(no subject)

[afmetalsmith]

Busy, busy, busy! June is wedding season, and I've been making a lot of rings! Some other things, too, which is a nice break; I like being able to move from one project to a different one as each progresses.

I'm going to ask for some help, now, on something that's not directly jewelry-related:

A Spreadsheet

Anyone have any recommendations? I do use a Mac, so that affects what will work.

I don't need anything too fancy; it's just that I'm spending a lot of my estimating time making the same calculations over and over again with slightly different variables, and I think a spreadsheet would be so useful! Especially since many people inquire about what something would cost with option #1, and also with option #2, etc.

I have no experience with spreadsheets, though I'm OK with math and reasonably competent on the computer as a user.

Simple would be fine. Cheap is also attractive. :)

Help?

Comments

[fub.livejournal.com]

Well, there's always OpenOffice that works on almost everything that's out there -- and it does formulas as well as Excel.

[afmetalsmith.livejournal.com]

I did try OpenOffice a number of years ago, and I really hated it. I was mostly using the word processor at the time, but it was a struggle. I replaced it with AppleWorks, which is OK, but their spreadsheet thing confuses me. I tried and- really got nowhere.

Maybe I just need a tutorial on spreadsheets, though..?

[fub.livejournal.com]

OpenOffice.org has been under constant development -- the OOo of today is almost incomparable with the OOo a few years ago.
I have worked with Excel a lot (I still do, at work), and I have found the transition to OOo spreadsheets seamless.

Spreadsheets are easy if you know what you want to get out of them. Perhaps a few tutorials (http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/category_index/spreadsheet.html) will tell you what you want to know.

Or you could go at it from the other end: what do you need, and how could you get that into a spreadsheet (or something else)?

[whitecrow0.livejournal.com]

If you have a Google account, you can try Google Docs; they have a spreadsheet function. Can't vouch for how it works; I've never used it.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Google Docs not only have decent spreadsheets, they have a lot of templates, so one may already exist that suits your purpose.