Spreadsheet Surprise

I found a short, but interesting article HERE that really gave me some quick ideas on how to go beyond the gradebook in using Excel in an English classroom. One way that didn't occur to me at all was to use it as a way to teach grammar, using Excel to build a dictionary of the different parts of speech, creating cells for the words and definitions as we learn them, and then it would be a running master list for review at the end of the year. Also, it is an easy way to keep track of number of pages read or poems memorized. Perhaps a chart taped to the wall would work as well, though, and I am not sure how one is better than the other. Except that a spreadsheet can be emailed to a parent and kids can access it when they aren't in the classroom. This could be really helpful over the summertime, creating a reading goal as a class for over the summer, and a spreadsheet is a way to track pages read even when the class isn't together. Another great idea is to use it to build a list of authors, tracking their birth and death dates and what their ages were when they wrote their texts. Then, Excel can make a chart or graph with that information and it could be really interesting to note a pattern of when most authors started writing, wrote the most, or were the most successful. This would be a great paper assignment, having the student take a look at when the author wrote the most or least and then do some research into their lives to try to make a connection as to what might have caused more or less writing in their lives.
These are wonderful ideas, but I am a little intimidated by the process of building another spreadsheet. I am so grateful for the wonderful instructions that walked me through the process of building a grading template, but there are still so many questions I have? How can I create a spreadsheet that will take into account all the different types of grades they receive? And I have no idea how to do charts and graphs. But, thank goodness for google. I am sure I will be able to find anwers to my questions as I go. The instructions helped me so much in simply learning how to navigate through the cells and functions. It was great. Now, if I can use it set up a budget!