Beginner Tutorial: Making a List of Your Passwords Using Excel

Now I have 97 passwords that have to be remembered in order to get into web sites that I use on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

I used to have a real problem keeping track of my passwords because I'd write them down on any piece of paper that happened to be laying on my desk. If I ever found them again, it was a miracle.

If you are like me, you need a way to keep track of all your passwords and you need to keep them handy for when you need them.

There are, of course, programs that will keep track of your passwords and insert them when needed. I, personally, am not comfortable having my passwords on my computer. If the computer crashed, they could all be lost. Or someone might decide to hack into it and retrieve them.

First I tried to put all my passwords in a notebook, but I soon found that, since I was adding them as they came, I was hunting through every page to find the one I wanted. Plus, there ended up being tons of passwords in there of sites that I no longer had need of.

I soon discovered that I needed a list of passwords that could be updated periodically, adding new ones and deleting old ones.

The problem was solved with Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Excel is a wonderful program for making lists, charts, spreadsheets, etc. I knew it was on my computer, but I didn't have any idea how to use it, so I got the "Excel for Dummies" book and learned the basics.

For those of you who are in the same boat I was in, I will explain how to make your password list (or any list) in Excel.

Please refer to picture #1.

When you first open Excel, you will see a screen with faint lines, like graph paper.

Each small box on the page is called a "cell". The letters across the top, A through O, are called "columns". The numbers running down the left side, 1-33, are called "rows". Each of these, cells, columns and rows, can be made larger or smaller.

In your list of passwords, you will want to have the site it is for, the user ID you have made up and the password you have chosen. This requires 3 columns, so we will begin by making 3 column on your page.

Please refer to picture #2.

Move your cursor up to the line between the letters A and B. Click and hold on this line and then drag it to the right. Your column A will become wider. You will notice that while you are moving it, a measurement pops up to show you where you stopped. This is useful because with it, should you ever need to, you can make every column the same width by clicking and holding on that line to see what the number is so that you can duplicate it in the other columns.

Make the column as wide as you think it needs to be for site names. I made mine 30.00, which is plenty wide.

Do the same thing for columns B and C. Mine are 25.00.

Now you want to type in the titles of your columns. I always make my titles slightly bigger than the rest of the list and type them in bold. To do this, you will place your cursor inside the first cell in column A, row 1. You will click, hold and drag the cursor across all the cells in row one. When you let up on the mouse button, all these cells will now be outlined in heavy black, meaning they are highlighted. This lets Excel know that these are the cells you want to work with. Now move the cursor up to the toolbar at the top of the page, click on the B, for bold. Then click on the center icon which is the 4^th icon to the right of the B (bold). Next, you will click on the small arrow to the left of the B (bold). This will give you a drop down menu of text (font) sizes, click on 14. You will notice when you do that, all the cells you have highlighted suddenly get wider.

Click on the first cell in column A, row 1. Type in the word "Site". Notice that it is large, bold and centered. In column B, row 1, type "User ID". In column C, row 1, type "Password".

Next, put your cursor in the cell in column A, row 2. Click, hold and drag the cursor catty-cornered across the 3 columns and down so that when you reach the far right bottom corner, all the empty cells are outlined in black, meaning they are highlighted. You have now told Excel that these are the cells you are going to work with next. You will be putting all your sites, user Ids and passwords in these cells, so you will tell Excel how you want them all to look so that you don't have to work with each individual cell.

Click on the "center" icon (4^th on right from B), click on the arrow to the left of B, click on 12. Now Excel knows that you want everything you type in these cells to be text size 12 and centered within the cell.

Click on the cell in column A, row 2 and type in your first site. I do not put the www in front of my site names, but you can if you want. Move over, either with the cursor or by hitting the "tab" key, and type in your user ID. Move over again for your password.

You will see that all your text is size 12 and centered. If you make a mistake, just click on the cell again and it will let you retype (by replacing) the whole thing. If you only need to change one letter, double click on the cell and a blinking cursor line will appear. Click to the right of whatever you want to delete, backspace to delete it and retype.

After entering all your information, you will want to put everything in alphabetical order. Highlight all your information cells (click, hold, drag catty-corner top to bottom). Click on "data", click "sort". A window pops up, it should say "sort by column A" and "ascending" should be checked. Click OK and your list will now be alphabetized.

Now your list is almost complete, but there is one more step that is needed if you are going to print the list out. As is, when printed, there will be no lines between the columns and rows. First, highlight all your filled cells and at least 20 empty cells below them. (click, hold and drag from column A, row 1 catty-cornered to the bottom right corner) In your tool bar at the top of the page, click on the arrow beside the "border" icon (4^th on right from $). This will give you a drop down menu of all the borders you can use on either individual cells or cell groups.

Click on the one that looks like a window pane with a cross in the middle. This will give you lines between all your rows and columns.

Now your password list is complete and ready to be saved and printed. If you don't want your passwords saved on your computer, save the list onto an external device, a jump drive, flashcard, floppy disk, CD. Put it somewhere safe. I put mine in my fireproof safety box. When you want to update it, you can open it on the computer, update it and then resave it to the device.

I keep a hard copy (printed pages) of my password list out of site near my computer. Remember those empty cells I had you put lines around? Those are for the new passwords that you get. I add them to the bottom of the printed list and then, when I have time, I add them to the saved copy.

Adding new information to the list is easy. Open it from wherever you have saved it. See where the new site fits alphabetically into the list. Click on the site BELOW where it will fit in. Go to the top of the page, click on "insert", click on "row". You now have a new row to put in the new information. Reprint the new list (shred the old list) and don't forget to save it onto your device.

Now you know the very basics of how Microsoft Excel works. Once you get the hang of it, its actually a fun program to use. If this article made you want to learn more about Microsoft Excel, there are sites on the internet with tutorials. Or, invest in a copy of Excel for Dummies. It'll make you smile while its teaching you.