I have created an Excel 97 spreadsheet which I an using to record all of my census data that I have on paper. I like having electronic copies of records for ease of manipulation, transport and backup. The spreadsheet would also be very useful for those of you who take a laptop to your local FHC for data entry. I have posted offers to e-mail a copy to anyone interested on several lists and the response has been overwhelming. In the past 3-4 days I've sent over 500 copies. That tells me that there are a lot of people like me who have piles of census data and no good way of organizing it. The spreadsheet I created is bare except for the formatting on each page to match the particular census year data fields. No actual census data is included. I used Excel 97 to create the spreadsheet and I kept it simple so it should be compatible with most any recent spreadsheet software out there. One lesson learned so far. Excel 97 uses multiple worksheets, like pages of a book. Previous versions of Excel did not support sheets. You will need a spreadsheet program as least as recent as Excel 97. I have tried opening my spreadsheet with my copy of MS Works 5 and it does not work. I don't know about Works 6. I have received reports that Quattro Pro 8 works great. The spreadsheet has a separate page for each census year from 1790-1920, as well as Soundex pages for 1880-1920...great for tracking a single family through the years. Most of the pages will print on standard 8.5" x 11" paper. To get 1880-1920 to fit though I had to format in 8.5" x 14". Being able to print though was not really the point of the spreadsheet though since I already have my data on paper. I have also typed up a short text file detailing the page set-up parameters for each spreadsheet page for ease of printing. I plan to make a separate copy of the spreadsheet for each family branch that I have census data for. That way I can document a particular family over 130 years in a single spreadsheet. I'm sure there are other possible uses for the imaginative out there. One person commented that the spreadsheet provides a very professional appearing output for use in a family history publication. I'll file that hint away. There's nothing fancy about how I created the spreadsheet...no macros etc. So it would be easy to change the layout to suit your particular needs. The spreadsheet is 108Kb and compresses to a 19Kb zip file. The accompanying text file is just 2Kb. If you would like a copy of the spreadsheet just drop me an e-mail and let me know whether you want it as a zip file or uncompressed. Please don't post a request to this list as they tend to get lost in the shuffle. I've sent out hundreds of copies so far and those who have used the spreadsheet have been unanimous in their favorable comments. I have been helped countless times on various lists by people generous with their time and expertise. I'm happy to pay back those kindnesses in this small way. Gary Minder [email protected] _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com