Monday, December 17, 2012

Excellent use of Excel for Heat Mapping of Data

Best quote from the article: "John Nelson's charts and maps on traffic fatalities are a reminder that a good data [visualization] doesn't always require graphic design chops -- or software."

And how!

Check out the rest of the article to see some really lovely heat maps. If you want that powerful pattern recognition factor built right into the human brain to work, feed it visuals like this.

Thought you'd all enjoy,

Excel_Geek


Updated: I forgot to link to some of my own Heat Chart related stuff.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Inventor of the Barcode Dies

N. Joseph Woodland, inventor of the barcode, has died. So there's that. Reminded me that I actually did this in Excel.

Monday, December 03, 2012

2012-13 College Football Bowl Pool Spreadsheets

Sorry for the wait, folks. Here are this year's college football bowl season pool files. Enjoy!

http://www.excelgeek.com/downloads/collegebowls/2012-13_Bowl_Pool_Summary_revb.xls

http://www.excelgeek.com/downloads/collegebowls/2012-13_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xls

For the uninitiated, the "Summary" file is the one the manager of the pool will use to keep track of everyone's picks and points. The "Entry Form" is the file the manager of the pool sends out to the participants, so they can make picks and assign points. Then the manager can copy-paste them into the "Summary" file.

Also, I routinely get requests for a version of this file with room for more participants. While I haven't updated the "expanded" version to this year's teams and bowls yet, you can yourself. Here's where I posted that version:

click here

UPDATED: I've since fixed the issue some folks (who've commented on this post) were having relative to picks not being displayed in the Individual Charts tab for users #21 and above. I've also added in the feature requested by one commenter for calculating negative confidence points for incorrect picks. Good idea, I thought. I added a user option to select either "Zero" or "Negative" for points for incorrect picks. Check it out.