Sharing Docs

Create an Olympics Medal Map using Google Spreadsheets

2010-02-22T16:30:00.000-05:00

This is a very detailed "How-to" blog post which takes the reader step-by-step through the creation of a "HeatMap". This is the sort of visual presentation that shows "heat" (color intesity) using some data points connected to physical locations - like countries, in this case - as the source. The post describes taking data from the web, putting the data into a useful form and then creating the map using spreadsheet gadgets. Very well done - except that the author did not provide a link to the underlying spreadsheet example for readers to use as a starting point.

Site:	OUseful.Info, the blog...
Page/Post:	Create an olympics medal map using a spreadsheet
Spreadsheet:	spreadsheet link not provided

A spreadsheet list of Google Products

2010-02-21T23:50:00.000-05:00

Here's a spreadsheet listing a compiled list of "all" google products (maybe not all - not guarantees - but the list is really pretty comprehensive). It's got some interesting attributes about each product listed, like whether it's new or not, and links to related videos and twitter accounts. Quite interesting - maybe even useful. (this, of course, is not sponsored by, recommended by or supported in any way by Google).

Page/Post:	Go2me page with spreadsheet embedded
Spreadsheet:	Google Products List
Spreadsheet:	version you can copy

Online Seating Charts - for teachers, by a teacher

2009-09-22T14:10:00.006-04:00

Daniel Rezac - a Google Certified Teacher - posted an example of a seating chart he did for his school on his "Adventures in Ed Tech" blog - along with a video which explains the process of creating one for yourself. Seems like an innovative way to keep yet another one of those many (many!) pieces of information that a teacher needs in an easy to manage - and more fun - form.

Site:	drezac - Adventures in Ed Tech
Page/Post:	Google Apps in the Class: Creating Online Seating Charts
Spreadsheet:	Seating Chart Spreadsheet

Farm Town is the original Farming game? and spreadsheet?

2009-09-15T09:27:00.003-04:00

Looks like I should give fair time to what appears to be the original farming simulation game - Farm Town (also on Facebook). Lots of resources and blogs focused on this game - including this blog I found which linked to another really detailed data spreadsheet... so here's that one. You make the choice on which one you like best!

Site:	Farm Town Here Blog
Page/Post:	What is best to plant?
Spreadsheet:	Farm Town data sheet

Farmville is apparently a game of data analysis

2009-09-15T08:51:00.003-04:00

If you play FarmVille on Facebook, you've probably already seen this - but apparently it offers tremendous value to those playing the game who want to optimize their farming results. I'm not familiar enough with the details of the game to tell more here - except that this spreadsheet has information on Seeds, Trees, Animals, Buildings, Decorations, Ribbons, Expansion, Vehicles and Crop Images. Wow.

Site:	Steven Loi's Blog
Page/Post:	ROI analysis on Framville
Spreadsheet:	Farmville Data

Videos from TED conference all listed in a spreadsheet

2009-04-30T06:13:00.004-04:00

The official (I think) TED group on facebook has a link to a published spreadsheet listing all the TED talk videos. This makes it quite easy to quickly find and watch the ones which seem interesting from their name or the speaker name. There are even separate sheets sorting the list by conference and by speaker. It even lists the duration, which is useful.

Site:	Facebook Ted Page
Spreadsheet:	List of all Ted Talks

Newspaper Website Visitor Trends

2009-02-26T09:27:00.004-05:00

The Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University posted an analysis of the top 15 newspaper websites. While they have many really interesting charts, they also posted the underlying data in a spreadsheet, which includes, for each of the top 30 sites, for 2007 and 2008, the monthly unique visitors and time spent per visit. Wow - great data (if it's right - which, of course, this blog cannot confirm).

Site:	Nieman Journalism Lab
Page/Post:	Top 15 Newspaper Sites
Spreadsheet:	Newspaper Site Stats '07-'08

Tracking, Charting (then twittering) a Hamster's Stamina

2009-02-26T08:00:00.007-05:00

SpookyPeanut (aka Henry) posted a link on twitter which caught my eye (well, my search, anyway)... He's apparently found a way to monitor his hamster's wheel - and has charted it using a Google spreadsheet. As he described it: "showing off my geeky side again". Nothing useful here, actually, but interesting that the Technical Director of this animated rodent film would post a spreadsheet about a pet rodent. ;)

Site:	SpookyPeanut
Spreadsheet Chart:	Stamina of a Hamster

Home Prices by US Metro area

2009-02-24T08:41:00.004-05:00

Healthcare Economist published a very useful spreadsheet of home prices and rankings by metropolitan area. It includes multi-year trends, by US region and broken into Single-family homes and Condominiums. I guess I should go searching to see if this "Healthcare Economist" ever actually talks about Healthcare ;)
(of course, as with every post here, we can't guarantee the information is right)...

