Utah Community Learning

Materials & extras

Downloads

Handouts, flashcards, and note cards from your instructor — print any of them.

  • HandoutHandout 1: What to Bring — Spreadsheets for Everyday Use

    Handout 1: What to Bring — Spreadsheets for Everyday Use

    Okay sooo, before anyone panics about needing a fancy laptop or the newest version of anything, real talk: you need way less than you think. Here's the actual list, split into "you need this" and "nice if you have it."

    Budget Tier (this is genuinely enough)

    A laptop. Any laptop from the last several years works fine. Chromebooks are okay too. If you're not sure yours can run a spreadsheet program, bring it anyway and we'll check on day one.

    A free account with Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel Online. Both are free. If you already have a Gmail address you already have Sheets. If you have a Microsoft/Outlook account you already have Excel Online. Set this up before class if you can, it saves us fifteen minutes we'd rather spend on actual sheet stuff.

    A notebook and pen. Not gonna lie, I keep my own birthday and anniversary list on paper, so I'm not about to tell you paper's dumb. You'll want somewhere to jot down the "questions" we talk about in lesson one, before you ever open a blank sheet.

    Your own real numbers, in your head or on a scrap of paper. Grocery spending, a hobby you sell stuff from, whatever. This class works best when you're building something you'll actually use afterward, not a fake example about fruit sales. Bring the thing you're actually trying to track.

    Nice-to-Have Tier (not required, makes life easier)

    A second monitor, or a tablet propped up next to your laptop. Handy for following along on screen while you work in your own file, but plenty of people just alt-tab back and forth and it's fine.

    A USB mouse. If you hate trackpads like I do, formulas and cell-selecting are a lot less annoying with an actual mouse. Totally optional.

    A folder (physical or digital) for your printouts. We'll do a couple of printed handouts through the course. If you're a keep-it-all-together person, grab a cheap folder. If you're a "photograph it and lose the paper in three days" person, also fine, no judgment, that's most of us.

    Reading glasses if you use them. The default font size in most sheets is small. We'll bump it up together, but bring your glasses so you're not squinting on day one while I figure that out on the projector.

    A note on where to get any of this

    If you need to buy anything (a cheap mouse, a notebook), you don't need anything special. A basic office-supply aisle at any general store covers it, Costco if you already have a membership and want a multipack of notebooks you'll use for a decade. Nothing on this list needs to be nice. My own work laptop has a sticker half peeling off and a keyboard with a permanent faint apple-juice smell from a toddler incident I will not be elaborating on in a supply list.

    What you do NOT need

    You do not need a paid software subscription. You do not need a fast computer. You do not need to already know what a formula is. If you've opened a spreadsheet before and just typed numbers straight into the boxes, hand up, that's most people, and that's exactly the gap this class is built to close.

    See you in class. Bring the laptop, bring your real numbers, and don't stress about the rest.

    • C
  • HandoutHandout 2: Cheat Sheet — Spreadsheets for Everyday Use

    Handout 2: Cheat Sheet — Spreadsheets for Everyday Use

    Okay sooo, this is the "I forgot how to do the thing" page. Keep it by your computer, or fold it into the birthday notebook, whatever works. This is not everything, it's the stuff we actually use most weeks.

    Before you type a single number

    Ask your question first. "What am I trying to know" comes before "let me open a blank sheet." Blank sheets are scary because there's no question in them yet. If you can't finish the sentence "I want this sheet to tell me ___," stop and finish that sentence first.

    The non-negotiable setting

    Turn on autosave. File menu, or top of the screen depending which program you're in. Do this right now, before you forget. I lost twenty minutes of formulas to apple juice on a keyboard once and I have preached autosave ever since. Don't be a hero. You will lose.

