I am taking a introductory class in Excell monday nights.
But it is so basic, I am practically falling asleep. Need something to challenge me, and internet guide for more depth.
Any recommendations?
Job I am on, I am thinking of setting up a sheet to track and separate costs.
For instance, this is an older place and they want to have some idea of the separation of costs for roof on the old part ( maint) and the roof on the new part addition ( capital investment) as well as tracking roof, HVAC, excavator, etc.
any tips, suggestions?
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Have you considered doing a resource loaded schedule in MS Project. It allows you track both dollars and time on a task by task basis with all the "excel" or database stuff done.
Know nothing about project. Not even sure if I have it.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Rich will help ya (Cargin). If you do a search he has a whole Excel for Dummies he posted here that he put together. Quite a long thread if you wanna read through all the coments and samples of other peoples spread sheets here.
Then Mike turned me onto this that one of his ex employees turned him onto...pretty cool...and it's free http://www.superbuild.com/pricing.aspx?partner=andersen&CC=rem
http://www.cliffordrenovations.com
http://www.ramdass.org
Thanks.Getting off to work now, but this will give me some weekend study.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I'm curious about this superbuild "free" program. Anyone here actually use it?"this dog may be old but he ain't cold. And he still knows how to bury a bone."
Lattimore
http://www.rehmodeling.com
I have breifly and really like it being you can customize it real easily. I'm not so sure how comfortable i'd be using it on a giant job but I've been trying it out on smaller ones to give it a test drive. So far so good...although I do have to say: "My name is Andy Clifford and I'm addicted to yellow legal pads".....but I'm trying...honest.
Ever time I go for my Excel sheet I start going into cold sweats and my hands start shaking when I think of my big ol' paks O' nice new yellow legal pads in the closet.
http://www.cliffordrenovations.com
http://www.ramdass.org
i got the link for superbuild from one of my former employees
he uses it exclusively
i use GC Works.... but if I didn't have GC, I'd probably use SuperbuildMike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Andy, give up those legal pads!
Think about Excell as the mother lode of yellow pads. You don't have to do anything different than what you do on the real yellow pads. You don't have to create cute spreadsheets. You don't have to work with elaborate templates. You don't have to make this any harder than simply jotting a few numbers onto a yellow legal pad.
I'm about at technologically inept as anyone and I've managed to get excell to work for me. And trust me....NO ONE COULD UNDERSTAND MY SPREADSHEETS LOL! I don't care though. I'm not creating them for anyone else to read or understand.
For me, the hardest part of learning was trying to figure out how to properly organize and label the things. After awhile, I just decided to say "screw it" and just lumped the things I needed to quantify in no semblance of order. It works for me. My basic structure now has evolved into a reasonably good (for me) spreadsheet.
I now pull up my favorite and just start zapping and adding lines as needed. If I'm doing a roof estimate, I still pull up my favorite which just happened to be a bath remodel. I don't care...I just re-label the faucets to shingles and go from there LOL.
For me, the beauty is the sidebars. There is no order to them and I don't even bother labeling them. For instance, if I'm trying to figure out how much drywall, I'll create a sidebar that gives me the linear foot of the plates. When I'm done listing every plate length, the total drywall is a simple "total" followed by a simple formula. The formula would take into account if the wall is one sided (outside wall) or two sided (interior partition). There are no limits to the amount of sidebar space and you can even create separate sheets and link the results to the main sheet.
The beauty of the sidebars is that when you link the results into your main sheet, you won't have to remember where it is because a simple click will zing you there! Now you know why I don't bother labeling them!
My excell is now my yellow pad and I've got a lifetime supply!
Jim...yeh I know I know...Rich (cargin)had me doing the homework and I got pretty far but I'm the kinda guy that needs his hand held on certain things which is kinda odd b/c most things I'm full force gung ho all by my lonesome.
