You can easily create a roster using Excel. The work plan table is created quickly and can then be easily modified.
Create a roster in Excel – here’s how to do it
If your job involves changing working hours, you can easily keep track of them with a roster. For the roster, you first create a “basic framework” in Excel, into which you later enter the respective shifts. For the sake of simplicity, our example roster only consists of two shifts, an early and a late shift.
- Spalte A: Add the heading “Date” to the first line. In the second line, right-click to open the context menu. After clicking “Format Cells,” the next step is to select the “Numbers” tab. Under Category choose “Date” and on the right side choose “Day of the week and date” format. Finally, confirm your selection with the “OK” button.
- Cell A2: After you click cell A2, you will see a small black square at the bottom right. If you move the mouse pointer over it and pull down the square while holding down the left mouse button, the date will be entered continuously.
- Column B: Cell B1 is given the heading “Early Shift”.
Column C: Add the text “late shift” to cell C1.
Column D: For this column, select the “Notes” heading. - formatting: For visual reasons, it makes sense to make the two columns B and C the same size. To do this, right-click the respective column header and select the “Column Width” option from the context menu.
- Alternatively, use the mouse to drag column B to the desired width. Then click on column B and then go to the “Clipboard” area in the “Start” tab ribbon. First click on the broom icon “Transfer format” and then on column C. Drag column D larger as required.
Excel roster – the final touches
Finally, there are a few visual measures to be taken, such as the Excel fonts, font size and fixing the top row. First click on the number 1 on the left edge. This will mark the entire line. This has the advantage that you can format the contents of all columns in the first row at the same time.
- As soon as the “Start” tab is activated, make the appropriate settings in the two ribbon areas “Font” and “Alignment”.
- For example, it is advisable to select a slightly larger font for the header, display it in bold and align it in the middle. Then switch from the “Home” tab to the “View” tab in the menu bar.
- In the “View” tab ribbon, first go to the “Window” area. Then click on the “Freeze Window” menu item and the “Freeze Top Line” option in the context menu. This means the first row always remains visible, no matter where you are in the table.
- Finally, adjust the frame of the table according to your ideas. To do this, select either the entire table or the corresponding section. Then press the right mouse button and click “Format Cells” in the context menu.
- After you have activated the “Frames” tab, you will be shown the different design variants. You will also find the fill color icon in the “Fonts” area, with which you can mark individual cells, rows or columns in color.