A Spreadsheet for the Shared Tool Cupboard

The adult computer class asked students to bring a real problem that a spreadsheet might solve. Greta helped manage a shared tool cupboard in her apartment building. Nobody knew which tools were available, and the paper borrowing book contained several entries that were difficult to read. She brought it to class.

Her first spreadsheet had twenty columns, including colour, weight and date of purchase. It looked impressive but took ages to complete. The tutor asked which questions people actually needed to answer. Greta considered this and removed most of the columns. They mainly needed the tool's name, its location and who had borrowed it.

She practised sorting the list and adding a simple return date. Then a classmate tested it by entering an imaginary loan. He accidentally wrote his name in the tool column. Greta noticed that the headings were too small, so she enlarged them and used clearer words before trying again.

The cupboard committee accepted the new list, but one neighbour preferred paper. Greta printed a weekly copy and explained how to report changes. Her project was less clever than her first version and much easier to use. When the tutor asked what she had learned, she mentioned deleting columns before mentioning any of the computer commands.