MS Excel Spreadsheet Logbook?

[slotperfect 7]

OK,

Which of you MS Excel Wizards has created an elaborate spreadsheet for use as a logbook to track your jumps?

I am currently using Skylog shareware which is OK, but I would like to be easier to sort the data.

I still use paper logbooks as well, but having it on the computer makes it easier to look up specific numbers like how many jumps I had on a particular canopy.

Arrive Safely

John

[mnealtx 0]

Something like this?

Enter the data for your last jump (jump number and total freefall time at least) and it'll go from there and track it. Enter initial total freefall time, and subsequent freefall time in the format hh:mm:ss (must put zeros for hours, etc.)

Searchable by canopy type, a/c type and jump type.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[linestretch 0]

ok, so how do you extract exactly how many jumps say you have on a specefic canopy? I played with it, and it won't show the number, it just hides all the other jumps that DON'T have it.

my pics & stuff!

[mnealtx 0]

As an example...

You've got 20 jumps on a Sabre 2 210, and 15 jumps on a Sabre 2 190. You enter those jumps into the database.

Now, you want to figure out how many jumps you did on the 190.

Click the arrow in the "Canopy" field and select Sabre 2 190 from the drop down (it will show all the different values you have put into that column). It will filter the entries and only show the jumps with the 190. Count the number of rows.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[linestretch 0]

yeah, it's the counting I was hoping the spreadsheet would do automaticaly. Say you want to know how may freefly jumps you did, but they are here and there spread out through thousands of tandems and videos......that's a lot of counting....you follow?

my pics & stuff!

[kelel01 1]

Well, you could always sort it by type of jump - then you wouldn't have to "count", so much as do a simple subtraction problem.

Example - if "freefly" (once sorted) runs from line 1005 to line 1569, you've done 565 freefly jumps (b/c if 1005 and 1569 actually are freefly jumps, you need to count both of them, so subtract 1004).

[JumpHog 0]

Try this one out. I set it up to keep track of the total number of jumps on a specific canopy, though I also added aircraft. If you look at the formulas, you should be able to change it around to fit your needs. Let me know if you have any questions.

[linestretch 0]

but it doesn't work that way. I may do 7 tandems one day, 10 team jumps the next day, 15 freefly during the next week, and then back to work/team jumps the following weekend. So to try and just find out what freefly jumps I've done, the math would be way too time consuming. The set up that Jumphog has is more like it. You get a running total as you go. Now, just the thought of putting 4400+ jumps on a spreadsheet seems like a LOT of work....he he

my pics & stuff!

[Stumpy 256]

There are some other cleer tricks you can use as well, pivot tables, macros and stuff. if it wasn't 3 o'clock in the morning i would try and come up with something flash but i'll have a play next week hopefully!

Never try to eat more than you can lift

[murrays 0]

Quote

As an example...

You've got 20 jumps on a Sabre 2 210, and 15 jumps on a Sabre 2 190. You enter those jumps into the database.

Now, you want to figure out how many jumps you did on the 190.

Click the arrow in the "Canopy" field and select Sabre 2 190 from the drop down (it will show all the different values you have put into that column). It will filter the entries and only show the jumps with the 190. Count the number of rows.

I would add a column with the numeral 1 in each row. Then I would go to Data - Subtotals - and tell it to subtotal at each change in canopy type and to subtotal the column with the 1's in it...no need to count.

The data sorting and subtotaling features will allow you to do lots of things. Just save before you sort and don't save again if you fuck up a sort of your list of jumps.

In order for it to work properly, be sure to copy names, canopy types, etc from previous entries...that way Excel won't think think there are more than one place/canopy, etc if you have a slight difference in spelling.

The Autofilters feature is also very cool. Just click in the list and then turn it on....allows you to sort very easily using drop down lists.

Edited to add...You could also use SUMIF or even COUNTIF to track types of jumps, types of canopy, jumps at a dz, etc. If you wanted, you could put a bunch of formulas at the top of the logbook worksheet or on another worksheet altogether. This would allow you to have a running total of tandem jumps, freefly, video, etc.

=countif("freefly",E2:E5000)
=countif("tandem",E2:E5000)

E being the column for Type of Jump.

There are times when it would be informative to sort lists but this would give you running totals as soon as you enter the data for your latest jumps.

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[Capt36 6]

> just the thought of putting 4400+ jumps on a spreadsheet seems like a LOT of work....


Backup, backup often, store backup on different media, put the media elsewhere, in case 'shit happens'...
Remember to pour a drink, before plunging into the project...You don't want to dehydrate too much....
Also, remember Visine, for the eyes..
Enjoy the results.....

Practice random acts of kindness, and senseless beauty...

