I used Atalanta's spreadsheet (this year's version here) for NaNo last year and it was a tremendous help. This year, though, I decided to "roll my own" and I wanted to share it in case anybody else is interested.
Click here to download the file.
This was created in Excel but seems to be working okay in Calc too. Let me know if there are any issues.
There are 5 tabs, and these each present different information:
SUMMARY: This is an overview of your NaNo progress. Until Nov 1, when you get started, it will be pretty blank, but above is an example of how it might look halfway through the month. It includes:
- how many days remaining until NaNo starts/ends
- your word count goal (editable)
- how many words you've written
- how long you've written for
- your average words per day and per hour
- how many words you have left to write/how many words you've exceeded your goal by
- if you will finish in time, and if so, which date
- a pie chart and percentage indication of your progress
- an automatically calculated goal for the day
- how many words you have written today
- how long you've written for today
- your average words per hour today
- how many more words you need to write to meet today's goal/how many words you've exceeded it by
- an estimate of how long it will take you to reach today's goal
DATA: This is where you enter the majority of your information. You input your running word count day, time worked, a rating of your morale on a scale from 0-10 and, if you like, a comment, each day and this information is used to calculate information on other sheets as well as:
- words written today
- goal for each day
- rate per minute and per hour
These are the two main pages. There is also a sheet for keeping track of your word wars, and a sheet each for a graph of your morale and running total. If anyone has other ideas for information they would like added I can try and include it.
BASIC INSTRUCTIONS:
You don't need to change much: only edit the cells that are blue. If you wish to make changes to formulas, layout, etc, you will need to turn the protection off. :-)
Mmkay, I think that's it. XD
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54,653 / 50,000
Sep 27, 2008 - 20 52
Oooh, this looks really cool! However, I can't seem to download it from the link you provided...i'm getting a 500 error. :|
----------Tina, ML for the Philippines
Refine Me | PinoyWrimos | Firstgiving
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 27, 2008 - 21 16
Oh dear, sorry about that; my experience with sharing files other than images online is limited, hehe.
If you go to http://drop.io/salzkec/asset/nanospreadsheet2008 and click the 'download' link, does that work?
((Thanks for letting me know!))
3,338 / 50,000
Sep 27, 2008 - 21 22
It looks very nice, but for some reason on the Mac version of Excel (2008) I can't seem to resize the window... I'll try to figure out what the glitch is, but if I can't resize it I'll probably stick to the one I used last year.
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 27, 2008 - 21 39
Hmm, that's bizarre. I don't have a Mac so I can't check it out, either.
Maybe it's because it's protected or something? (Sorry I can't be more helpful!)
67,005 / 50,000
Sep 27, 2008 - 22 15
Wow, the pics look beautiful! You did a great job. All hail the inspirational power of spreadsheets! :-D
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 27, 2008 - 22 35
Awww, thank you! :-)
100,010 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 01 55
Odd, I have Excel 2002 and I can't get it to go full screen, but the image shows it can. My PC is a Windows PC, I just have an old copy of MS office because I'm too cheap to buy a newer one.
Any idea how to fix that? If a screencap would help you, let me know, I can provide one. Otherwise, looks good.
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 02 50
Hmmm, that's quite unusual and sounds similar to the problem Pomato_Soup was having...
Quite honestly, I have no idea what's causing it. ^_^ I'll try downloading it myself and seeing if that file will run, perhaps.
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 02 58
Okay, it looks like this problem is something that happened when I uploaded the file to drop.io. (I've never used it before; I don't really share files often.) So, I'm going to try uploading it somewhere else.
Sorry for all the difficulty! :-)
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 03 09
Actually, I take that back: the fault was mine, not drop.io's.
If you go to Tools-->Protection-->Unprotect Workbook it should solve the problem. At least, it did in my case. I'll reupload the file to drop.io, too, if I can. I'll open a new thread once people have had ample opportunity to have other such issues. :-) (Since I can't edit this one and the links are wrong, hehe.)
Thanks for all your help, guys.
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 03 32
Okay, it seems to be working now.
3,338 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 06 43
Oooh... glorious. It would've taken me a long time to figure that one out, actually. Now that I can do that, I will definitely be using this. The lovely little 3D pie-chart is to pretty to resist XD
Okay, I started checking this thing out. You put so much effort into this! Really digging the Disney quote. Also, half the "comments" I had last year really were excuses, and it's awesome that you have a little pop-up that will heckle me for not writing... lol. Loving this.
76,205 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 07 15
I really like this. I'm pretty sure that I will actually use this! I really like that you have a word war tab, since I have alot of ww throughout NaNo so it'll be nice to keep track of them.
----------2007: First year: The Story / Homeward Bound: WON!
2008: Shutter Bird / The Last Child: WON!
50,043 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 07 33
Wow - this is amazing!
Thanks for sharing this, very nice.
Alana
----------Alana, AZ Screnzy ML
Author of Domestically Challenged
NaNo '07 - Winner!
NaNo '08 - Winner!
0 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 07 54
This is just what I was looking for! Thanks a bunch. It's amazing. :D
----------50,081 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 08 25
First link didn't work for me. I got a 500 error. But the second one does. :D It's shiny! Thanks!