I think psychologically I need to do what Piff is doing and go to an adult ed night class. I seem to have brain lock when it comes to allowing myself to do new things that pertain to numbers....don't even talk to me about switching to millimeters..I'd lose whats left of my mind...lol. For some reason I HATE numbers. My good friend Mike that does framing was trying to explain to me how easy it is to figure out rafter measurements. told me a whole story how he learned. Sat in a Barnes and Noble every day at lunch and tried absorbing the concept until he finally got it one day and now even a cpl of his Spanish employees that can't speak a lick of English hardly.... know how to figure the rafters after Mike explained the concept to them....but then again thats all they do day in and out.
http://www.cliffordrenovations.com
http://www.ramdass.org
"I think psychologically I need to do what Piff is doing and go to an adult ed night class."That's it - Every time I started to teach myself, which is how I have learnt most things, I ended up staring at the program for a while, then looking at BT and forgetting about it.
Some initial guidance is helping introduce me to my new "friend" Eksie.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I have the beginner and intermediate Excel course from a community college online course. They helped me a lot. I can email them to you if you want 'em... course with your connection probably have to do installments, and it would be as slow as your course LOL...http://www.tvwsolar.com
Now I wish I could give Brother Bill his great thrill
I would set him in chains at the top of the hill
Then send out for some pillars and Cecil B. DeMille
He could die happily ever after"
I just bought a book - Visual something or other. Pretty colour pictures and all.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
There's only so much ya can do and learn all at once. So far I have Sketchup on a back burner...I'm about half way through Excel lessons...I used that Andersen program Mike turned me onto that I sent you...lets see..what else...I JUST finished sanding down a mahogany porch and painted Australian Timber Oil on it and spread out a yard of gravel I picked up at the mason yard....I have a ton more to do tomorrow and the next day and the next day...oh yeh...and I picked up about 8 sets of plans to figure that $5-600,000 reno today.
I don't know what to do first...or what not to do...how old are we again?
I'm ready to lie down in a casket about now...LOL...yawwwwnnnnnnn. Drinking was so much more fun... (for me anyway...lol)
Think I'll take a shower instead : )
http://www.cliffordrenovations.com
http://www.ramdass.org
Drinking was so much more fun
yeah; you don't have to decide what to do lol
"When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking." — Sherlock Holmes, 1896
have you seen that tv commerical about the professor software dude that teaches software free on dvd. the excell dvd is pretty good.
Yeh...you either do nothing or you go nuts and do it all.....half azzed (if that) but all none the less.
I can't belive I built that Fox Hunt Lane house as smashed as I was. Came out incredibly beautiful too (it's in my website below) I did everything from the rip to all the framing to all the finish work...went through a mag of Sky Vodka every night! (and some during the day). Human being are pretty amazing.
Course now that it's been four years off the juice (this past Thursday) things do seem to be moving along much faster with much more positive progress. too bad it took me all this time to get here. Oh well better late then never plus I didn't even die...lol
http://www.cliffordrenovations.com
http://www.ramdass.org
Congats on the 4 yr thing Andy. I'm sure it hasn't been easy.
I have a friend that for the most part just doesn't drink. Wasn't always that way though. He says life is tough enough with out adding a disability. Why would I want to drink?
Smart fellar there...........
"When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking." — Sherlock Holmes, 1896
If you haven't already got them, find Excel for Dummies and you can page through it any time you want. It's not a novel so you don't have to read every page in order although some pages/sections build on previously discussed subjects. Amazon's got the books.
Learn the math functions and the sum tool. That's what a Spreadsheet is all about. To get the cells to display the numbers you want use the Format Cells function.
Use different sheets in the book you're working for differnt calcs and you cna have the results report back to your main page.
I've been using 'puters since the early 80's, and whenever I've needed to learn a new program, the only effective learning came when I was trying to do something I needed (or wanted) to do. Classes and tutorials just never seemed to address what I thought I needed to know.
What worked best for me was to pick something I already knew how to do manually and figure out how to get the 'puter to do it. One great "exercise" is to put a checkbook register into Excel. You already know how to do that, and you know what it should look like. Now, all you gotta do is beat the program into submission so it does what you want. - lol
One great "exercise" is to put a checkbook register into Excel. You already know how to do that, and you know what it should look like. Now, all you gotta do is beat the program into submission so it does what you want. - lol
That sums it up for me. Don't pardon the pun.