Dream Spreadsheets

Introduction

Original Introduction

To paraphrase Jonathan Coveney: The dream spreadsheet for 18xx PBEM would:

Cause changes in the past spreadsheet tabs to flow forward to the future tabs.
Create a new tab with one click.

I have created a large number of spreadsheets that meet this criteria. I have decided to call these spreadsheets “Dream Spreadsheets”.

This page is intended to document how to create and how to use dream spreadsheets. It also contains links to three other pages that talk about specific issues in creating dream spreadsheets. These pages are:

Updated Introduction

An amazing amount has happened in the year since I proposed the concept of dream sheets. The number of dream sheets now exceeds the number of other sheets in my “spreadsheet templates” folder.
And other non dream sheet, but still highly instrumented, sheets have been written. Their existence and methodology should be documented.

So it is past time to upgrade the documentation for dream sheets and other highly instrumented sheets. This will involve changing or adding some pages here.
It will also involve changing some of the documentation text files in the “spreadsheet templates” folder.
These necessary changes are currently a work in progress. "Please pardon our dust."

It has been over two years since this Updated Introduction was created and very little of this documentation has been updated. Sorry.
But a problem with all dream sheets has been plaguing me for most of that time and I have not been able to fix it. It is either a Chrome problem or a Google Sheets problem. The problem never occurs under Windows, so most players never experience it. But it often occurs under Linux or Mac OS [?]. Symptoms may occur when the "New Tab" function [button] is used to create a new spreadsheet tab. Starting cash and other fields are not carried forward to the new spreadsheet. And some fields are not initialized as they should be. But an easy circumvention exists. Simply delete the new sheet and press the "New Tab" button again and the function will work on the second try! Strange, isn't it?
Some day I may try again to solve this problem. Until then I hope that this explanation helps.

Existing Dream Spreadsheets

There is a text file in my Spreadsheet Templates directory that contains a partial list of the existing Dream Spreadsheets and their status.
Note: This list is out of date and is no longer being maintained!
Note also that almost all dream spreadsheets can be recognized by having a suffix of ver2 or ver with a different numeric character.

The process of creating dream spreadsheets [and other instrumented sheets] has evolved as I and many others have continued to create them.
One of the most noticeable change in dream spreadsheets as the creation project process has evolved is in the use of colors for the spreadsheet cells.
My current thoughts in this matter are mentioned below. Also, Paul Zieske has created this 2 page document containing his thoughts on dream spreadsheets.

Cell Background Colors

The data entry portion of a dream spreadsheet uses the same light grey and dark grey color pattern [used on alternate rows] that many pre-existing spreadsheets seem to use. The exact definitions of these colors are RGB(230,230,230) and RGB(179,179,179).

The formula portion of a dream spreadsheet uses the same light orange and dark orange color pattern [used on alternate rows] that many pre-existing spreadsheets seem to use. The exact definitions of these colors are RGB(255,204,153) and RGB(255,153,102).

The remaining cells on a dream spreadsheet use standard Google Sheets colors found on the second row of the Fill Color drop-down box on any Google sheet. Cyan is used for Headings and Yellow is used for Constants. These two colors do not use a light/dark color pattern.

NOTE: Players should only type in data entry cells.

Other Thaughts on Dream Spreadsheet Design

I have started to always place the word "Players" in Cell A1 instead of the formula for the number of players. I moved this formula to Cell A2. This is because the default location for the cursor on opening a sheet is Cell A1 and the formula in the "fx" row can be confusing.

Other Instrumented Spreadsheets

The sheets that I have referred to as Dream Spreadsheets are not the only sheets that can meet the Jonathan Coveney definition.
So how do you recognize a true Dream Spreadsheet? If the sheet contains a "New Tab" button then it is probably a Dream Spreadsheet.

Other sheets that use other mechanisms to create the next tab have been created by other authors.
For example the 18NY spreadsheet by Brian Chojnowski uses a completly different script (which I hope he will document some day).

And there are other highly instrumented sheets which do not meet the Jonathan Coveney definition of a dream spreadsheet.
They are also included in the Spreadsheet Templates directory but they are not documented here.