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.

Apartment Comparison Spreadsheet Update

I’ve revamped my Apartment Comparison Spreadsheet website and the big news is you can now download the Apartment Search Spreadsheet for free! Signup for the Apartment Search Tips newsletter and you’ll immediately receive the link to download my apartment hunting tool. You can unsubscribe from the email list at anytime but if you’re looking for an apartment I recommend you don’t unsubscribe so you can get my valuable tips, like how to potentially earn $100 for signing a new lease!

The Apartment Search Spreadsheet can  also be used as an apartment search checklist as I listed almost every criteria you could think of for what you would like in a new apartment. Enter the data for every apartment you are looking at. Next, you’ll set an importance factor for several categories. What’s more important to you - size of the rooms or distance to work? The spreadsheet uses your inputs to give each apartment a score and you can easily see which apartment has the highest score and is thus the best choice for you.

Please note, the free preview version of the spresdsheet for apartment comparison only allows you to compare two apartments. You'll have to purchase the PRO version to compare more than two apartments, but it also comes with a lot of extra resources you might enjoy. Check it out here. And please do let me know if you find this tool at all useful or if you think it would be great if there were something like this for another item, like to compare houses or cars.

2013 NFL Helmet Schedule Spreadsheet

It’s time to get your NFL 2013 schedule. The new football season is nearly upon us after a murderous off-season. It’s finally time to get back to playing ball! This NFL 2013 schedule in Excel includes indicators for all special Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday games. If you’re looking for a picture for every football helmet in the NFL you can find them all in this spreadsheet. Each helmet is in fact a hyperlink, not to an outside website but to a “Place in This Document.” It uses Cell References so if you click a team’s helmet it will take you to that team’s schedule in the spreadsheet.

 

The 2013 NFL helmet schedule spreadsheet can be incorporated into fantasy football leagues. And if you love fantasy football, you should check out the Fantasy Football Commissioner from CBS Sports.  Feel free to modify the spreadsheet as you see fit but please share the result with us so everyone can see what cool things you come up with! Download for free here:

2013 NFL Helmet Schedule Spreadsheet.xls download

I can't wait to see how all the storylines play out this year. Will Peyton Manning finally get a second Super Bowl ring? How will the New England Patriots fare after this crazy offseason? Will this be the year for my Cleveland Browns? I doubt it but you never know what will happen.

Update: Now you can get the 2013 NCAA helmet schedule spreadsheet here.

How to Filter Data in Excel

Learning how to filter data in Excel will help you analyse data faster and become better at your job. Filtering in Excel enables you to display only the data that you want to see on your spreadsheet without deleting anything. It’s a really great way to search through large amounts of information and you know I’m all about Excel tips that help improve your speed and efficiency!

There are three types of filters in Excel: list of values, by format, or criteria and you can sort your spreadsheet by order, color or text. What’s the difference between sorting and filtering? Sorting will rearrange the order of your list while filtering keeps the order but actually hides data based on your filter criteria.

To add a Filter in Excel, you can first select a single cell within your range of data but I recommend you highlight all your data (please note you cannot add filters to empty cells). Next, go to the Home tab then the Editing section. Under Sort & Filter click Filter (or use the filter shortcut Crtl+Shift+L). Once filtering is turned on you will see little arrows along your top row of data. Select one of the arrows to set your filter options. If you hover your mouse over the drop down arrow you will see a pop-up message displaying what the value the filter is currently set to (example: equals “Test”).

 

To remove the filtering from your spreadsheet, simply click the Filter button again. If you want to reset the filter to the original values click on the Sort & Filter button and then click “Clear."

You can also turn auto-Filter on and off with a VBA macro:

Sub TurnAutoFilterOn()

'check for filter, turn on if none exists

If Not ActiveSheet.AutoFilterMode Then

ActiveSheet.Range("A1").AutoFilter

End If

End Sub

Turn off AutoFilter with VBA:

Sub TurnFilterOff()

Worksheets("Sheet1").AutoFilterMode = False

End Sub

Here’s a great video showing you exactly how to filter data in Excel:

Follow us on Google Plus for the latest updates when I will talk about dynamic filters and Kalman filters in Excel.

Excel Pranks and Practical Jokes with VBA

I’ve shared a lot of Excel tips about how to increase your productivity at work but today I thought I would post something a little more fun – how to decrease your productivity! I’m talking about ways to use Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to play pranks, practical jokes, April Fool’s Day kind of stuff on your friends, roommates, and coworkers. The intent is not to harm anyone or hurt their professional careers – this is simply about having some plain ole fun.

A great way to wreak havoc in the workplace is to create a macro that automatically runs when an Excel workbook is opened. You can do this by writing a VBA procedure in the Open event of the workbook by using the Visual Basic Editor. Create a new Excel spreadsheet then press Alt+F11 to launch the VBA Editor. Next, right-click the ThisWorkbook object, and then click View Code.

