# Good diversions using only a blank Excel sheet **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 24, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782 "2012-02-24T00:51:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/1 "2012-02-24T00:51:39Z")
I work in a call centre. When it’s busy there is no time for distractions; however when it’s quiet it can get very quiet. Works policy forbids any books, magazines or electronic devices to pass the time when it’s quiet. However they have no problem with using Excel, a pen and a blank piece of paper. I’m by no means an expert at Excel, but I know my way around it. I’ve been using it to set up impromptu games of [Countdown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countdown_(game_show)) with people on my desk using the random number generator. Anybody got any other good hints for time-passers using just pen, paper and Excel? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/2 "2012-02-24T00:57:12Z")
[Pixel Art?](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1680&bih=883&q=excel+pixel+art&gbv=2&oq=excel+pixel+art&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=1&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=2455l6363l0l6521l15l15l0l3l3l0l107l1022l9.3l12l0) Good Lord… I’d only seen people making 8-Bit style stuff but the examples on Google Images are insane. Edit: Ok, it looks like the crazy ones were done via another program that turns images into Excel cells. Color me less impressed with those then. ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/3 "2012-02-24T02:52:35Z")
There’s a game hidden in Excel. Or, at least there used to be: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/PGZfuwsvIFQ/hqdefault.jpg "Dev Hunter - a hidden game in Excel 2000") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGZfuwsvIFQ) ---
**Author:** ![SteveTophat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SteveTophat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveTophat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/4 "2012-02-24T03:29:07Z")
Freedom! ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/5 "2012-02-24T03:43:48Z")
You could load a book or other reading material into Excel. For an entire book,it might take several worksheets because there is a maximum number of rows per sheet. Try opening a text file (.TXT) in Excel. There are books in the public domain that could be saved as .TXT files. On edit, I missed the part about the **blank** Excel sheet. Maybe the top sheet could be blank and the reading material could be hidden in a second sheet? ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/6 "2012-02-24T11:39:27Z")
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll just add though that anything involving loading a file, saving a file or accessing the internet is not possible. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/7 "2012-02-24T14:13:48Z")
I’m just an intermediate Excel user. A couple of years ago I set myself the challenge of creating a spreadsheet in Excel that could guess an integer between 0 and 1000 within 10 guesses, given “higher” or “lower” or “That’s it!” feedback after each guess. I tried to make it as user-friendly as possible, so that elementary-school students could use it, with some of the necessary equations happening on another worksheet, so that the smarties in the upper elementary grades could try to figure out how it works. That’s about the most diverting thing I’ve done in Excel. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/8 "2012-02-24T15:00:47Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll just add though that anything involving loading a file, saving a file or accessing the internet is not possible. At that point I’d take my pen and paper and work on my still lifes. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/9 "2012-02-24T15:12:12Z")
It sounds to me as if the problem is your workplace: why are they intent on inflicting boredom on their employees during slow times? ---
**Author:** ![FasterThanMeerkats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@FasterThanMeerkats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FasterThanMeerkats)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/10 "2012-02-24T21:18:03Z")
Have fun with the VBA speech application in excel.🙂 Sub Speech() ``` Application.Speech.Speak "Hello Professor Falken. Would you like to play a game? How about a nice game of global thermonuclear war?" ``` End Sub ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/11 "2012-02-24T21:51:43Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > I’ll just add though that anything involving loading a file, saving a file or accessing the internet is not possible. Are you at work or in solitary confinement? Turning blank Excel worksheets into fun is unfortunately beyond my technical capabilities. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-diversions-using-only-a-blank-excel-sheet/613782/12 "2012-02-24T22:12:39Z")
Get a bunch of colored pens (or crayons, if you think they’d be allowed) and draw really awful art and paper the walls of your cubicle with it.