    Formulas, the ones that carry 90% of real life

    • =SUM(A1:A10) — adds up a range. Your best friend.
    • =A1+B1 (or minus, or times) — basic math between two cells.
    • =AVERAGE(A1:A10) — self-explanatory, does the job.
    • Drag the little square at the bottom corner of a cell to copy a formula down a column instead of retyping it. If you're typing the same number in twice, you've already made a future mistake, you just haven't met it yet.
    • VLOOKUP — looks up a value and pulls back matching info from another column. It gets a bad rap for not being able to look "leftward," and technically that's not quite right, but real talk, it's annoying either way, so don't feel bad if you avoid it.

    Sorting, without scrambling everything

    Select your whole table before you sort, not just one column. If you sort one column alone, everything else stays put and your data turns into soup. My husband did this exact thing the first time I taught him and he still brings it up like it was my fault.

    Formatting that actually earns its keep

    • Conditional formatting — turns cells a color automatically when they hit a condition you set (a date coming due, a number over budget). This is the thing that got me noticed at my first real job. Genuinely useful, not just decoration.
    • Bold headers, freeze the top row. So when you scroll down a long sheet you can still see what column you're in.
    • Don't go overboard on colors. If every cell is a different shade you've built a puzzle, not a sheet.

    Categories (budget people, this is for you)

    Five or six categories is plenty. You do not need forty. Precision you won't maintain is worse than a rough number you'll actually keep using. "Food" can just be food.

    Charts

    One idea per chart. If you need a paragraph to explain what it's showing, it's not a chart anymore. Sometimes the chart just confirms something obvious, like "yep, we spend more in December." That's fine. That's the chart working.

    Two honest gaps

    Pivot tables I can build but can't always tell you WHY they did what they did. Printing a sheet so it fits nicely on one page, I've never once won that fight. I just look at things on screen and you can too.

    • C
  • WorksheetHandout 3: Build Your Own Tracker

    Handout 3: Build Your Own Tracker

    okay sooo, this is the one where you actually leave with something. Not a demo file, not my example, YOUR sheet, built around a question you actually have. Fill this in as we go. Don't skip to building until you've got the top part answered, that's the part people skip and then wonder why the sheet feels pointless.

    ---

    Step 1: What's the question?

    Before you open a blank sheet, answer this. A blank sheet with no question in it is just scary. (Ask me how I know.)

    The one thing I actually want to know is:

    _______________________________________________

    How I'll know if the sheet is working (what does the answer look like?):

    _______________________________________________

    Examples from class: "Am I spending more on groceries than I think?" "Which months are tight?" "Is this side project actually making money?"

    ---

    Step 2: Categories (keep it to 5-6, I mean it)

    You do not need forty categories. You need enough to see a pattern, and no more. "Food" can just be food.

    CategoryCategoryCategory
    1.4.
    2.5.
    3.6. (optional)

    If you wrote more than 6, cross two out right now. Go on, I'll wait.

    ---

    Step 3: Columns you'll actually need

    Most trackers need less than people think. Check the ones that apply to your question:

    • [ ] Date
    • [ ] Category (from Step 2)
    • [ ] Amount
    • [ ] Description / note
    • [ ] Running total (formula, not retyped)
    • [ ] Something else specific to you: _______________

    ---

    Step 4: One formula you're adding today

    Pick ONE. You can add more later, but today, one is plenty.

    • [ ] SUM (add up a column)
    • [ ] SUMIF (add up a column, but only rows matching a category)
    • [ ] Simple running total (this row + row above)
    • [ ] Other: _______________

    Write the formula here before you type it into the sheet:

    =_______________________________________________

    If it breaks, that's fine. That's actually the plan. Broken formulas on screen are how you learn what teh thing is doing.

    ---

    Step 5: Autosave check

    Stop. Go look at the top of your screen or the file menu right now.

    • [ ] Autosave is ON.

    I'm not asking, I'm telling. Do this before you type one more formula. I learned this lesson via a cup of apple juice and a keyboard and twenty minutes of lost work, you don't have to learn it that way too.

    ---

    Step 6: The one-idea chart (optional today, do it if there's time)

    If you're adding a chart, it should answer ONE question, not five. If you need a paragraph to explain your chart, it's not a chart, it's a puzzle.

