1. performing calculations, occasionally graphing. also, putting together equipment schedules to use with Xcel2CAD to put them into engineering drawings.

2. depends on the project i'm working on and where I am in the project. at times, i will work with excel for calculations for up to a full week, then only occasionally in a project after that. in general, its the same basic calculations with new data sets since the same calculations need to be done for each building or project i work on.

3. there are anywhere from 3 or 4, and up to 20, spreadsheets that are shared among my coworkers for review and/or input into xcel2cad. Most of the time, they are stored on our server (which has automatic backups), and we usually make incremental copies to show our progress on calculations. when i need to direct other coworkers to my spreadsheets, i usually email or IM them a link to the directory. some coworkers attach them to an email, a practice discouraged since it usually creates several working copies of a calc.

4. some of the calculation variables are measured or quantified from engineering documents, and some are brought in from codes, standards, manufacturer's information, or other sources.

5. yes. i've never programmed macros or scripts myself, but current and previous coworkers have. I use their spreadsheets and change the data as I see fit. usually the script compares an input cell to a table of data copied into another worksheet in the file, and outputs the answer from the table. the table is input by hand into the worksheet from a code, standard, manufacturer's information, or other sources.

6. minimal. we have enough copies of calculations and backlog of experience that it would not severely hinder our business operations. Now, if a whole server nuked itself, or we lost computing functions altogether, that's a serious issue and will cause delays. Ultimately, data could be tabulated and calculated by hand, but that would significantly increase our working time.

7. =CONCATENATE(text1,text2...). Absolute and Relative cell values. cell borders and shading, and text coloring, assisting in the presentation of data. those are the ones that came first to mind, but if I thought about it I could probably come up with more.