# Need Spreadsheet Help



## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

I want to track my blood pressure and heart rate in Calc. The main thing I want is a graph that shows BP over time, with a variable number of readings per day.

Here's my biggest problem: I have several readings a day at random times. If my BP is in normal range, I might have only 2 or 3 readings, but on days when BP is spiking, I might have as many as 12 (or more) readings.

It would be interesting to graph either by systolic, diastolic, or heart rate, but include all 3 values in graph.

Would it make sense to have a separate sheet for each day? 

My thinking is each row would represent a time on a specific date. That would give me a simple record of date, time, systolic, diastolic, heart rate, comment. Then as many rows as I have times for that day.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Do you have a smart phone or a tablet? I think an app would work better for you if you do.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.szyk.myheart&hl=en


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Here is an excel template you start with. https://templates.office.com/en-us/Blood-pressure-tracker-TM10073878


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Just bit info. If you dont have an android device, there are windows and linux emulators you can use to run android apps. 

If you dont have excel, many excel templates will work with other free spreadsheet programs. You most likely will have to rename the template from "xlsx" to just "xls" I had no problem opening above excel template for bloodpressure in Gnumeric spreadsheet in Puppy Linux once I renamed it with xls suffix. Sure it would work fine in LibreOffice spreadsheet too.


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

painterswife said:


> Do you have a smart phone or a tablet? I think an app would work better for you if you do.


I rarely use apps because I rarely use my phone. I've convinced people to email me instead of calling, so sometimes I go a week without even turning my phone on.

I still haven't been able to acclimate to the small screen of cell phones.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

MoonRiver said:


> I rarely use apps because I rarely use my phone. I've convinced people to email me instead of calling, so sometimes I go a week without even turning my phone on.


Well an app can really simplify the info and even present it in ways that makes trends a problems clearer. They even have blood pressure monitors that will sync with your app wirelessly.


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

Here is the one I made with excel, but had to convert to jpg to upload. I made this when my Dr gave me a log to use and it was horrible. He loves this one and I gave him blanks for his other patients.. Hope this helps


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

po boy said:


> Here is the one I made with excel, but had to convert to jpg to upload. I made this when my Dr gave me a log to use and it was horrible. He loves this one and I gave him blanks for his other patients.. Hope this helps


Thanks, but it is really the charting piece that I need help with. I'm not sure the best way to define my records to make it easy to generate reports.

It might be that using a database would be better than a spreadsheet.


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## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

It used to be easier to create graphs in earlier versions of Excel, but you can do it. I do it fairly often.

I have a graph that tracks my PSA numbers.

I also have a spreadsheet (that the PSA graph comes from) that tabulates all of my blood pressure readings, heart rate, weight, and PSA numbers. I get the numbers at various times throughout a year. My data goes back about 10 years.

All you need to do is format column A in the date format that also includes the time of day. (That is one of the choices in formatting a column.) You can also enter a heading in A1 such as "DATE AND TIME".

Then format columns B, C, and D as numbers and label the headers "SYSTOLIC", "DIASTOLIC", and "HEART RATE".

Then enter your data in rows in chronological order. (Or you can let Excel sort them in chronological order.)

Then select with your mouse the whole filled in data set including the headers.

Then click in the top of the sheet "INSERT"---> "CHART" and choose "INSERT LINE CHART".

That should do it.

If you have trouble, email me at [email protected]. If you send me some data (does not have to be your actual numbers) I can probably create the spreadsheet with the graph for you and send it back to your email address as an attachment, which you can save.

Then you can edit and add to it at will. But when you add rows of data, you will just have to reselect the data with your mouse that you want to show in the graph. No big deal.


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

NRA_guy said:


> It used to be easier to create graphs in earlier versions of Excel, but you can do it. I do it fairly often.


Thanks. I made one several years ago to track PSA too. I think your idea of combining date and time may work better than the way I was setting mine up, which was separate columns for date and time.

I got sidetracked on other projects, so haven't got back to working on the spreadsheet.


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## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

OK.

The date format that you probably want to look for is "3/14/12 1:30 PM".

It's in the pull-down list of date format choices.

I've never really used that particular format because the time of day is rarely important in the things I do.

But I experimented with it last night and it seemed to work.

Good luck.


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