    My chart shows: _______________________________________________

    The obvious, boring point it makes: _______________________________________________

    If the point is boring and obvious, good. That's the chart working.

    ---

    Before you leave

    • [ ] I answered my real question in Step 1
    • [ ] I have 5-6 categories, not 40
    • [ ] Autosave is on
    • [ ] I typed at least one formula that worked (or broke honestly, and I know why)

    Take a picture of this page or take the paper home. Not everything has to live in the sheet, some of this is just for your brain. My birthday reminders live in a paper notebook and I do this for a living, so.

    • C
  • HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — The Stuff That Always Goes Wrong

    Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — The Stuff That Always Goes Wrong

    Okay sooo, every class I've taught, these same 8-10 things come up. Every single time. So instead of us all discovering them separately, here they are up front. Print this, tape it near your desk, whatever works.

    ---

    1. "My formula shows the formula, not the answer." You typed it into a cell that's formatted as Text instead of General/Number. Fix: change the cell format, then re-enter the formula. Just retyping it in the same cell won't work, you have to fix the format first.

    2. "I typed a formula and got #REF! or #VALUE!" Something the formula points to got deleted, moved, or isn't a number. Click the cell, look at what it's actually referencing (the colored boxes when you double-click), and check that those cells still have what you expect. Nine times out of ten it's a fromula pointing at a column that got deleted.

    3. "I sorted my table and now everything's scrambled." This is the classic. Casey did this to me the first time I taught him and he still brings it up like it's my fault. You sorted one column without selecting the whole table, so the row relationships broke. Undo immediately (Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z) before you do anything else. Going forward: select your whole table, or better, use "format as table" first so sorting knows to grab everything together.

    4. "I lost 20 minutes of work." Turn on autosave. I mean it. I learned this lesson because a toddler dumped apple juice on my keyboard mid-formula and autosave was off, and I lost real work. Google Sheets autosaves by default. In Excel, save to OneDrive and turn AutoSave on at the top. Do this today, not after it happens to you.

    5. "My chart looks like a plate of spaghetti." You're trying to show too many things at once. A chart should make one point obvious, not require a paragraph of explanation. Pick the one comparison you actually care about and chart just that. Everything else can wait for a second chart.

    6. "Copying a formula gave me wrong numbers in other rows." Usually a missing dollar sign. If you want a formula to always point at the same cell no matter where you copy it (like a tax rate in one spot), you need $ in front of the column and row, like $B$2. Without it, the reference "slides" as you copy, which is usually what you want, except when it isn't.

    7. "I have the same number typed in five places and now it's wrong in three of them." This is the retyping trap. If you're ever typing the same value twice, that's a future mistake waiting to happen, you just haven't met it yet. Put the number in one cell and reference it everywhere else with a formula.

    8. "My budget has 40 categories and I gave up in February." Not a formula problem, a design problem, but I see it constantly. Five or six categories is plenty. "Food" can just be food. A rough number you'll actually keep beats a precise one you'll abandon.

    9. "VLOOKUP won't find something that's clearly there." Check for extra spaces or mismatched formatting (a number stored as text won't match a real number). Also, VLOOKUP only looks to the right of your search column by default. Somebody argued with me once that it can't look left at all, that part's not quite true, but real talk, it's annoying enough that I usually just rearrange my columns instead of fighting it.

    10. "It worked yesterday and now it's just... broken." Check if a row or column got deleted or inserted somewhere upstream. This shifts everything and breaks references in ways that aren't obvious right away. Ctrl+Z as far back as you can stand, then rebuild carefully from there.

    ---

    When in doubt: undo first, panic never. Most of this stuff is fixable in under a minute once you know what you're looking at.

    • C
  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —and I told her, I said that's not a spreadsheet problem, that's a "you built forty categories" problem.

    CASSANDRA: Which, okay, that's real. That's an actual conversation I've had with an actual person.