Site:	Healthcare Economist
Page/Post:	Cost of Living II: Home Prices
Spreadsheet:	Home Prices by metro area

Picking a US State of residence using the tax rates as criteria

2009-02-24T08:28:00.004-05:00

Jason Shafrin, author of the Healthcare Economist blog, provides some really interesting information to help you pick which State you might want to live in using the Tax burden as criteria. He published a State-by-State Tax Burden spreadsheet to help guide you understand all the tax rates which might impact you as a resident - not just income tax rates.

Site:	Healthcare Economist
Page/Post:	Cost of Living I: State Taxes
Spreadsheet:	State Tax Rates & Rankings

Travelling adoptive parents need to be prepared

2009-02-24T07:11:00.004-05:00

5 by Faith is a blog covering a "journey of adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia". As you can imagine (or maybe as you've experienced), new babies require planning - and when you add in the legal and logistical steps of adoption - well, let's just say it's lucky that the end reward is so huge. Thanks to 5byFaith for keeping all the planning they went through in spreadsheets loaded with information. (You might get some other ideas by visiting 5byFaith's other Blog or her Etsy Store)

Site:	5 by Faith (blog)
Spreadsheet:	Travel Tips, Hints (9 tabs!)
Spreadsheet:	Packing List (12 tab sample)

Watching stocks on a Spreadsheet

2009-02-24T06:31:00.006-05:00

Here's a spreadsheet which follows selected stocks from a given point in time, up to the current, updated price - to give an "unrealized gain or loss" calculation based on some theoretical number of shares purchased. It's very simple. The way this spreadsheet was populated as you see it, was from using the Google Finance stock screener - a very useful tool which lets you identify stocks which meet certain criteria which you can easily set. Oh - I almost forgot to mention - the stock prices in this spreadsheet update automatically using the GoogleFinance function of Google spreadsheets... sweet.

Site:	JRsays (my blog)
Page/Post:	Stock Screening
Spreadsheet:	Stock Screen Spreadsheet (preview)
Spreadsheet:	get your own copy (on click, you'll get a copy put in your Docs list)

Canadian Women's Hockey League knows spreadsheets

2009-02-23T22:02:00.005-05:00

The Oakville Hornets women's hockey league of Ontario, Canada probably have quite an online audience, given the number of teams and players they support. It looks like (at a quick glance) around 8 leagues with as many as 16 or 24 teams in some of those. They use spreadsheets extensively in their Tournament Standings pages - publishing updated standings with embedded published spreadsheets in web pages. If you're wondering why they'd do this - imagine the difference between updating HTML versus a spreadsheet each time a game is played... then imagine you need to add up total wins, or calculate win pctg. Much easier in a spreadsheet than an HTML page. Opens up the task to practically anyone in the organizations instead of just a webmaster. Nice job, Hornets!

Site:	Oakville Hornets Hockey
Sample Page:	Tournament Standings (sample)
Spreadsheet:	Schedule of games & standings

Easy sharing of expenses for a group outing

2009-02-22T16:25:00.002-05:00

This is the classic example of using a shared spreadsheet to make it easy to share expenses for a group event. This group uses a blog to communicate, they have a shared calender, shared photos online, and a couple of spreadsheets where they've tracked expenses (linked on the right side of the blog). Everyone enters their out of pocket expenses, and the spreadsheet calculates the net due to/from each person.

Site:	Shared blog AJC 09/07
Spreadsheet:	Shared expenses accounting

Hockey Stats in spreadsheets - prospective Buffalo Sabres

2009-02-22T09:15:00.006-05:00

The Sabres Prospects blog uses spreadsheets effectively to publish statistics on prospective hockey players. In the right pane of their blog, you'll find a few links to a spreadsheet in the "Statistics" section. Notice that the links are to different individual sheets within the same spreadsheet file (workbook). You can build individual links like that using the "More Publishing Options" link on the publishing dialog within the spreadsheets editor on Google Docs...

Site:	Sabres Prospects
Main Spreadsheet:	Sabres Prospects Stats
Detail sheet:	Shooting MPH sheet

Spreadsheet of Twittering Musicians ++

2009-02-21T10:25:00.004-05:00

If you're into Twitter, you can thank Gabriel N. for starting this huge list of twittering musicians. It's got hundreds of 'em - Coldplay, Beastie Boys, Pearl Jam, ... the list goes on and on.

