caringsharingbristolbilly
Board Regular
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2004
- Messages
- 241
Rant alert!
OK, so I've been using Excel 2007 for a few months, and I've reserved judgement until I've got used to where everything is, and how it works.
Well, I've got used to how everything works, and I've come to my conclusion. Excel 2007 is a pile of unnecessary, pointless, unmitigated c**p.
Why do I think this? Well, basically my usage of it has been a litany of swearwords and "Oh, god, I'd have thought they would have fixed that for this version". I think that all the changes that have been made have either been made for entirely superficial reasons, change where change really wasn't necessary.
I'll give you one key example, for fear of boring you all any more than necessary...
The ribbon, the basic toolkit for communicating with Excel, is pathetic, and the lack of an option to switch back is dreadful. I'm not saying that because I fear change, I've been using it for a while now, and I think it's simply ill thought out and confusing. It's much easier to find what you are looking for in a branch of drop-down menus where all the names are in a vertical row and are the same size. Trying to find an icon amongst a very, very loosely collected 'tab' of other, differently sized and differently oriented icons is like trying to find a needle in a stack of hay, straw, peanuts, baseballs, protozoa, laser pointers and copies of Harry Potter: The Half Blood Prince.
And what have they named these supposedly useful tabs? Well, say you stick in a chart, the context-sensitive tabs 'design', 'format' and 'layout' all appear. Well, they're distinctly different from one-another, aren't they????
Go on, stick 'format' in MS Word's thesaurus. Guess what other two synonyms appear...
Useless. Clearly their focus groups consisted entirely of people who were just shown screenshots and asked 'which looks nicer', not people who actually used it on a regular basis. The same is true for charting. Nice work sticking red & green in on a pie chart for two of the first three colours that come up as standard. That's really handy for those of us who follow best practice and avoid those colours as they might signify 'good' and 'bad'. There was a reason the standard colours were pinks and yellows originally, you know. Grrrrr.
I could provide countless more examples, but I'll save them for another rant.
Now, don't get me wrong. I loved Excel up to this point, and to an extent I still do, even though M$ have made it harder than ever to use, I just can't see why any of this new stuff is necessary...
Have you been using Excel 2007? What do you think of it? What do you like? What don't you like? I'd be intrigued to hear some opinions now it's been 'bedded in' a little.
Caring Swearing (at Excel 2007) Bristol Billy Bob.
OK, so I've been using Excel 2007 for a few months, and I've reserved judgement until I've got used to where everything is, and how it works.
Well, I've got used to how everything works, and I've come to my conclusion. Excel 2007 is a pile of unnecessary, pointless, unmitigated c**p.
Why do I think this? Well, basically my usage of it has been a litany of swearwords and "Oh, god, I'd have thought they would have fixed that for this version". I think that all the changes that have been made have either been made for entirely superficial reasons, change where change really wasn't necessary.
I'll give you one key example, for fear of boring you all any more than necessary...
The ribbon, the basic toolkit for communicating with Excel, is pathetic, and the lack of an option to switch back is dreadful. I'm not saying that because I fear change, I've been using it for a while now, and I think it's simply ill thought out and confusing. It's much easier to find what you are looking for in a branch of drop-down menus where all the names are in a vertical row and are the same size. Trying to find an icon amongst a very, very loosely collected 'tab' of other, differently sized and differently oriented icons is like trying to find a needle in a stack of hay, straw, peanuts, baseballs, protozoa, laser pointers and copies of Harry Potter: The Half Blood Prince.
And what have they named these supposedly useful tabs? Well, say you stick in a chart, the context-sensitive tabs 'design', 'format' and 'layout' all appear. Well, they're distinctly different from one-another, aren't they????
Go on, stick 'format' in MS Word's thesaurus. Guess what other two synonyms appear...
Useless. Clearly their focus groups consisted entirely of people who were just shown screenshots and asked 'which looks nicer', not people who actually used it on a regular basis. The same is true for charting. Nice work sticking red & green in on a pie chart for two of the first three colours that come up as standard. That's really handy for those of us who follow best practice and avoid those colours as they might signify 'good' and 'bad'. There was a reason the standard colours were pinks and yellows originally, you know. Grrrrr.
I could provide countless more examples, but I'll save them for another rant.
Now, don't get me wrong. I loved Excel up to this point, and to an extent I still do, even though M$ have made it harder than ever to use, I just can't see why any of this new stuff is necessary...
Have you been using Excel 2007? What do you think of it? What do you like? What don't you like? I'd be intrigued to hear some opinions now it's been 'bedded in' a little.
Caring Swearing (at Excel 2007) Bristol Billy Bob.