    JESS: This is Jess, I produce the podcasts for Utah Community Learning, and I'm sitting here with Cassandra Draper, who's teaching Spreadsheets for Everyday Use starting this week. Cassandra, say hi.

    CASSANDRA: Hi. Real talk, I did not think anyone would want a podcast about this but here we are.

    JESS: People love it. Okay so, session one already happened for some of you listening late, but for anyone deciding whether to sign up for the next round, I want to know, who shows up to a spreadsheet class.

    CASSANDRA: Honestly a lot of different people. I always start by asking who's opened a sheet and just typed numbers straight into the boxes, no formulas, nothing. And like two-thirds of the room raises their hand every single time.

    JESS: Is that bad?

    CASSANDRA: It's not bad, it's just, that's the gap. That's where I aim the whole class. Because here's the thing, most people don't actually have a spreadsheet problem. They have a question problem. They open a blank sheet and it's scary because there's no question in it yet. Nothing to build toward.

    JESS: Say more about that.

    CASSANDRA: So instead of "I should make a budget," which is nothing, it's a blank wall, you ask "how much did I spend on groceries in December." That's a real question. Now the sheet has a job.

    JESS: Okay I want an example people can actually use, something a listener could do tonight without taking the class.

    CASSANDRA: Sure. Turn on autosave. Whatever program you're in, go find it, turn it on, right now, pause the podcast if you have to.

    JESS: That's it? That's the tip?

    CASSANDRA: That's the tip. I learned this one the hard way. My son Dawson, he was three at the time, dumped apple juice on my keyboard mid-formula and I lost like twenty minutes of work because autosave was off. I wasn't even mad at him, he's three, juice happens. I was mad at myself for betting against a toddler and losing.

    JESS: You were betting against a toddler.

    CASSANDRA: I was betting against a toddler and I lost, and I turn autosave on for people now like it's a public service announcement. Manual saving is you being a hero for no reason. Nobody's giving you a medal.

    JESS: Okay I love that. What else came up in session one that you didn't plan for?

    CASSANDRA: Oh man, someone asked about tracking a side business, like little Etsy thing, and I basically rebuilt the whole live example around that on the spot instead of my usual grocery one. Which, that's kind of how I like to teach anyway. If I know what you actually care about I'll aim the lesson at that instead of some generic thing nobody needs.

    JESS: You do that a lot, don't you, remember what people said and build around it.

    CASSANDRA: I try to. It's not some technique, I just think if you tell me you want to track your side business and then I show you a chart about my grocery spending, that's a waste of your night.

    JESS: Fair. Okay, before we wrap, give me something a little more, I don't know, human. Not a tip, just a story.

    CASSANDRA: Okay so, not gonna lie, this one's a little embarrassing. My birthday and anniversary tracker, it's not even a spreadsheet, it's paper. A little notebook, one page per month. And the March page has this coffee ring on it from years ago, before I had kids, and I have never once redone that page.

    JESS: Why not, you could just recopy it.

    CASSANDRA: I could. But that's just what March looks like now. It's got a coffee ring on it. I don't know, I think there's something in there about not everything needing to be perfect or redone or optimized. Some pages just have a ring on them and that's fine.

    JESS: That's very on brand for someone who tells everybody a rough number you'll actually keep beats a precise one you'll abandon in three weeks.

    CASSANDRA: Yeah, same idea. The notebook's allowed to be messy. That's the sheet working, in a weird way, even though it's not a sheet.

    JESS: Okay, last thing, what's coming up next session so people know what they're walking into.

    CASSANDRA: Next time we're doing formulas that actually save you from yourself, so basically, if you're the type who types the same number into three different cells, we fix that. And I'm bringing in a broken one on purpose. I'll leave a formula pointing at the wrong thing on the screen and we figure out together why it's wrong before I fix it.

    JESS: On purpose.

    CASSANDRA: On purpose. It's more useful watching something break than watching me do it clean the whole time.

    JESS: All right, that's session two, formulas and one broken sheet, on purpose. Cassandra, thanks for doing this.

