Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Rods2]

TB, why do you hate Excel so much - and, by implication, the people that use it?
I found it to be a great tool in my work as a college lecturer in timetabling (an intense juggling task!), totalling teaching hours termly/yearly across several individual classes (a balls-aching task, but essential if I wanted to get paid!) and so many other ways that reduced my stress level and workload.
Also, having fought hard and long to understand it and get it to do what I want it to do for me, it is now much easier and neater.
Plus, if I wanter more than one copy.....

Ron.

Fat fingers or an Excel technical term?

[Bigron]

My proof reader was on strike!

Ron.

[TheBoy]

TB, why do you hate Excel so much - and, by implication, the people that use it?

Well, obviously all Office tools are for Office tossers. But Excel in particular because its been several years since I've seen *anyone* use it properly, and all Office self-abusers use it for rota scheduling, simple tables, project forecasting and so on, because these people are far too stupid to use the right tool.

Like using a hammer to put a screw in.


But mostly because its truly an office self-abuser's tool. For office self-abusers.

[Bigron]

That begs a couple of questions, TB: what do yopu consider its proper use to be and what would the right tool be for my purpose?
I'll PM you what I am using it for.

Ron.

[TheBoy]

Pen and paper.

[Viral_Jim]

That begs a couple of questions, TB: what do yopu consider its proper use to be and what would the right tool be for my purpose?
I'll PM you what I am using it for.

Ron.

The "higher level" stuff I've seen it used for in the past has been mathematical modelling ie generating output data based on a series of scenarios which you give to the model. A number of insurers I audited used this for things like modelling car warranty claim costs (and calculating  their reserves accordingly).

Most people in our office use it, along with various plug-in applications to pull financial and operational data from the company's databases to generate management information. However, TB would rightly point out that it is not the best system to use for this either. In an ideal world the source system would generate you MI. But most of our systems are antequated, some of them are older than I am! So we work with the tools we have. 

[Entwood]

The vast majority of Excel users are either too lazy to use word properly, or too stupid to use a database properly.

A spreadsheet sheet programme like Excel "should" be used for mathematical applications like book-keeping, accountancy, or variable computations where a single input can be used to project numerous solutions in real time, it should not be used for data capture and analysis as is often done now.

When I did my degree we were allowed to use Excel type programmes to obtain results/projections, but then had to use database programmes like Access to hold the results under different scenarios, then use a word processor to "write up" the results in the correct form... all done so we knew which programme to use for which job ... 

'twas a pain switching from one to another, but it did teach discipline ....

I'm now the secretary of a fairly large "club" and every week receive a membership update .... in Excel  !!  simply because the idiots at head office "think" that tabulating data can ONLY be done in a spread sheet !! ... if only they knew ... 

Yup its a giant table of data, and not a mathematical link between a single cell anywhere ... crying out to be a "proper" database ...   They don't know that I "import" to a data base so that I can actually search and query it with ease !!

[Bigron]

So sorry if I abuse/misuse Excel, but as my GP wants to keep a close check on my blood pressure, I collate daily results and tabulate them in Excel, then use those data to plot the results in graphical form - easy for us both to see trend, peaks and troughs.
I can also email the spreadsheet to him better than pencil and paper! 

Ron.

[Rods2]

That begs a couple of questions, TB: what do yopu consider its proper use to be and what would the right tool be for my purpose?
I'll PM you what I am using it for.

Ron.

The "higher level" stuff I've seen it used for in the past has been mathematical modelling ie generating output data based on a series of scenarios which you give to the model. A number of insurers I audited used this for things like modelling car warranty claim costs (and calculating  their reserves accordingly).

Most people in our office use it, along with various plug-in applications to pull financial and operational data from the company's databases to generate management information. However, TB would rightly point out that it is not the best system to use for this either. In an ideal world the source system would generate you MI. But most of our systems are antequated, some of them are older than I am! So we work with the tools we have. 

Sounds similar to one of the things I use it for. The deriving of sets of insurance prices from an insurance company price and risk criteria for uploaded into an insurance broker's database for their direct and online sales.

In the past, I've used it in a similar way for a travel agent's flight special offers from several airlines where you have a multitude of factors from the airline which you use to calculate the prices to load into a database and I've also used it as a tool for financial planning with a past business.

In life, business and especially in R&D you work with the tools, people and budgets you have to find the best practical cost-effective solutions.

[Rods2]

So sorry if I abuse/misuse Excel, but as my GP wants to keep a close check on my blood pressure, I collate daily results and tabulate them in Excel, then use those data to plot the results in graphical form - easy for us both to see trend, peaks and troughs.
I can also email the spreadsheet to him better than pencil and paper! 

Ron.

The next time you see your doctor ask him why you haven't got a Bluetooth blood pressure monitor which connects to an NHS app on your smartphone to automatically collect and upload the results to the surgery's patients system database? It would save you all this Excel stress and raised blood pressure.

Then ask if it can also be uploaded to my local hospital's database? Yes, except they still use pens and paper for patients notes!

[Bigron]

No chance of his supplying me with what you suggest, Rods2; my home blood pressure monitor was supplied by me and my blood sugar level tester was supplied free by the manufacturer - its cost being recouped by the teat strips I use twice daily and grudgingly supplied by the NHS. Some areas won't even provide them at all.
Excel no longer stresses me now, especially after I corrected my accidental pressing of the Scroll Lock key!
Oh, and just to mollify TB, I DO use it for mathematical functions - it averages out the blood pressure readings for me. 

Ron.

[TD]

No chance of his supplying me with what you suggest, Rods2; my home blood pressure monitor was supplied by me and my blood sugar level tester was supplied free by the manufacturer - its cost being recouped by the teat strips I use twice daily and grudgingly supplied by the NHS. Some areas won't even provide them at all.
Excel no longer stresses me now, especially after I corrected my accidental pressing of the Scroll Lock key!
Oh, and just to mollify TB, I DO use it for mathematical functions - it averages out the blood pressure readings for me. 

Ron.

Really 

My blood sugar monitor was supplied by my GP surgery and I was given a new one last year, as the diabetic nurse decided my old machine (that id had for 4 years wasn't probably accurate anymore)
The cassettes and needles (cartridge type) it uses are permanently on my repeat prescription 

[Bigron]

That's good, TD. I was sent an updated meter by another manufacturer, via Diabeytes UK, which was easier to use, more informative and had better features. I loved it, but when the free sample test strips ran out, my GP was unable to prescribe more because they were not on the NHS list for Essex! 

Ron.

[ronnyd]

That's good, TD. I was sent an updated meter by another manufacturer, via Diabeytes UK, which was easier to use, more informative and had better features. I loved it, but when the free sample test strips ran out, my GP was unable to prescribe more because they were not on the NHS list for Essex! 

Ron.

Another case of "post code lottery" then Ron.