exactly how 'dumb' can a GUI front end be

[joeq]

Hi All,

over the past million years or so, I've developed a series of 5 worksheets that relate to each other via hyperlinks and such.

I've always intended that the user would have to know 'someting' about excel to naviagate around them and enter data.

Recentely, Ive started to consider putting a GUI front end on it and allow the user to use the 5 spreadsheets but through the window of a GUI somehow - hoping then that not as much EXCEL knowledge would be needed by them.

At a high level I would like to this with as little new code as possible - somehow retaining all the functionality of the original sheets, just somehow having the user "deal with them" through the GUI window.

Does anyone have any general ideas about the feasability/practicality of this?

In other words when the users clicks the GUI to say "let me see this chart" - I could use some new macroed code that would copy and past the chart from the old sheet to the GUI window

Any thoughts would be appreciated,

thanks, Joe

 

[Egress1]

One of the nice things about Excel is it is flexible enough to do things like that. I wrote an application for the center I work in several years back that required just that. We have several hundred employees at any given time in my center that use that application. The vast majority of these employees are severly computer challenged.

The more "user friendly" you make your application the more work you will be required to put into it up front.

This forum offers a good amount of tips and techniques from previous posts to help you out in that endeavor.

 

[Todd Bardoni]

I find that it's better to train ppl on usage rather than create a better mouse trap.

If you build it, they will find ways to f it up.

 

[Egress1]

I agree Todd. If its at all feasible or practical its a much better idea to train the group of folks that will be using Excel.

Without question there is no such thing as "dummy proof" when it comes to programming. There is always that "someone" that will find that one thing that no being with the capacity for sentient thought and opposing thumbs would ever consider doing.