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Open Thread: How are you using Excel?
Merlin Mann | Aug 22 2006
Yesterday, I mentioned I'd been talking with someone who's looking at interesting things people are doing with Microsoft Excel. I talked to her again yesterday, and with her official okey-dokey, I'll virtually introduce Tralee Pearce (*waves*), a reporter from Toronto's Globe & Mail whom you might remember from a very swell article about the Hipster PDA. So, by request -- and to help Tralee with fleshing out her fun-sounding article -- I hope you all will jump in here: What kind of cool, novel, and non-obvious stuff are you doing with Excel? What's the wildest, most obsessive, most nerdy thing you ever saw someone do with our favorite spreadsheet program? 119 Comments
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 I use it occasionally for...Submitted by Alan (not verified) on August 22, 2006 - 4:26am.
I use it occasionally for creating fillable print-layout forms. By setting the column width for the entire sheet to 1 I get something that's fairly close to a grid-based layout using a tool that my customers already have and are familiar with. Then I put in label text where appropriate and use merged, unlocked cells for all fillable areas (cell format - merge is on the Alignment tab, lock is on the Protection tab). By protecting the sheet (Tools menu) only the cells that I've unlocked are modifiable, and even tabbing through the form is simple because tabs move between the unlocked cells. » POSTED IN:
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