    CASSANDRA: Thanks for having me. Go turn on autosave.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —wait, say that part again, because I don't think I've ever thought about a spreadsheet that way.

    CASSANDRA: Which part.

    JESS: The "question problem" thing.

    CASSANDRA: Oh yeah. Okay so, here's the thing. Most people think they have a spreadsheet problem. Like, "I don't know Excel," "I'm bad at formulas." But really what's happening is they open a blank sheet and they don't know what they're trying to find out yet. That's why it's scary. It's not the tool, it's that there's no question in it.

    JESS: So what's the fix.

    CASSANDRA: You ask the question first, out loud, before you touch the keyboard. Like "I want to know if I'm spending more on groceries in December than the rest of the year." That's a question. Now you know what columns you need. Blank sheet's just scary because it's got no job yet.

    JESS: Okay that's basically what happened with the nap tracker, right? Tell that one, people loved that one last time I mentioned it.

    CASSANDRA: Oh man, yes. Okay so when Alex was a baby, I was convinced there was a pattern in his naps. Like if I just tracked start time, end time, how fussy he was going down, some kind of schedule would reveal itself and I could plan my whole day around it.

    JESS: Very on brand for you.

    CASSANDRA: Extremely on brand. So I built this whole tracker. Color coded and everything. Weeks of data.

    JESS: And?

    CASSANDRA: Nothing. No pattern. None. Babies do not respect spreadsheets, Jess. They do not care about your columns.

    JESS: 😂

    CASSANDRA: I still have the sheet. I keep it as, like, a monument. A little reminder that sometimes you build the thing and the answer is "there is no answer, this is just chaos, stop looking for structure that isn't there."

    JESS: That's a very expensive lesson for one baby to teach you.

    CASSANDRA: Free labor, that kid. Anyway. That's actually a fine outcome, not gonna lie. That's the sheet working, even when it tells you "nope."

    JESS: Okay give people something they can use today, though. Something they don't need the class for.

    CASSANDRA: Turn on autosave. Right now. Today. Whatever you're using, Sheets, Excel, whatever, go find the autosave setting and turn it on.

    JESS: Is this the apple juice story.

    CASSANDRA: It's the apple juice story. Dawson was three, I was mid-formula, he dumped his cup right on the keyboard, and I lost like twenty minutes of work because autosave was off. I was doing it the old way, hitting save every so often like a hero.

    JESS: You were not a hero.

    CASSANDRA: I was not a hero, I was a person who was about to lose a Saturday. Turned it on that day. Never looked back. It costs you nothing and it saves you from betting against toddlers, spilled drinks, power blips, whatever. You will lose that bet eventually. Just take the bet off the table.

    JESS: Love it. Okay, quick, what's next session, because people are asking me in the parking lot now, which, I don't know if that's a compliment to you or a complaint about me.

    CASSANDRA: 😂 Probably both. Next time we're doing formulas, but real ones, not the scary kind. Just, if you're typing the same number into ten cells, we're gonna fix that, because that's ten future mistakes waiting to happen. You just haven't met them yet.

    JESS: Ominous.

    CASSANDRA: A little. Bring a laptop if you've got one, and honestly bring a real problem you've got. Doesn't have to be fancy. Grocery spending, a side hustle, whatever you're already keeping track of badly on paper or in your head.

    JESS: Because she will build the example around your actual life, listeners, this is not a bit.

    CASSANDRA: It's not a bit. I did it for someone's soap business last session, I'll do it for your thing too.

    JESS: Alright. See everybody Thursday.

    CASSANDRA: See you Thursday. Bring snacks, we take a real break halfway through, I don't do marathon sessions, that's not how my brain works.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —and I'm pretty sure that's the third person who's asked you to fix their sign-up sheet this month.

    CASSANDRA: It's a problem. Not gonna lie, I can't say no to a messy sheet. It's like seeing a crooked picture frame.