In the Object list above the Code window, select Workbook. This will automatically create an empty procedure for the Open event like this and you can now add your evil code.

To make Excel automatically close itself when the workbook is opened use this:

Private Sub Workbook_Open()

     Application.DisplayAlerts = False

     Application.Quit

End Sub

Here’s a trick that will automatically open Microsoft Word and close Excel:

Sub Workbook_Open()

‘make sure the Microsoft Word Object Library is selected by going to tools>references

Application.Visible = False

Dim wdApp as Word.Application

Set wdApp = New Word.Application

wdApp.Visible=True

Set wdApp = Nothing

Application.DisplayAlerts = False

Application.Quit

End Sub

This is one of my personal favorites; have a message box pop-up asking if the user wants to download the virus they requested. Whether they press the yes or no button the next message tells them the virus has begun downloading!

Private Sub Workbook_Open()

MsgBox "The virus you requested is now ready to download, Do you want to start downloading now?", vbYesNo, "Virus Trojan-x45fju"

MsgBox "The Virus is Now Downloading. You have made the biggest mistake of your life! ByE bYe", , "Begin Virus Download"

End Sub

This function flips the workbook and will make everything on the left now appear on the right side:

ActiveSheet.DisplayRightToLeft = True

To change all cell’s color to black:

Cells.Interior.Color = RGB(0,0,0)

Instead of automatically running a macro on opening a workbook (and making it obvious you did something) you could embed a macro that only runs on certain conditions. A funny prank is a macro to change the size of the Excel window every time the user clicks on a cell:

Private Sub Workbook_SheetSelectionChange(ByVal Sh As Object, ByVal Target As Range)

Application.WindowState = xlNormal

Application.Width = Int(Rnd() * 1000) - 100

End Sub

As you can imagine, the possibilities are nearly endless! Now you may think “All someone has to do is change or delete the code to fix the problem.” Well, you can protect your VBA code so only those with the password can modify it. Go to Tools>VBAProject Properties>Protection. Check the box to lock project for viewing and create a password (and remember it). Now you’re an evil genius!

Of course, if you’re not comfortable using VBA (which I recommend you get comfortable and learn it)  you can always use these old fashioned tricks:

1. Use find and replace on a document, like replacing “you” with “you idiots”.
2.  If your coworker has an old school mouse simply remove the ball when they're not around and then sit back and watch the fun when they try to figure out why their mouse isn't working anymore.
3. Take a screen capture of a roommate’s desktop and save it as a jpg or bmp file. Turn on the Active Desktop, and make sure to turn off "show desktop icons". Change the wallpaper to the screen capture image you just saved and watch as they click away on their "icons" that mysteriously stopped working.

Or, you can use a device like the Phantom Keystroker.

Have you ever used something like this on someone? What’s your best Excel prank?

2012-2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Printable Bracket

The 2012-2013 NHL regular season has ended and the Stanley Cup playoffs are here which means it's time to download, print, and fill out your NHL Playoff Excel bracket. I have created a downloadable Excel spreadsheet with the complete NHL playoff bracket. Fill it out on your computer or print it out. Maybe next year I'll get around to adding a bracket manager in order to keep score in a pool. Download the 2013 NHL bracket here or sign-up for my Excel tips newsletter to receive the .xls file as an email attachment (you can unsubscribe at any time).



One note about the Stanley Cup playoffs - unlike March Madness the top seed always plays the lowest seed so you may have to reshuffle the picks on your bracket after the first round. I just updated the spreadsheet and added the 2013 NHL playoff schedule including the date, location, time, and TV network for all the games in the first round of the playoffs.

2012-2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Printable Excel Bracket.xls download

2013 NBA Playoff Bracket Download

The NBA Playoffs start on Saturday, April 20th (two days after the end of the regular season), thus you don’t have a lot of time to complete your 2013 NBA Playoff bracket. All the first games of the eight first round match-ups will take place on either April 20 or 21st.

The NBA playoff structure is a bit unique in that there are no first round byes, all sixteen teams (eight from each conference) compete in the first round of the playoffs. The format of the NBA playoffs consists of each team needing to win four out of seven games in order to advance to the next round. In the first three rounds of the playoff the series follow this home and away format: HHAAHAH.  The Finals follow the format: HHAAAHH.

Miami has clinched the number one seed in the East while Oklahoma City wrapped up the West. My Cleveland Cavaliers will be watching from home again. Who do you think will win the title? Miami has looked nearly unstoppable this season and I think it will be a major shock and upset if they do not win it all. What about you?

2013 NBA Playoff Bracket.xls download