Need Excel indexing help

I'm in my 60's and haven't used spreadsheets since I was a kid. Can anyone tell me how to set up an Excel or Google spreadsheet so that the first box is the magazine and issue date, and the following boxes all indicate stories in that issue? I have 400 reference magazines for my model railroad hobby and no way to find the how-to stories in them that I need. I want to type a word or term that will lead me to a story that will then point to that particular issue and date.


I've been unable to find any free software for indexing.



This is probably simple, but could use help from anyone feeling sympathetic for an old guy.

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