Omnivorous Surfer

TechRepublic is a wonderful source for nearly all things technology for me, and this tip really will be useful. In a nutshell, it will do a quick look up for you in a matrix of data. For example, I have a huge...well, really large...spreadsheet of codes and other information for several hundred individuals. When I need to look up  specific data for one individual, I do a find for the name and then look across to find the data, which may be a few columns over. Using the tip in this TechRepublic article, I can prepare the spreadsheet in advance so that I can use drop-down lists for the particular individual and column I want, and the data I need, located at the intersection of that row and column, will "magically" appear at the top of the spreadsheet.

While this is not a beginner operation, it is something even a beginner can do; the directions are very specific and accurate. I had trouble grasping what it would do from reading the text, so I created an identical spreadsheet and followed the steps. It works like a dream. (See results, with my notes of what it does, at left.) If this is something you could use, give it a try. It could be a real timesaver.

Seems like I'm always needing a blank calendar for something. I know how to make them in Word or Excel and have done so, but I've learned that often it is neither necessary or preferable to create things myself. My favorite site is vertex42, "The Calendar Nexus." There are free calendars in pdf format and free templates for use in Excel. I've used the whole-year-on-a-page calendars with a column on the side for notes, and I've used the amazing template that will create a calendar for any month of almost any year. There is an entire package of school calendars which has proven to be very useful in the past. These allow personalization with the name of the school and an image. In addition, a collection of calendar clipart (gif images of individual months) which can be inserted into any document is available for download by month or year. This is one site I definitely wouldn't want to lose track of!