Site:	Follow Gabriel on Twitter
Spreadsheet:	List of Twittering Musicians and others

Collecting data using a Google Docs Form

2009-02-07T09:50:00.003-05:00

If you want to quickly collect information from people, a Google Docs Form is a great option. This sample survey about blogging will give you an idea of what the simplest form looks like, It literally takes just a few minutes to set one up (see my instructions) and get it out to people in an email or embedded in a web page, or as a standalone page.

Page/Post:	Collect data using a web form
Spreadsheet:	Blank Example spreadsheet with a Form
Form:	Sample Live Form - Blogging Survey

Recipes are tastier when the calculations are correct

2009-02-06T10:32:00.003-05:00

Jeff Barr (Web Services evangelist at Amazon.com) has clearly allowed his technical and web services DNA to rub off on his daughter ;) . He posted a great story about how she created a spreadsheet to calculate the cost of a cookie recipe. We don't have the sample spreadsheet, but check out his post - it's a great example of the power of spreadsheets for things as important as, well, cookies.

Site:	Jeff Barr's Blog
Page/Post:	Using a Google Spreadsheet to calculate recipe costs

Superbowl Box Pool - almost automated

2009-01-31T11:33:00.004-05:00

Here's a fun online Superbowl Box Pool on a spreadsheet - which lets you collect player's names using an online FORM. The spreadsheet randomizes the assignment of boxes and scores...

Site:	My Personal Blog (JRsays)
Page/Post:	Last-Minute Superbowl Pool
Spreadsheet:	Box Pool Spreadsheet

Rating Superheroes

2009-01-07T08:30:00.003-05:00

Matt Mitchell must be a comic book enthusiast, as he created a superhero rating system on a spreadsheet which only a Marvel fan could understand. You might want to ask him how he derived all this data - or you might want to help him out, as he needs a collaborator to "put those numbers together and make the scores make sense".

Site:	Unabashed
Page/Post:	Superhero Rating System
Spreadsheet:	Superhero Rating spreadsheet

Reduce those long URLs in batches

2008-12-03T23:02:00.002-05:00

Kortina from bit.ly posted this spreadsheet which is actually a tool tied back to his URL shortening service. This is a good use of the ImportData() function within Google spreadsheets... it allows entry of lots of original (long) URLs, then creates a call to the bit.ly service (which, itself is a simple URL), then uses the importdata() function to get back the answer (the shortened URL)... Try this to learn a few new tricks.

Site:	bit.ly blog
Page/Post:	bit.ly meets Google spreadsheets
Spreadsheet:	bit.ly shortener spreadsheet
	Get Your Own Copy

Song lists for the sharing

2008-09-22T06:41:00.003-04:00

Here's a really well constructed music list spreadsheet which contains song ratings with links back to the source of each rating, as well as Times (and totalled), Artist, song title and Album (is that still a term?). For those of you who love to make and share song lists - here's a good model...

Site:	Aftermath (blog)
Page/Post:	Leonard Cohen: You Know Who I Am
Spreadsheet:	Zen Vision M Tracks (Song List and Ratings)

Spreadsheets as a craft templating tool

2008-09-22T06:25:00.003-04:00

Teresa Payne-Neal came up with a novel use of spreadsheets as a way to share a craft template with the readers of her scrapbooking and card-making blog called My Life's Art. You may scroll up and down this post a few times before recognizing the spreadsheet.

Site:	My Life's Art Blog
Page/Post:	3 x 3 Treat Box
Spreadsheet:	Treat Box Template (3x3)

Shared listing of coffee shops (or anything) in Denver (or anywhere)

2008-08-28T17:09:00.003-04:00

An interesting idea here from Mile High Buzz for the use of Forms and Spreadsheets in Google Docs - gathering key information about local shops... Coffee shops in the Denver area in this case... A form is used to allow people to put data into this spreadsheet and then the spreadsheet is published so anyone can see it. This is a great sample that can be created from scratch in about 5 minutes. (Click here to create your own form now)

Site:	Mile High Buzz
Page/Post:	Coffee House Hours survey
Spreadsheet:	Denver's Coffee House Hours

Sharing Savings, Sharing Coupons

2008-07-21T18:01:00.002-04:00

SavvyDollar.Org is self billed as "North Carolina's source for savings... and members, (one in particular) are very helpful to each-other (and dedicated to the cause of saving money) it seems by sharing coupons using a list of available coupons on an online spreadsheet.

Site:	SavvyDollar.Org
Page/Post:	Available Coupons Spreadsheet posted
Spreadsheet:	JustBAMom's Coupon Treasures