Workout catalog/excel question

[Guest guest]

I'm working on my workout catalog and was thinking it would be nice to be able to search and get results that show a listing of the items that are cardio or the items that are circuit, etc. Is this something I can do in Excel? I'm currently putting it into Word because that is the program I like best but when you search in Word it shows you items from one line to the next, it doesn't open a separate window showing your search results. Does anyone know if Excel will do that (open a separate window showing search results)? I don't have a database program.

Thanks!

[Guest guest]

hi nancy - i have all of my workouts listed and categorized in

excel. it is great for searching, sorting, indexing, etc. on

whatever column you want. in my spreadsheet, i include a

classification, instructor, workout name, length, media (if it

is on dvd or vhs), if it is a virgin, and a space for the date

(or year...heh heh) that i last did the workout. so i can have

excel show me all of the workouts that fall into a certain

criteria in any of those fields. having all of this info is

indispensible for planning rotations, weeding out unwanted

workouts, seeing if i already have a workout before i buy or

trade, etc, etc. it does take some time to get all of the

workouts listed properly, but once you have it (and keep it

updated!) then it is a really great thing to use, especially if

your collection gets big

:*carolyn.

[Guest guest]

Hi Carolyn,

This sounds really great! I talked with my DH, who is an Excel user, and he showed me a spreadsheet he created where he can do the sorting you describe. I like that better than what Word can do for me so I'm going to suck it up and put it into Excel. Luckily, if I get stuck, he'll be on the other side of the couch and can assist me! I've used Excel in the past but usually avoid it, like I tried to do today. I only got a few workouts put in Word so I'll just copy and paste that information in and keep going from there. This is going to take a while! Thanks for you sharing your system with me!

Re: Workout catalog/excel question

hi nancy - i have all of my workouts listed and categorized in excel. it is great for searching, sorting, indexing, etc. on whatever column you want. in my spreadsheet, i include a classification, instructor, workout name, length, media (if it is on dvd or vhs), if it is a virgin, and a space for the date (or year...heh heh) that i last did the workout. so i can have excel show me all of the workouts that fall into a certain criteria in any of those fields. having all of this info is indispensible for planning rotations, weeding out unwanted workouts, seeing if i already have a workout before i buy or trade, etc, etc. it does take some time to get all of the workouts listed properly, but once you have it (and keep it updated!) then it is a really great thing to use, especially if your collection gets big :*carolyn.

[Guest guest]

nancydewolf wrote:

> This sounds really great! I talked with my DH, who is an Excel user, and

> he showed me a spreadsheet he created where he can do the sorting you

> describe.

oh good!! make sure that you look into the AUTOFILTER

capability -- If you have a header row on the top with category

names (e.g. " Instructor " , " Workout Length " , " Exercise Type " ), you

can just select any cell in that row, then go to " Data | Filter |

Autofilter " to turn filtering on. You should see a bunch of

triangles appear at the right-hand-side of each cell in that row,

which you can then click to produce a drop-down menu allowing you

to select which values you'd like to view (e.g., " cardio " ). You

can also choose " (Custom...) " and specify a range of values

(e.g., " is less than " 30) if you only have half an hour to work

out, for example. just select " Data | Filter | Autofilter "

again to turn filtering off.

:*carolyn.

[Guest guest]

WOW!!! Carolyn, I followed your EASY instructions and WOW!!! It works even better than I ever expected. I swore at Excel all the time I was entering data but now I'm sending it love notes! This is AWESOME! DH was telling me about the filters and showed me how he uses it but he's an engineer so he over explains things (and that's an understatement) and I figured I'd have to play around with it for a while to figure it out on my own unless he did it for me but I just did 3 clicks and instant awesomely useable database! Thank you so much!

(who just found out that she has at least 157 workouts -- some of those are individual workouts on the same DVD broken out separately so I don't have that many DVDs or VHS tapes but close enough I guess)

Re: Workout catalog/excel question

nancydewolf wrote:> This sounds really great! I talked with my DH, who is an Excel user, and > he showed me a spreadsheet he created where he can do the sorting you > describe. oh good!! make sure that you look into the AUTOFILTER capability -- If you have a header row on the top with category names (e.g. "Instructor", "Workout Length", "Exercise Type"), you can just select any cell in that row, then go to "Data | Filter | Autofilter" to turn filtering on. You should see a bunch of triangles appear at the right-hand-side of each cell in that row, which you can then click to produce a drop-down menu allowing you to select which values you'd like to view (e.g., "cardio"). You can also choose "(Custom...)" and specify a range of values (e.g., "is less than" 30) if you only have half an hour to work out, for example. just select "Data | Filter | Autofilter" again to turn filtering off.:*carolyn.