| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Media Issues > Topic: Excel Use in the Writing World |
Topic: Excel Use in the Writing World
| Author | Message |
| CaliforniaWriter | Posted – 4/8/2008 7:51:27 PM | show profile I'm wondering if anyone can clarify something for me. As a freelance writer, I've always worked at home. But I'm now thinking about taking on part time or full time work in an office. While scanning the classifieds, I see many employers need someone who is experienced in Excel. Now, I use Excel at home for my bills, etc. (things that involve math), but can someone tell me how it is normally used in the writing world? I did have an editor send me a matrix with a variety of possible writing topics. Is that about the normal use for Excel? Or does it get much trickier than that? If so, I may have to learn some new Excel skills. Thanks! |
| Upward Bound | Posted – 4/8/2008 9:07:41 PM | show profile I mostly use it as a simpler way to create tables than Word offers. I do use the sum function from time to time to track page counts or to track a freelance budget, but that's easy enough. I've also worked on a project using drop down menus in various cells, but the help files can probably talk you through that fairly easily and that was a special case anyway. I think they're just looking for someone who won't run away screaming if faced with an excel file. You're fine if you use it for your bills already. |
| Brena | Posted – 4/8/2008 9:45:14 PM | show profile I second Upward Bound. |
| CaliforniaWriter | Posted – 4/8/2008 11:51:47 PM | show profile Whooo... that's a relief. Thank you for your responses. |
| kz | Posted – 4/9/2008 12:40:32 AM | show profile | email poster Excel in the publishing world You don't mention what kind of an office you're considering. Having worked in textbook publishing for 5 years, I've seen clients use Excel spreadsheets to log and track permissions issues, photo research, and art and other audio-visual assets. |
| chucho | Posted – 4/9/2008 11:04:37 AM | show profile Computer-assisted reporting: http://www.nicar.org/ |
| DHernandez | Posted – 4/9/2008 12:46:04 PM | show profile Same as chucho -- computer-assisted reporting. |
| schmom717 | Posted – 4/11/2008 2:36:10 PM | show profile i have to chime in -- i do pr work in an office obsessed with check lists and labeling files-- they use a media book in excel, (which was news to me) then when you put in the email address of each paper/tv station, it comes up as a link automatically in outlook and you can paste the press release right in (making it easier to send a mass mailing) i haven't yet found out why they insist on labeling the vaious office supplies..... (lol) |
