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

[pomo-drunkard.livejournal.com]

I have had fairly good luck with Google Spreadsheets, which is free, and relatively easy to use. If you're expecting that the people you're putting this together for will have internet access, it might be the best way to go.

However, Google Spreadsheets is really easy for me because I know how to use Excel. It's less robust and complicated than Excel, but there will definitely still be a learning curve for it.

[the-sikh-geek.livejournal.com]

Excel should do this pretty easily.

P.S. Have you seen what Cat Yronwode has done with the plant usages in African-Amer folk magic?

[mussare.livejournal.com]

Bento works well for Mac, particularly for the use you're suggesting.

[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

[tuscendi.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that what you described could best be handled by a simple "TABLE" in your word processing software (Word or WordPerfect). No need to resort to Excel (spreadsheets have all those calculating features that are superfluous to your project) and no need to resort to database programs (Paradox, Q&A, etc.) as they are designed to handle many more bits of information for each "record" (e.g., a plant) than you anticipate needing.

In a simple word processing TABLE, The "rows" can be alphabetized by the first word in the first cell, the name of your plant, automatically. The rows will stay alphabetized as you add and subtract plants.

The cells, components you want to list across under the column headings for each plant, would be kept with the row as the row changed position up or down due to the addition or subtraction of a plant row.

Your "header row" -- the one with the column headings -- can be made (with one click in the Tables menu) to repeat at the top of each page automatically. It's really easy.

The cells will expand as needed while you're entering text. You have the benefit of text editing functions of a word processing program. You can drag the guidelines to increase or decrease the width of a column. You can choose typeface, change font size, use bold, italic, color, etc. You can shade rows and cells for emphasis, legitibility, etc.

However, if you decide you'd really like to be able to track sixteen "components" instead of eight, then a word processing table would be unwieldy, in which case you should use a modest relational database program instead.

In no case, in my opinion, is a spreadsheet appropriate. True, it has cells which can be used to organize text, but it's designed to manipulate that information, to calculate, which gives it way more weight and complexity than you have any use for.

[tuscendi.livejournal.com]

But if you ARE going to use Excel, this might come in handy:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=1641&tag=nl.e101