Tables.
Resolved: If I am ever in a position of authority, and an underling gives me a spreadsheet that contains no mathematical operations or numerical data, I will at minimum have him fired, and, ideally, have him flayed and his bleeding carcass displayed from a gibbet above my door, bearing the legend: I DID NOT USE THE PROPER TOOL FOR THE JOB.
I am convinced that, in most offices, spreadsheets are used in three ways:
I have never understood why so many people insist on using spreadsheet applications--e.g., Excel-- to display text. There are other packages on your computer that can display text in a more sane way.
What I understand less is people pretending that they're organized by dumping data into an Excel spreadsheet--and then not doing any data processing on the sheet at all. If you're keeping, say, addresses, a spreadsheet is probably the worst way to do it. You really should be using a real database--that way you can run useful queries over your data set, and sort the information you want in the way you want it for the reason you want to use it.
It has been pointed out to me that Excel, for its part, has a number of excellent text-formatting features. This may be so, but the only reason that the program has bloated to include those features is because people see grid lines on screen and treat the spreadsheet as if it were a physical, tangible piece of graph paper.
This is one of the most glaring examples, to my mind, of why WYSIWYG isn't all it's cracked up to be. A less "cuddly" user environment might actually have nudged people into using the right tool for each job. But instead, we end up with a blank sheet of graph paper, and users just doodle on it. That'd be fine, except that they have very definite ideas what that doodle should be--ideas which have little or nothing at all to do with the designed function of the software. So developers have to bloat otherwise good software with needless complexity to satisfy the myriad demands of their users--who could have made life easier for themselves by stopping to think whether they were using the right tool for the job in the first place. A framing hammer and a pipe wrench are both heavy tools, and I suppose I could hammer a nail with a pipe wrench if I had nothing else--but I'd be a damn fool to do it, if I knew I had a hammer handy.
I am convinced that, in most offices, spreadsheets are used in three ways:
- Actually performing mathematical calculations on numerical datasets. Even though this is the whole reason why this particular piece of software actually came to be, it is probably the least widespread use of the technology.
- Collecting data--e.g., addresses--. This is far more common.
- Displaying text in a tabular format. If I had to guess, I would say that 99 percent of all spreadsheet files currently in existence are nothing more than text in a tabular format.
I have never understood why so many people insist on using spreadsheet applications--e.g., Excel-- to display text. There are other packages on your computer that can display text in a more sane way.
What I understand less is people pretending that they're organized by dumping data into an Excel spreadsheet--and then not doing any data processing on the sheet at all. If you're keeping, say, addresses, a spreadsheet is probably the worst way to do it. You really should be using a real database--that way you can run useful queries over your data set, and sort the information you want in the way you want it for the reason you want to use it.
It has been pointed out to me that Excel, for its part, has a number of excellent text-formatting features. This may be so, but the only reason that the program has bloated to include those features is because people see grid lines on screen and treat the spreadsheet as if it were a physical, tangible piece of graph paper.
This is one of the most glaring examples, to my mind, of why WYSIWYG isn't all it's cracked up to be. A less "cuddly" user environment might actually have nudged people into using the right tool for each job. But instead, we end up with a blank sheet of graph paper, and users just doodle on it. That'd be fine, except that they have very definite ideas what that doodle should be--ideas which have little or nothing at all to do with the designed function of the software. So developers have to bloat otherwise good software with needless complexity to satisfy the myriad demands of their users--who could have made life easier for themselves by stopping to think whether they were using the right tool for the job in the first place. A framing hammer and a pipe wrench are both heavy tools, and I suppose I could hammer a nail with a pipe wrench if I had nothing else--but I'd be a damn fool to do it, if I knew I had a hammer handy.