So many people I talk to think spreadsheets are for accountants, financial people and data wonks (yes, “wonks” is now a term). They don’t think of using a spreadsheet for things that are non-numeric or data-set oriented - perhaps because they’ve never seen it used in any other creative ways. I, on the other hand, think of spreadsheets as a potential tool for practically anything (well, not for shoveling snow or traveling to Paris, although I could use one to track snowfall and another to help plan a trip to Paris ;)

The area where I’ve surprised the most people is perhaps SPORTS… A long time ago, I used spreadsheets to run some office pools (the non-betting legal kind, of course ;) and it not only made it super simple to run the game, but it introduced so many people to a fun use of a practical tool! The Super Bowl office box pool was one specific spreadsheet that we used for many years - even creating a form where people could submit their guesses and pick their box - and a response email which would confirm their entry and let them know as scores were finalized.

We made the simple version of the office box pool available here - for now only in simple form for you to manually enter participants - but it’s still a useful way to run the game! Give it a try this coming Super Bowl LIV (that’s Roman Numeral for 54 btw)!!