Online tools for saving data

Dear PropellerHeads: I track my spending habits and workout details in a spreadsheet, which is helpful but tedious. Are there any online tools that can make this easier?

A: Hmmm, so your mind made the connection from "helpful but tedious" to "PropellerHeads." I see how it is.

If you're like us, you stopped recording important information with pen and paper years ago. Now you use spreadsheets. All that time learning Excel at work finally paid off.

Now it's time to go Full Buzzword with your data. We're talking in the cloud, mobile and social. It's not as terrifying as it sounds, but you've got some online accounts to create.

These new tools are all Web-based - "in the cloud" just means the data is stored "out there somewhere." That means you won't lose your data if your hard drive crashes, but you'll need an Internet connection to log your information.

Luckily, the Internet is everywhere now, including on your phone. Some of these sites have dedicated apps for iPhone and Android, while others are usable from phone-based Web browsers. Bottom line: you're not tethered to your laptop while entering numbers.

Another common feature is social integration. These sites may connect to Facebook or Twitter, and some have their own communities where you can share data and interact with others working toward similar goals. Be sure to read the sites' privacy policies before disclosing too much.

For generic spreadsheet features, check out Google Docs (docs.google.com), Microsoft Office Live (live.office.com) and Zoho Sheet (sheet.zoho.com).

If you're using Excel specifically to track goals (weight loss, exercise, savings, etc.), several good sites exist for that: Joe's Goals (joesgoals.com) and Beeminder (beeminder.com) have easy-to-use interfaces, while RiseTribe (risetribe.com) and Stickk (stickk.com) focus on community-building.

To make the most of the Web angle, explore sites that are designed specially for the data you're tracking. These often provide charting tools and integration with other services (like banks) or specialized hardware (like heart rate monitors).

Food-trackers like FatSecret (fatsecret.com), Daily Burn (dailyburn.com) and The Daily Plate (dailyplate.com) do more with your personal food diary and exercise logs than Excel ever could.

More broadly, TheCarrot (thecarrot.com) helps you track and analyze personal data in order to manage diabetes, fight hypertension and quit smoking (among others).

It's not health nuts who get to have all the fun. Penny-pinchers appreciate money-trackers like Mint (mint.com) and Yodlee (yodlee.com), which connect to your bank's online systems automatically. No more manually entering check details to get those budget pie charts.

Is your car also watching what it eats? Check out FuelFrog (fuelfrog.com) and My Mile Marker (mymilemarker.com) - both sites that help you spot trends in gas prices, monitor your fuel economy and track driving distances over time.

Back at home, WattzOn (wattzon.com), estimates home energy consumption based on a questionnaire. Microsoft Hohm (microsoft-hohm.com) does the same with Department of Energy statistics, and Google is testing their new Power Meter service (google.com/powermeter), which uses energy monitoring hardware that you plug in at home to provide more accurate data.

With so many sites, services, monitoring devices and sensors easily available, one could easily get carried away. Tracking almost every aspect of your life could become a hobby, a job or an obsession.

And that explains The Quantified Self (quantifiedself.com), a site for people who really, really like to track, monitor, analyze and otherwise evaluate the data describing themselves and their habits.

The site's motto is "Self Knowledge Through Numbers," and it's billed as "a place for people interested in self-tracking to gather, share [...], and discover resources." If you want to learn more about tracking almost anything online, check out their website.

Don't forget to log how long you spent there and how many calories you burned moving the mouse around. Now who's helpful but tedious?

When the PropellerHeads at Data Directions aren't busy with their IT projects, they love to answer questions on business or consumer technology. E-mail them to questions@askthepropellerheads.com or contact us at Data Directions Inc., 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116. Visit our website at www.askthepropellerheads.com.