And, give money for Mr Douglas! www.mrdouglas.org

[Eule 0]

IMHO: If you want your jump log to just be a quick summary of your jumps, doing it in Excel, one line per
jump, is cheap, quick, and easy. Once you start asking questions like "how many jumps did I do on
Tuesdays in 2005 that were on a Sabre2 and not in Deland", you need a relational database. The database
will let you ask all kinds of goofy questions, and you can have it automatically count the totals, or give a
list of the relevant jumps, or whatever. But it does take more work to set up, and to provide with a
"pretty" interface that non-geeks can use.

Also, I haven't used it, but Paralog might do what you want. It does seem to have some of the query
and reporting facilities of a relational database. The things I would want to know about Paralog are what
format it actually stores its data in (text files? database backend? undocumented binary soup?) and how
quickly it runs - it's written in Java and in my past experience, this might be a problem if I want to log more
than one jump a week. :)

Eule

PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

[Merkur 1]

If you look at this http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=61040;
you see the front pae of my excell logbook giving me counts for each canopy and each plane I jumped.
Do do the formulas you have to be accruate in writing the names: sabre 2 is a diffferent canopy than sabre2 for example.
If you want to sort by other things, you could add a column for work/fun, one for RW/Freefly/CRW/Base...
And then come up with a formula to count it (I use "if"-clauses checking the cell, and then for rxample add 1 for RW and 0 in the other counts if the cell has "RW" in it.
M.

vSCR No.94
Don't dream your life - live your dream!

[scottbre 0]

Here's mine. It keeps track of accumulated time, and jump numbers automatically. And is configurable to keep track of the kinds of jumps that you've done so that you can have a quick reference at the top of the sheet of how many camera, freefly, rw, etc, jumps that you've done.


The "jump No." and "Total Time to Date" columns will update automatically, as you fill in the other columns for each jump.

[Squeak 17]

I just use Access Database, set up a form and to find out anything you want you just filter for it.

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[980 0]

OK

I've looked at all the other Excel logbooks posted and I can say that I have a more advanced version that tracks many different parameters and keeps running totals of all of them.

The problem is that it is totally BASE specific, as I like to track a lot more data on my basejumps than on skydives.

Graphing is easy to add too.

If it sounds like more your cup of tea, let me know and I'll rework it to be skydive friendly.

Should only take me a few days to get around to it.

• Quote

[jheadley 0]

I've got spreadsheets that track exit altitude, deployment altitude, distance traveled in freefall, distance traveled under canopy, what planes I jump out of, what dropzones I jump at, what canopies I jump, and also what types of jumps I make (RW small group, RW large group, freefly, RW video, CRW video, etc.), and probably some other things that I've forgotten... They're not fancy formulas or anything, though.

[mnealtx 0]

Quote

yeah, it's the counting I was hoping the spreadsheet would do automaticaly. Say you want to know how may freefly jumps you did, but they are here and there spread out through thousands of tandems and videos......that's a lot of counting....you follow?

I could've done all that...but I literally put that together in 10 minutes. If I was worried about all the relational sorting, I'd do it in access.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[ChrisL 2]

I actually created my own on-line logbook using MySQL database server, an apache web server, and a web browser front end I wrote in PHP.

The main page contains dynamically created totals for jump number and freefall time.

The database is searchable by single or multiple criteria, etc

I can access and update my logbook from any internet connected computer

__

My mighty steed

[Eule 0]

Quote

I actually created my own on-line logbook using MySQL database server, an apache web server,
and a web browser front end I wrote in PHP.

Hooray LAMP!

Any chance you'd share some of the details? I'm not talking about the data for your jumps, but instead
the database schema, PHP code, etc. As you might guess, I think this is a way better idea than Excel,
at least from the standpoint of features and good design. It probably kind of falls over on the "usable by
non-geeks" score, but you can't have everything.

If you'd rather not, that's cool, but asking is free.

Eule

PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

[phoenixlpr 0]

Quote

I actually created my own on-line logbook using MySQL database server, an apache web server, and a web browser front end I wrote in PHP.

If you have a hammer, everything start looking like a nail.

[ChrisL 2]

Quote

Quote

I actually created my own on-line logbook using MySQL database server, an apache web server,
and a web browser front end I wrote in PHP.

Hooray LAMP!

Any chance you'd share some of the details? I'm not talking about the data for your jumps, but instead
the database schema, PHP code, etc. As you might guess, I think this is a way better idea than Excel,
at least from the standpoint of features and good design. It probably kind of falls over on the "usable by
non-geeks" score, but you can't have everything.

If you'd rather not, that's cool, but asking is free.

Eule

LAMP??

I dont get it :-)

It actually very easy to use by anyone.
Its just not something that is easily set up unless you happen to run your own web server and database server and have some development skills ;-)

I'm more than happy to share, but I wont bore the forum with the details. PM sent

__

My mighty steed

[phoenixlpr 0]

LAMP is stands for Linux Apache MySQL PHP/Perl

[ChrisL 2]

Quote

LAMP is stands for Linux Apache MySQL PHP/Perl

Ah hah! Well, actually its not running on Linux.
Its running on FreeBSD

So I guess its FAMP

__

My mighty steed