Excel-ling

I have to admit it: Excel used to scare me.
Perhaps it was the spreadsheets filled with numbers and formulas and data that I found so intimidating.

From class last week, however, I discovered that Excel may be beneficial for teachers to create documents that they could use in the classroom.
One application of Excel was in creating a floor plan to organize student desks/table areas.  For someone who has a significant amount of patience, this could be great.  I am not one of those people.  Instead, I would most likely end up frustrated and would prefer to have a pencil and paper in hand to draw my own seating chart.

Grading is another common application of Excel that can help teachers.  Still, though, I feel that there are other programs that may work even better.  Gradekeeper requires a fee, but provides seating charts, grades, and options to weight grades that can help make grading less frustrating and time-consuming.  While Excel is free and potentially able to do those things as well, the use of the countless formulas makes it much less user-friendly.

Even crossword puzzles can be made on Excel, but there are other online resources that produce them faster and much easier.  For Excel crosswords, the teacher must have the crossword already mapped out (and for someone like me who is awful at word games, it may take a while to fit them all in!).  With websites like Puzzle-Maker.com, the teacher only needs to enter the vocabulary that they would like to add along with the clues, and the crossword puzzle is created.  I suppose Excel does offer many other features, such as including various images, text, and graphs, but the speed of other programs may seem more promising.

Excel can also be used to create timelines, which was a feature I never considered.  Still, I find I would be much more inclined to use http://www.tiki-toki.com/, (which I found when searching for Internet Resources).  These timelines are visually pleasing, engaging, and creative.  Comparatively, I would much rather use and view the Tiki-Toki timelines in the classroom to make the content interesting for my students.
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For number-minded people (those involved with math, science, and extensive use of data that needs to be organized), Excel may be the best thing since sliced bread.  Using the many formulas and graphic organizer options may also be helpful for people with differing learning styles.  Even with its numerous applications, I am still hesitant (although no longer afraid!) to use Excel excessively.