Geek Help?

[purejuice]

I want to make an updatable computer document of botanical info. It would be plants used by Pueblo indians, Navajo and Apache, both Mescalero and Chiricua. Each entry would have perhaps seven or eight components I'd like to have on a horizontal layout listed under column headings, such as Spanish name, Native name, usage, and so on.

I want it to be alphabetical, and I want the software to do the alphabetizing such that the laboriously entered info in the eight or so horizontal cells, ie., usage, Spanish name, etc., moves with the name of the plant as alphabetized by the computer. Excel does not do this reliably, or I don't know how to.

I think Excel, with all its math capabilities, may be way too complicated to learn for this simple problem.

What program (for Mac) should I be using? I am unable to get whatever that faux Excel freeware for Mac is to work for me, to get it out of read only mode, etc. The tutorials on all of them are useless. I'm looking for something that's the lowest tech solution. Got any suggestions? Thanks.

Comments

[the-macnab.livejournal.com]

Excel does this reliably once you know how, and it isn't hard to learn. I have OpenOffice on my computer rather than Microsoft Office, but they work almost exactly the same for this.

Assume you have a spreadsheet open. The first row has your column names (Spanish Name, Native Name, Usage and So On) and each row beneath is an entry:


First, click on the empty rectangle to the left of the "A" Column and above the "1" row. This will select the entire spreadsheet. (You can also press CTRL+A for "select all"):


Next, hold down CTRL and click on the "1" that labels the first row. This deselects the first row, leaving the rest of the spreadsheet selected:


Why have you done this? When you ask Excel or any spreasheet program to sort data in a spreasheet, it will sort the selected data. If no data are specifically selected, it assumes that you just want the entire spreadsheet sorted. This is a problem for you, because you don't want it to treat your column names as just another entry; you want them to stay at the top. But you do want the entirety of a row to move when you sort--you don't want, say, just the native names to be alphabetized while the rest of the data stays in place. When you click on a row or column label in Excel (I mean the numerals naming the rows or the letters naming the columns), you select that entire row or column. By selecting the entire spreadsheet and then deselecting the row with the column titles, you are effectively selecting every entire row except the one with those titles. That's what you want to sort.

With that done, go to "Data" and choose "Sort":


Choose which column you want to sort by and how you want it sorted. Right now the data are sorted by Spanish Name, in ascending order (i.e., A-Z rather than Z-A). Say that you wanted to sort by Native Name instead. Choose "Column B" from the drop-down menu and leave "Ascending" selected:


Now click "OK":


Voila: Things are alphabetized by Native Name, and you can verify that all of the data moved along with the native names:


HTH

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

As an aside... Wow. It's really nice for you to do this for her :-)

Kindess is pretty :-)

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

you're adorable, thank you so much.

[pomo-drunkard.livejournal.com]

Nicely done. I would further add that, at least in Excel, if you've Frozen the top row, it will show up in the "Sort By" as "Spanish Name/Native Name/Usage/So On" rather than "Column A/B/C/D."

Add, I would add, a Google Spreadsheet automatically freezes the top row, assuming that most everyone is going to want to set up their spreadsheet in this way. Google Spreadsheet also has a dropdown thing in the frozen column that allows you to do a quick sort, either by alphabetical A-Z or alphabetical Z-A.

[the-macnab.livejournal.com]

I figure that freezing the top row is an additional step that, unless you know how the sort works in the first place, obscures what's going on.

I like that Google does it that way. I still don't recommend their spreadsheets to people because, especially if you're dealing with a non-web-savvy audience, figuring out how to access a Google spreadsheet and "cloud computing" more generally is more confusing than just emailing someone a file. And if you're going to email someone a Google spreadsheet, then you're probably going to export it as Excel. Et cetera.

I think of Excel as a ladder that most people have to climb in order to kick away.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

thank you.

omigod I love people

[oneroom.livejournal.com]

Hooray!