Other people’s excel spreadsheets
Posted by: Officer DBL on 22 July 2009
My rant is about people who can’t be bothered to set up excel spreadsheets that others can print with ease, read with ease and do not challenge stationery budgets.
I spent this morning fixing a number of spreadsheets so that:
a) what appears to be a single spreadsheet on screen does not become a jigsaw composed numerous A3 sized pieces
b) they can be printed in a font that is legible without resorting to a second pair of reading glasses or magnifying glass and
c) an entire tray’s worth of A3 paper is not wasted producing a poor imitation of graph paper.
I thank you.
B
I spent this morning fixing a number of spreadsheets so that:
a) what appears to be a single spreadsheet on screen does not become a jigsaw composed numerous A3 sized pieces
b) they can be printed in a font that is legible without resorting to a second pair of reading glasses or magnifying glass and
c) an entire tray’s worth of A3 paper is not wasted producing a poor imitation of graph paper.
I thank you.
B
Posted on: 22 July 2009 by Huwge
Send back and tell them sheet is redundant if there isn't an embedded footer that indicates content and source of data per printed page.
Am amazed at the number of organisations that do not have document standards that would diminish your (and my) need to rant.
Am amazed at the number of organisations that do not have document standards that would diminish your (and my) need to rant.
Posted on: 22 July 2009 by Steeve
Never mind the formatting, I once had a very well-paid manager send me a spreadsheet with a whole raft of figures in it and not one single formula in it. They had just added everything up on a calculator. I found this out initially as they had added up a lot of the figures incorrectly!
Steeve
Steeve
Posted on: 22 July 2009 by winkyincanada
Steve,
I've seen exactly the same thing. The story has been retold many times. It was worth it just for the amusement it has given me over the years.
Brad S.,
As for the way spreadsheets "print", I have another angle/rant. My life is spent in excel dealing with large financial models. We print virtually nothing from the spreadsheets. I NEVER bother to format them for printing or to set up the page layouts etc. We just use them live on the screen and cut and paste numbers and tables into reports, documents and presentations as required. I see no need for paper copies of spreadsheets at all. After all, the paper can't do the calculations either.
Cheers,
Winky
I've seen exactly the same thing. The story has been retold many times. It was worth it just for the amusement it has given me over the years.
Brad S.,
As for the way spreadsheets "print", I have another angle/rant. My life is spent in excel dealing with large financial models. We print virtually nothing from the spreadsheets. I NEVER bother to format them for printing or to set up the page layouts etc. We just use them live on the screen and cut and paste numbers and tables into reports, documents and presentations as required. I see no need for paper copies of spreadsheets at all. After all, the paper can't do the calculations either.
Cheers,
Winky
Posted on: 22 July 2009 by Officer DBL
I see your point Winky, however a combination of lack of facilities in meeting rooms to display the data on screen and the ageing eyes of a number of the participants means that needs must and spreadsheets have to be printed.
Brad
Brad
Posted on: 22 July 2009 by Exiled Highlander
??? What's a spreadsheet??
Regards
Jim (very well paid senior manager)
Regards
Jim (very well paid senior manager)
Posted on: 22 July 2009 by kevj
Brad,
Your rightful indignation at an Excel spreadsheet is simply a mild dislike compared with the feelings engendered when trying to edit someone else's Word document, particularly when the document has a lot of indented numbered lists. Trust me, I'd rather sort out twenty spreadsheets than sort out one Word document.
Kevin
Your rightful indignation at an Excel spreadsheet is simply a mild dislike compared with the feelings engendered when trying to edit someone else's Word document, particularly when the document has a lot of indented numbered lists. Trust me, I'd rather sort out twenty spreadsheets than sort out one Word document.
Kevin
Posted on: 23 July 2009 by Gary S.
kevj
Agree 100%, but then Word has got to be the biggest heap of shit ever produced. How it has become adopted as the world's most commonly used word processing package is totally beyond me.
In my business we produce a lot of documents with lots of indentation and column work. I always create my documents using Word Perfect and then convert them at the end.
We subscribe to a construction specification organisation which send out regular updates. There is nothing more infuriating than reciving one of these updates, which we have paid a small forture for, only to find the egit who typed it in the first place has used the space key to indent everything. As soon as you read it on your own computer it's all to hell...I'm sure it looked lovely on the original typist's screen, but not a proper tab set in sight. Disgraceful!
Gary
Agree 100%, but then Word has got to be the biggest heap of shit ever produced. How it has become adopted as the world's most commonly used word processing package is totally beyond me.
In my business we produce a lot of documents with lots of indentation and column work. I always create my documents using Word Perfect and then convert them at the end.
We subscribe to a construction specification organisation which send out regular updates. There is nothing more infuriating than reciving one of these updates, which we have paid a small forture for, only to find the egit who typed it in the first place has used the space key to indent everything. As soon as you read it on your own computer it's all to hell...I'm sure it looked lovely on the original typist's screen, but not a proper tab set in sight. Disgraceful!
Gary
Posted on: 24 July 2009 by Willy
quote:Originally posted by Gary S.:
kevj
Agree 100%, but then Word has got to be the biggest heap of shit ever produced.
Gary
Sounds like you've never used Lotus Notes.
Willy.
Posted on: 24 July 2009 by jon h
Everyone should use Mathematica. Wonderful thing.
Posted on: 24 July 2009 by Allan Probin
Whatever happened to WordStar? ... and Lotus 123?
Posted on: 24 July 2009 by MilesSmiles
quote:Originally posted by Brad S.:
My rant is about people who can’t be bothered to set up excel spreadsheets that others can print with ease, read with ease and do not challenge stationery budgets.
Drives me absolutely mad, I consider it as extremely slobby and thoughtless, if one of my guys does it I send it right back.
Posted on: 25 July 2009 by Musicmad
quote:Originally posted by Allan Probin:
Whatever happened to WordStar? ... and Lotus 123?
Wordstar means nothing to me but Lotus 123 ... yes! I use it all of the time. Excel may be more versatile but it has so many functions that you'd never use that it becomes cumbersome. Lotus 123 is much easier to use and, if necessary, you can convert to/from Excel.
I have my rants about (clients)' misuse of spreadsheets. I've had worksheets passed to me where the totals ... have been typed in (or no totals)!
And the common mistake? Adding an extra row and not adjusting the formulae for the summation of each column to allow for the extra row. It's so easy to avoid this, too, by using subtotal lines and summing between the lines. But then the clients have been Management & Training Consultants/Computer Specialists ... why should they know about spreadsheets?