    JESS: Okay so for people just joining us, this is episode three of Spreadsheets for Everyday Use, and last session was categories and budgets, right?

    CASSANDRA: Yeah, categories and why you don't need forty of them. Five or six is plenty. Food can just be food.

    JESS: That is apparently controversial. I got a comment about that.

    CASSANDRA: 😂 I know. People want to build the perfect system on day one and then abandon it by week three because it's too much upkeep. A rough number you'll actually keep beats a precise one you quit on. That's the whole opinion.

    JESS: Okay real talk, tell the story you told me before we started recording. The Relief Society one.

    CASSANDRA: Oh man, okay. So this was a while back, an activity at church, and I offered to make a sign-up sheet. Just a simple one, who's bringing what.

    JESS: Simple.

    CASSANDRA: That's what I said too. And within like twenty minutes I've got tabs. I've got a tab for supplies, a tab for who's driving, conditional formatting so if a slot's full it turns gray. I cannot help myself, it just happens.

    JESS: And then?

    CASSANDRA: And then three different women came up to me before the night was even over asking if I could make one for their thing. One was a carpool schedule, one was a fundraiser, I don't even remember the third. I just remember thinking, I did not sign up to become the spreadsheet lady of this ward, and also, yeah, I kind of am now.

    JESS: It's a good problem to have though.

    CASSANDRA: It is. It's also exhausting, ha. But here's the thing, that sheet worked because it answered an actual question people had, which was "what's still needed and who's bringing it." That's it. That's the whole design goal. People overthink this part.

    JESS: Okay so let's give listeners something they can use today, even if they never take the class.

    CASSANDRA: Yes. Okay. Turn on autosave. Just go do it right now if you haven't.

    JESS: This is the apple juice story, isn't it.

    CASSANDRA: It's the apple juice story. Dawson was three, I was mid-formula on the household budget, and he dumped his cup right on the keyboard. I lost twenty minutes of work because autosave was off and I hadn't saved in a while.

    JESS: Twenty minutes doesn't sound like much.

    CASSANDRA: It doesn't, until you're staring at a blank formula bar trying to remember exactly what you typed and why. I turned autosave on that same day and I have preached it to literally everyone since. In Google Sheets it's just on by default, which I love. In Excel you've got to dig for it a little, there's a toggle up top when you're saved to OneDrive. Either way, go check. Don't be a hero about saving, you will lose eventually, either to a toddler or your own forgetfulness, and it's the same result.

    JESS: 🙌 Okay, autosave. Everyone go check right now, we'll wait.

    CASSANDRA: 😂 I mean, keep listening, but yeah.

    JESS: So what's coming up next session? People want to know if they should bring anything.

    CASSANDRA: Bring a real question you have. That's genuinely the assignment. Next time we're doing charts, and my whole thing with charts is one idea per chart, not five. If you need a paragraph to explain what your chart is showing, it's not a chart anymore, it's a puzzle, and nobody wants to solve a puzzle to find out you spent too much in December.

    JESS: Wait, is that a real example.

    CASSANDRA: It is a real example. I spent an entire Saturday building this beautiful chart of our grocery spending by month, colors, labels, the whole thing, so proud of it. Showed Casey. He looked at it for about four seconds and said "okay so we spend a lot in December."

    JESS: That's it?

    CASSANDRA: That's it. And I said yes. That's the chart working. It wasn't supposed to be a revelation, it was supposed to be obvious at a glance, and it was. Boring is the goal with charts. If it's dramatic you probably built it wrong.

    JESS: I love that you were disappointed the chart worked.

    CASSANDRA: For like a second, yeah. Then I got over it.

    JESS: Okay, bring a real question, next time is charts, one idea each, keep it boring.

    CASSANDRA: That's the tagline. Keep it boring on purpose.

    JESS: Alright, we'll catch everyone at the next session. Cassandra, thanks.

    CASSANDRA: Thanks Jess. Go turn on autosave.

Practice corner

6 quizzes and 2 games — playable by anyone, no account needed.

Open the practice corner →