I'm thinking it depends on what you decide to do for a living, or where you find yourself. I currently work in a mid-to-large size company, and I know in our finance area it's absolutely vital (if Excel were ripped off of all the computers, I think they'd have a meltdown...seriously!). I use it quite a bit in account management, and I know that many other areas use it more for tracking and reports, but it's not as important...they could do the same in Word, but it's not as easy to manipulate.
All of our admins are expected to have basic to intermediate knowledge because they help on many reports and projects. It never hurts on a resume, either (I used to recruit for many companies).
I can see where other careers may never use it though.
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Originally Posted by Nikaia
Ahem...I'd like to point out that I have never gotten *into* Excel and it has yet to hamper me. I figure out other ways to do things. Are you sure Excel is that vital?
This is a discussion I've had a few times...I have yet to have anybody who's really convinced me that Excel is *necessary* in life. It might be useful for some things - witness this creative application of it - but necessary?
I work for a large size company myself and I have found myself using excel multiple times and was grateful to have it available. Without it, I'm sure similar activities could be done but they would take weeks (maybe months) of work to accomplish what it can do in minutes/hours. Even if I had to write a computer program/script to do what it does it would generally take me longer to do it myself.
Sometimes I have taken data and wrote a specific program for it mostly for other reasons but excel is really good at what it does. I think the business world would be lost without it.
Anyone have a spreadsheet which tracks daily calories eaten and daily calories burned through basal metabolism and exercise? I was hoping excel can add each day's deficit or excess calories until it reaches 3500 (for those who don't know: a deficit of 3500 equals one pound lost) and then starts over adding again until it reaches the next 3500. I was going to ask a lady in my office to create this so I can see when I should be losing a "real" pound (as opposed to water weight and other fluctuations). I like to compete with myself and I can see myself trying to get those deficit numbers added up as quickly as possible to make 3500.
I guess it does depend on profession. I'm working on my BA in linguistics, so Excel isn't something I've ever really needed. My mom's an office manager, though, and she loves the blasted program.
I used this as my guide: http://www.hussmanfitness.com/html/TSCalDeficits.htm, but instead of using a 3X5 notecard, I use Excel. Read the part under "Caloric Deficits". I write in each day of the week with all the columns that he mentions (burned, intake, deficit, cumulative) and put the formulas in the cells, all using my BMR as a guide. Then at the end of the week I can see my deficit. PM me if you have any questions!
Okay, due to demand, I updated the sheet to make it easy to customize, and also put it on a website for easy downloading. I'm including the link here, but if it gets removed due to moderation, please PM me and I'll be happy to share. The Excel spreadsheet link is at the bottom of the page under "attachments".
Hi Everyone. Could someone please send me a copy of that Weightloss/BMI tracking spreadsheet that I saw Yodagirl referring to? I use one I made but it is boring. Thank you!
Hi Pamela - I doubt you will get a reply since she hasn't posted since 2007. But if you read the thread she gives a link to the document. Hope it's what you're looking for.
Last edited by bizlawchik; 01-29-2012 at 09:55 AM.
I don't know if anyone else is as anal as I am, but I created an Excel spreadsheet that tracks my weight each week (on Saturday), the amount lost each week, a running tally of my total amount lost, goals, BMI changes, body fat % changes (they have on of the little hand-held body fat calculator things at the gym I attend), and measurement changes. I'm weighing each week (well, recording each week -- have to admit I'm jumping on the scale a lot in between) and everything else monthly. I'm hoping that seeing it on the screen / on paper will help me to be more committed to watching the numbers drop...and more even-headed during those times when they don't.
I also have little "conditional formatting" things in there to do fun stuff when I reach good points, like changing the text color to green when my BMI reaches normal range, and turning the cell bright yellow when I hit at or below goal.
If anyone wants a copy, let me know. If there's enough of a demand, I'll probably stick it online somewhere -- otherwise I can email.
I would like a copy of this. You can email me at (dawna at gmail dot com)
