Super Challenge: questions and discussion

[jeffers]

I made a tracking spreadsheet with a dashboard that sums up challenge progress with charts, and has speedometers to show you if you are on track, behind or ahead. I'm happy for anyone to use it for themselves, to change it all they like, etc.

Here's the link to the file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11VLMjsk5qwZfLjaSKCczm53oHDIPL_XH/view?usp=sharing It will open an online version of the file, which you can download to your own computer. (EDIT: new link to v2)

The timeline at the top will fill up as the challenge progresses. The column charts will show how much of your chosen challenge you have completed in total (and will probably break when you go over 100%). The speedometers are based on a calculation of how much you should have read or watched to date. If you are exactly on target they will point straight up, and if you are double your target or above the needle will be to the right.

You can also change your challenge level using the buttons below each set of charts. They change by 0.5 in the range from 0 to 3.

dashboard example.JPG

To use it for your own challenge just go to the tabs for X books or X films and enter your information. The number from pages/minutes is picked up by the data tab. You can obviously rename the tabs to whatever language(s) you are studying, as well as renaming the labels on the charts. To change labels, just click on them to highlight the label, click on it again to be within the label, and change the text as you please.

I would avoid changing most things on the data sheet. However, if you want to customize the labels on the speedometer just scroll down to that part of the data sheet and put in whatever labels you want.

EDIT: chart titles are now populated automatically. Set your language names in cells A5, A10 and A15, and the rest should work in Excel. No idea what other spreadsheet programs will do with it.

[Lianne]

Thanks, jeffers!! That is such a cool tool! Looks like so far I'm just a tiny bit behind on reading for both my challenges, and I'm in the super range for films for both!

I love the visual, and I also really like the data tab, particularly how it shows the pace you need to keep up from now until the end to reach your goal.

[IronMike]

Hopefully rdearman & Co. will have success with their coding and IT stuff they're doing now.

[rdearman]

I was thinking about adding some metrics like Jeffers has on his spreadsheet, but given all the stuff I have on my plate at the moment...


EDIT: I added the request to the issues on GitHub if anyone would like to have a go themselves!

[MamaPata]

Thank you all for this work - I can't imagine what it must involve!

Also Jeffers, that spreadsheet is gorgeous, I love it! I had a version for the time before last which did give me some metrics, but it was not half as pretty! Switching immediately!

[lingua]

I had written elsewhere that I was able to use Jeffers spreadsheet in LibreOffice if I kept it in the excel format. But, after playing with it for a bit I wouldn't advise it. The behavior is not very stable and it would be easy to mess it up. It also renders a little differently in some places.

[Lianne]

I had written elsewhere that I was able to use Jeffers spreadsheet in LibreOffice if I kept it in the excel format. But, after playing with it for a bit I wouldn't advise it. The behavior is not very stable and it would be easy to mess it up. It also renders a little differently in some places.

It has fancy stuff in it, which always makes spreadsheets hard to move around. Even just in the process of downloading it to my computer and opening it in Excel, I lost the little up and down arrows to choose your challenge level, despite never using anything that wasn't Microsoft Excel on it! *shrugs*

[jeffers]

I had written elsewhere that I was able to use Jeffers spreadsheet in LibreOffice if I kept it in the excel format. But, after playing with it for a bit I wouldn't advise it. The behavior is not very stable and it would be easy to mess it up. It also renders a little differently in some places.

It has fancy stuff in it, which always makes spreadsheets hard to move around. Even just in the process of downloading it to my computer and opening it in Excel, I lost the little up and down arrows to choose your challenge level, despite never using anything that wasn't Microsoft Excel on it! *shrugs*

Yeah, I wouldn't have expected it to work in other systems. Edit: having said that, all of the important information is on the data sheet which should work on any spreadsheet app. "Pres target" is how many pages/minutes you should have logged by the present day, and "% pres" is your progress on that target. If it's 100% or above, you're grand.

However, I'm surprised the buttons didn't work. One solution might be to right click anywhere in the "ribbon" (the area at the top of Excel with all the buttons and tools), choose "customize ribbon" and add in the Developer toolbar. That's where the buttons come from, so it might bring it back.

Alternatively, I've placed a copy of the spreadsheet in my Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CjDEe-vWdMM6wapu60mZ1iBGtZOVCa5o/view?usp=sharing That may work better than sharing via One Drive, which I always find to be a bit "twitchy".

Edit: downloading a copy of the spreadsheet from the Google Drive link worked for me.

[Arnaud]

Edit: downloading a copy of the spreadsheet from the Google Drive link worked for me.

Almost working for me: the button for "French" doesn't work. The two other buttons are working. Strange. Thanks anyway, I'm going to use it.
Edit : LibreOffice on a Debian machine.

[jeffers]

Edit: downloading a copy of the spreadsheet from the Google Drive link worked for me.

Almost working for me: the button for "French" doesn't work. The two other buttons are working. Strange. Thanks anyway, I'm going to use it.

Strange indeed. However, the number for challenge level can be edited manually.