I love spreadsheets. And nothing warms my heart more than witnessing two spreadsheets come together in harmonious information-rich bliss. One of my favorite spreadsheet love stories occurred this Fall while playing matchmaker for a local DC school.
The Situationship
The school needed to create class schedules for hundreds of students. Each student had to be placed in a homeroom and six class periods. How could they effectively confirm that every student was placed in every class period?
The Schedule spreadsheet needed to start a relationship with the Roster spreadsheet. But how could we get Schedule and Roster to meet?
How it Started
The spark was ImportRange. ImportRange pulls the contents of one spreadsheet into another. With one simple formula, the entire Roster displayed in a tab in the Schedule spreadsheet.
You may be wondering, “Why not just copy/paste the Roster?” We wanted to honor that Roster was its own spreadsheet that needed the freedom to change. By using ImportRange, the most updated version of Roster was always available as a live feed of data into Schedule. This is critical to ensure their relationship doesn’t grow stale.
How it’s Going
With the two spreadsheets joined together, a beautiful relationship blossomed. In the Roster spreadsheet, we can easily count how many times each student appeared on the various tabs of the schedule. In a matter of minutes, the school can quickly identify which students do not have a completed schedule.
That is the story of how Schedule met Roster, and the rest is history (and math, science, gym, art, languages, and homeroom).
Happy Ever After
Do you wish two spreadsheets could be joined together? openbox9 has been playing matchmaker for our clients’ data for years. We help good organizations connect with donors, volunteers, advocates, and hill staffers. Drop us a line and browse our case studies and snapshots to see how our artists and strategists can help you make connections.
