to be honest I would be inclined to go with 2nd edition, or ATOW, but I would avoid 3rd edition.
really atow is a pretty solid edition to work with, its just that the character generation can be a little rough for a lot of people. with that said I don't find it too bad, if a bit time consuming, because especially if you use the life paths it can take a while to work through everything.
I will say I can definitely see why some people make and use excel spreadsheets to do and automate some of the process
with that said what I did on my last go through was use an excel sheet (its posted under the how to make a confidence trickster) where I just put everything in rows and columns as I worked through.
all the items were on rows, and each phase was in a separate column. so I could tell at a glance where something came from.
note when its all summarized it really doesn't matter but as you are running through the process it helps keep things straight so you don't miss something or put it down too many times.
in a lot of ways 2nd edition is kind of ATOW lite, there are a lot of details that are different such as damage and similar, skills and attributes etc, but if you squint a bit, it is possible to say they come from the same framework. there are just a lot of ways that they take a different tack and come up with similar outcomes through a different process.