Excel Nerd Post

So in my (unwanted) hiatus from my desktop computer, I've started to revamp my Excel sim tracking file.  It's ridiculous how much I love to track my sim and neighbourhood stat.  And of course as I go, I'm always learning something new.  But now, I'm running into some...problems.

1) Nothing on my main sims page can actually be sorted because once I try, it messes up the formulas that count the totals (like sims by age group, gender, interests, etc).

The purple columns are my hidden columns that do my calculations to report to my summary page.  When I try to sort, it messes up my calculation for the purple columns.  This is just one section of them for this page.  While trying to be efficient (and also heralding my laziness), I use the titles in the calculations as well as the source for drop down lists for other columns.  I want to be able to sort the other information but leave the purple columns alone.

2) Trying to get the maximum of a column and report who this maximum value belongs to.  Currently, it gives me the maximum value in the column and then the lowest name in the name column.

A - "=MAX(D:D)"  Makes perfect sense, look in column D and look for the largest number.  It does that part fine

B - "=LOOKUP(C90,D:D,J:J)" And apparently this is where I went wrong somehow.  I'm trying to tell it do is to look at the result from formula A, find that row, and report the first name in the row.  Liam quite obviously is not right.  He's only at 118 not 226.

The result I'm looking for is for the "LOOKUP" to pull up Laurel's name.  Maybe I need to find a better forumla but I don't know what it is yet.

3) Other issue, getting formulas to could things without including the values of dead sims.  I found a work around for now, seen in the first picture.  See the "ma" and "fa" results?  I just wanted to be able to count the amount of males alive and the amount females alive.

Other things I'd like to do:

• On another page, pull out the sims who are in a specific career track so they can be nice and orderly on another page.  I have something similar working with the sim owned business, since apparently they now have a "Business License"
• I'm really starting to consider having a search page but that seems like it will take quite some time to figure out how to make that work
• Condense the amount of pages I have in the file.  Do I really need 15 pages?  I so need to learn how to condense.
• Seriously tweek the much nicer version of the sims page with the pictures so that if I change the info on one page, it will automatically update the other one.

No this is not an update

This is a cleverly (or not so cleverly) hidden note to myself and anyone else who might be able to help me.

My computer has decided to give up the ghost on Saturday that just passed.  From my friend's assessment via the phone, the motherboard has crashed which may or may not mean my hard drive will have to be reformatted, possibly before I get anything off of it.

Some of the sims I actually did save some of my sims previously (I wish I had managed to get a lot more).

Adam Winchester (already dead), Annie Winchester (dead), Benjamin Winchester, Bethany McCarthy (dead), Brandon McCarthy (dead), Cheryl Winchester, Catherine Thayer, Chris McCarthy, Christina Zappa, Craig McCarthy, Drake Thayer, Holly Bendett and Maddie McCarthy, Jaanai Ross, Laurel Chalmers, Rachael Chalmers, Teneesha Ross, Damien Ross, Davis Chalmers, the Li family (not including the new baby Liam)

I'm missing some of my favorites like Carrie and AJ, Claudio and the new baby on the way (baby never got a chance to even be born in game)

At the very least, I have my tracking system established, which I really like.  I'm planning on keeping the Maxis Match-ish hair

Bodyshop:
Eyes: Jess the Ex from LJ
Skintone: Pooklet, the one with like 55 shades

Objects:
BV Travel Photos with the multiple sizes
Posters from either base, Uni or NL that have slid down the wall
Blakeboy's Modular Sofas

Hacks Needed:
Stuff from Simlogical, which I believe has closed now.
Cyjon Hacks
Pescado's Hacks from MATY
InSimenator
Sim Blender (I need a link for this one because apparently the site is convinced that this computer has a virus and refuses to let me in)
InTeen
ACR
New College Scholarships by jfade@MATY (new to me)
Look at Me Hack by maybesomethingdunno @MTS
Freezer Clock by Treeag @MTS
Greener Grass Mod
Posebox List

I'm going to have to go on Custom Content Hunt (yay for being able to start from scratch for the downloads folder).

Does anyone know if it's safe to put Bodyshop items like skintones and eyes (both genetic and default) in the Saved Sims folder?

Any suggestions for good facial templates?  Not necessarily too far off the Maxis templates by the face with the nose squashed against the face that is almost as wide as the face has to go!

There is some one out there on either LJ or DW (or maybe even blogger) that has a vast collection of neighbourhood objects but I can't remember who (not criquette from MTS).  Anyone know where to find it?

So the big question is, if the Winchester Isle is gone, should I start a completely new neighbourhood or try to come up with a plausible reason why a neighbourhood of 88 sims has been downgraded to 19 sims with majority of the children sims completely gone.

Thanks for your help Carla

UPDATE:
I was able to check my iPod and found that I do have a copy of Winchester Isle from April, including downloads, camera configurations and userstartup.cheats.  Just have to wait until the computer can get fixed.  I'm going to have to redo some work like changing my default and genetic skins and eyes again and changing the skintones and eyes of certain sims to work with it.  Less work for later :D