Computersight -

Progress Chart — Part 4

 By creating a graph showing our target reading level for the whole time and our actual progress we have an excellent idea of where we stand with regard to achieving our goal. By adding an extra graph, or two, showing where we should be at an advanced position in time, say one week and two weeks time, we can see how far ahead we actually are. By being ahead of schedule we take some of the pressure off our daily work load. We give ourselves a breathing space.

 In the last Part we saw how we could highlight cells which fulfil certain criteria. We also found that we could perform calculations, or omit them, depending upon certain conditions. In this, the final part, we will create a graph showing us this information in a format which will be quick and easy to digest.

Here we have our spreadsheet in use. The only thing left to do, once we have set up our graph will be to fill in our progress in column E each time we read. If we need to omit a day for any reason we can read on one of the non-reading days to catch up.

 Now is the time to set up our graph. We may want to have graphs for a week in advance. In this example I have added two extra graphs, one for a week in advance and one for two weeks in advance.

 In order to get the figures for the two extra graphs I ave selectedcolumns AE and AF. In cell AE7  place the formula: [=IF(OR(D7=0,D7>C$3),0,D7+G$4*R$3)] and in cell AF7 [=IF(OR(D7=0,D7>C$3),0,AE7+G$4*R$3)]

EXPLANATION:  So that the figures stop at the point where the end of the book has been reached, we add the options for D7 generating 0 if those two conditions are met.

To calculate where the target will be a week later we multiply the daily target by the nuber of reading days in a week G4 x R3.

 Cells AE8 and AF8 have

[=IF(OR(AE7=0,AE7>C$3),0,D8+G$4*R$3)] and

[=IF(OR(AF7=0,AF7>C$3),0,AE8+G$4*R$3)]

and these will be dragged down to fill cells AE7 to AF200.

 Now, to get our graph, we select columns D7 to E97; AE7 to AE90 and AF7 to AF83 then go to ‘Insert’ in the menu bar and choose ‘Chart’.

Choose ‘Lines’ and one from the top row of examples and click on ‘Next’, ‘Next’, ‘Next’ and’ Finish’.

 If you have understood all this, and made up your sheet you can copy this sheet as many times as you like. On each sheet all you need to change will be ‘Start Date’ ‘Target Date’ and ‘No of Pages’

When creating your chart (graph) select the length of columns to suit the particular book length.