On my local disk (backed up but NOT on the Cloud):
[ul]
[li]A large spreadsheet for tracking my investments: ROI, diversification, comparison to DJIA, etc. It’s pretty, too, with charts and stuff. I update this once a quarter. This also includes a summary sheet I print out and store with… my will. :eek: (Day-to-day cash flow and investments are tracked separately in Quicken every week.)[/li][li]Summary of tax-relevant medical expenses, donations, RRSP contributions, etc., which I prepare for the accountant at income tax time.[/li][li]An index of the audio CDs in the corner of the living room, which we never listen to anymore.[/li][/ul]
On Google Drive:
[ul]
[li]List of media (books, movies, etc.) that I’ve heard good things about.[/li][li]Log of my cardio workouts.[/li][li]My weight curve.[/li][li]The new puppy’s weight curve. :o[/li][li]Ad hoc spreadsheets for comparison shopping (one for choosing my new car, for instance).[/li][/ul]
I wanted to have a copy of every Maigret novel and story, and there are a lot of them (75 novels, 2 sets of short stories), so I made a list based on a website dedicated to Maigret, and put it in a spreadsheet. The list was based on publication order and the original French title. Then I started acquiring used copies and listed which translated English title was used for that version, the translator, and where I got it from (all online sources). A few of them were fairly rare and hard to find.
Before I was entirely finished acquiring this complete set, Penguin UK started re-issuing all of the novels, some of which had never been available as a single book before, so I added those in as I got them; which translated English title (always a direct translation from the French title now, unlike earlier editions) and the order in which they were written, which especially in the early years was often different from the publication order. I have gotten as far as #37, they have published as far as #45 (not available yet in the US, there is a delay of several months compared to availability in the UK).
The list is not complete yet, in the sense that the re-issued editions are not complete; at the rate of one per month, they still have maybe 3 years to go. So the list is also useful to remind me to check for the next new book every month.
Less interesting to me but more mathematical, as the trustee of my late father’s living trust, there are two outstanding loans for which I receive payments. I created and update spreadsheets with date, amount paid, interest paid, and total remaining on the loan, which I print and send as receipts. For this, the trust pays me a small fiduciary fee every year.
First, the spells section in 5th edition D&D is abysmally poorly organized, so I put all of the information in a spreadsheet, along with my personal subjective ratings of the spells and a few comments. So if I want a list of, say, all 3rd-level wizard spells in the enchantment or illusion schools, or the amount of damage done by all spells that do fire damage, it’s just a sort away.
Second, one of my hobbies is designing dice for 3-d printing. I’m a bit anal about ensuring they’re fair, so I make sure that the numbers on each face are the same volume, so they won’t make one side a little lighter or heavier. I do this by exporting the numbers as 3d designs themselves, measuring their volumes, entering the volumes into a spreadsheet, and calculating how much I should scale them by when I re-import them. This spreadsheet has a bunch of different pages, because I use different fonts for different dice, so I have a page for each font, each with the same calculations.
I also use spreadsheets to track student grades, when I’m teaching a class, but you said other than for work.
I’ve created spreadsheets for moves, both as checklists for things to do (address changes at institutions, utility setup, etc.) and for tracking candidate homes.
I prefer Access databases to spreadsheets since I’m working more with data than numbers.
I use one to keep track of my story submissions.
My most important one is to handle programming for Albacon. It’s ideal for the purpose: you can design queries to create individualized schedules (both a formal one, and on for a sticker to put on the back of their badges). I can easily check to make sure no one is scheduled for two things at the same time, too.
I have another of all the plays I’ve seen since I created it.
The one spreadsheet I use is to keep track of my story sales. I also create one every year to track my expenses and income for tax purposes.
And one that lists who gets what kind of homemade candy, and how many containers of each, for the holidays. This is important, because one aunt can’t eat chocolate (so she gets no fudge) and because most of my married cousins get one set of candy per couple, but one cousin and her husband each get their own set of candy.
