide is suitable as a training handout, or simply an easy to use reference guide, for any type of user.

Microsoft Surface Tablet. Need to use Excel on the go put don't want to lug around a larger laptop? A Surface tablet is great way to go.

Dimmable Eye-care LED Desk Lamp. A great lamp and exactly what I was looking for in a new clip on lamp for my drafting desk. It has six different light settings so I can find the right lighting for all of my needs. It is well built, works great besides being stylish.Besides using at work can use at home as a reading lamp too.

USB Heated Mouse / Hand Warmer. I'm not sure about you but the office at my day job can get really cold during the winter, especially after weekends or holidays. One solution I've found that helps is a heated mouse to keep you hand warm while not impacting my ability to get things done.

Toys, Tech, Gadgets, and Others

In my little free time from working and being a dad, I like to play around with my Samsung Gear VR headset. Virtual Reality is really taking off and the technology is getting much better. Though be warned it may cause motion sickness if the app you’re looking at doesn’t perfectly track your head movement.

Solar Powered Christmas Lights. I love putting up Christmas lights and trying to out-do my neighbors, but I have to admit I feel a little guilty about using the additional electricity. Luckily I found these solar powered Christmas lights and they actually work very well! They’re environmentally friendly and they automatically turn on and off each night. They also don’t have to be attached to a power source so I can put them in areas I normally couldn’t string lights.

Dash and Dot – programmable robots. If you’re into programming things like Excel  macros and you want to teach your kids the joys of programming then I’ve found the perfect gift for you. These cute robots are designed to help introduce children to the wonderful world of programming. Oh, and they’re fun for adults too! Can’t wait to use this with my son in a few years. For now he just likes watching me drive it around with my phone.

Fitbit Alta. Let’s face it – us engineers nowadays sit in front of a computer a lot. I didn’t realize how much I wasn’t moving until I started wearing a Fitbit. It now helps me to stay motivated by tracking all-day activity like steps, distance, calories burned and active minutes so I can stay healthy for my family. When I’m sick I can’t answer your Excel questions and help you out, so I use Alta to help stay in shape and on top of my game!

Amazon Prime Membership. If you haven’t joined Amazon Prime yet, why not? I do almost all my shopping online and I get free two-day shipping on nearly everything. You can also borrow books, watch movies, and stream music. Get your Prime Discounted Monthly Offering here.

YOUR SUGGESTIONS?

Are you putting any of these items on your holiday wish list? If so, let me know which ones in the comments below. Do have anything you’d like to recommend to me?