------------C.J. Sandiego
sic semper tyrannis!
50,323 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 12 08
I get an Error:502 in the green bar on the summary page, and eight more below it.
Also, I can't type in my title where it says .
Does the walt disney quote change throughout the month?
the Morale Chart and Progress Chart have "Row 3" through "Row 32" along the x-axis. What does that represent? Are those supposed to be Day 1 through 30?
Also, these two charts seem to be transparent, as the cell gridlines are showing behind the charts.
Why would you want to encourage people to make "excuses" by having an "excuses" column?
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 13 01
Error:502:That's not right. XD May I ask what program you're using? I'm not having that issue.
Title:This was my fault. I forgot to unlock that cell. I'll go fix that. In the meantime, going to Tools-->Protection-->Unprotect Sheet while on the summary page. (That should be enough to fix the problem and allow you to edit the title, but if you'd like to protect the sheet again so you don't accidentally edit anything, then you can also make sure you can still edit your title by right clicking on the cell and choosing 'format cell', then unchecking the 'locked' box in the cell protection tab, or its equivalent in your program. Then you can reprotect the sheet by going into the same menu as before.)
Quote: At the moment, no, but I was considering adding that feature. If anyone has any appropriate quotes, please let me know.
Charts: Yes, the x-axis is intended to be an indication of the days. On Excel 2003 and Calc it is displayed as '1, 2, 3, etc.' Again, perhaps it's an issue caused by the program you're using? It's hard to say. It may be possible to tweak a setting or two to fix this, or just hide the labels on the axis.
Also, they are transparent, but as they are sheets of their own my programs are both displaying them simply with a white background. I will change it so that the background is just automatically white so this display issue doesn't occur.
Excuses: I don't 'want' to encourage people to make excuses, but I noticed that last year, most of my comments went along this line of thought. "I got a new iPod today and was playing with it", "Had to do English writing folio"...actually, there were only really two 'excuses' as such, but it was intended to be tongue-in-cheek. Again, you're free to edit this for your own preferences (if we can get it working properly).
Thanks for letting me know the issues you're having.
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 13 06
Thank you! Yes, it was a feature I haven't seen on any other spreadsheets and I thought it might be useful to some people. I thought there might be more information I could put on that page, but I didn't want to link the word war page into the summary/data pages because I know there are people who don't engage in word wars. I still might reconsider, or else have multiple versions.
I was also considering adding an 'incentives' or 'milestones' sheet, because it's fun to know you're 1/3 or even 1/10 of the way through your word count, but in the end was impatient to post it and see what people thought.
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 13 12
Thank you! The pie chart idea was included on the original spreadsheet, I believe, and yes, it was great fun watching it slowly turn green (actually, I think it may have been blue, but the idea is the same).
Yes, we were doing spreadsheets in class the other week (pretty basic stuff, really: +,-,*, and /) but I decided to investigate some stuff I hadn't really looked at that much before, inspired by the spreadsheet I used for NaNo last year (VLOOKUP, IF, some date functions, adding strings together). Then I came home all inspired and thought I could make my own. ^_^ It was fun, in a terrifically geeky kind of way.
62,230 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 13 21
The error is back.
500 - Your link has timed out or is invalid. Go back to the drop page and refresh your browser to get a valid link to download or view the requested file.
Note: drop.io does not allow permanent direct linking to un-converted assets. You can share 'converted' assets using the 'embed' function and/or the XML RSS feed, but you cannot direct link' unconverted files (including .zips, .rars, or other file formats drop.io does not convert into web-friendly formats).
I can get atlanta's .ods file but I cannot access your .xls file.
:-(
Apollo16
50,323 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 13 38
open office 2.3 on windows.
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 13 53
Since I can't edit the original post, I can't correct that link. But, if you go to http://drop.io/salzkec/asset/nanospreadsheet2008 and then click 'download', it should be working okay. (It says it's unable to load due to copyright infringement; I don't really know what that's all about--it's definitely my own work--but the download link still seems to be working fine.)
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 15 32
Hmm, this one is an .ods file: http://drop.io/salzkec/asset/nanospreadsheet2008-2
Perhaps that will solve the problem?
62,230 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 20 46
The new link plus hitting the download button works great! Thanks! (I didn't get any flaky copyright message. It just downloaded correctly and opened just peachy!)
Apollo16
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 21 06
Ah, excellent! Thanks for letting me know. :-)
50,075 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 21 39
Got it! It seems to be working fine :) and my coping method for everything lately is spreadsheets, so I'm glad to have this.
54,653 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 22 08
I only got to download this now after my last reply...and I love it! :D Great job! I had to edit some of the dates in the formula so it shows up for me (our date convention is mm/dd/yyyy, instead of dd/mm/yyyy), but other than that it works perfectly. :D Is it okay if I have this up for download at our region's website once it's up? With credits to you of course. :)
----------Tina, ML for the Philippines
Refine Me | PinoyWrimos | Firstgiving
50,236 / 50,000
Sep 28, 2008 - 22 29
Thank you; glad you like it. Yes, of course! I think I need to create a simple Google page or something to allow me to update it more easily and such, so once I do I can send you a link to that, if you like.
50,323 / 50,000
Sep 29, 2008 - 01 01
All problems still exist even with the ods version.