I have a few spreadsheets. Some are kind of work related but they aren’t required for work, they’re just things I’ve done to make certain aspects of my life easier.
A tax calculator. I enter my gross taxable income and tax paid, it tells me how much tax I should have paid and how much refund I will get.
A basic budget. It has income and expected expenses for a year. I’ve used it in the past to work out whether we can afford to live on just one salary, or one full time salary and one part time salary, that sort of thing. I use an app for my actual finance management though. Currently YNAB, though I’ve used various others and a spreadsheet could work for that but I don’t have the inclination to do one.
A spreadsheet that lists all of the instrument approach charts I need for work and how they should be arranged. This is so I can print them from my electronic charts and not have any duplicates. There’s no reason to use a spreadsheet for this other than it is easy to create tables. There are no formulas.
A decline in value calculator for working out depreciation of work related assets so I can claim them as tax deductions.
A couple to do scaling calculations for 3D modeling, one to keep track of my vacation expenses (in planning, and during), and one to alphabetize and filter by category the list of potential subjects for my video review series. The last one’s handy to see at a glance which ones, say, are Steampunk or Nazisploitation movies, or which involve head transplants or cloning, or which ones are movies derived from The Island of Doctor Moreau, etc.
Two I don’t use any more for tracking my diet and exercise goals. Now I use Fitday instead.
One to measure my statistics (Coryat score, batting average, etc.) when playing along at home to Jeopardy!. I still play along but haven’t bothered to update the spreadsheet in a few years.
Several for a finance course I once took. I don’t still have them, but now I know how to use Excel to calculate net present values, future values, payments, interest rates, etc. I calculate such values for my personal finances on rare occasions but don’t need to save the results.
I created one to organize German and English cognates, as an aid to learning German vocabulary. I didn’t get very far before giving it up.
The only one I use on a regular basis is a catalog of my backpacking gear. Mainly I use it to predict the weight of my pack without having to actually pack it and weigh it. The file also includes data about manufacturers, retailers, prices paid, and dates purchased.
I have a chart showing average US income, social security rates for retirement and medicare plus the employer match for the past 45 years. I then can use varying “investment” rates to see what it is now worth if it were invested in my account like it were a personal retirement fund.
I have a password file with multiple sheets for my and my kids’ passwords. Over 100 different combinations just for me.
I have the MAC addresses, the devices they are from, and the fixed or assigned IP addresses for all users of my router.
I have a checklist that is fancier than the standard shopping list.
I have multiple files for tracking my fantasy football dynasty teams.
Every outlet, light, switch or other electrical device is traced to it’s panel and breaker.
Back in the Quatro-Pro days, I built my own checking account statement program.
I’ve built graph paper.
I mapped the rows in the garden.
I mapped the original layout of my orchard.
Do most of you “finish” your spreadsheets so they look pretty? Or do they just have the essential formulas and cells without trying to make them look like an app?
Many, many diverse applications. First, I’m old enough to remember when the first spreadsheet program was released and I was just amazed. Not long after I found a cool book titled Lotus 123 for scientists and engineers. No one uses Lotus anymore but a spreadsheet’s a spreadsheet. Anyway, it’s long been updated for Excel.
I’ve play a lot of poker. I use a spreadsheet to monitor my progress in tournaments and cash games. Also, since I run a home game, I created a table of payouts for all possible prize pool sizes. (Saves time. Instead of breaking out the calculator after each tournament to determine payouts, I just look it up in the table.)
So many applications. Mostly for small database purposes. Off the top of my head:
Organizing my:
cable tv channels
local radio stations/freqs
amateur radio stations/freqs
books I’ve read
books I want to read
my music/movies, etc.
groceries
elevations of all the Pac-12 football stations
various checklists for travel/camping etc.
I created a work calendar for a friend who works a weird rotating (3 on/ 3 off) schedule. I made a table/chart of the standard creepiness rule of dating. I imported a table of twilight times so I know when it’s suitably dark to use my telescope.