Re: WHY

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From: Nick Hodge (nick_hodgeTAKETHISOUT_at_zen.co.uk.ANDTHIS)
Date: 12/13/04 

Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 20:22:34 -0000

Aaron

Some interesting thoughts and many quite valid. People do blindly use Excel
for things it really isn't made for, but when you have a tool which, for
most users is quite intuitive, they will automatically try to move to it.
I've seen photo albums held in Excel and have a financial controller who
finds Access daunting as it's interface for the standard user is just not
intuitive.

On the specific point of reports. I use an Excel front end to summarise over
250,000 records into a pivot table. The data comes from an Access database
which is updated each week and takes around 3-4 minutes with no user
intervention.

It has multiple row and column fields a series of charts and with about an
hours training is used throughout my organisation for everyone's needs from
Finance through Marketing to Sales and Logistics by the user simply
dragging and dropping fields.

The data is accessible and graphically presented to even the most reluctant
user with ease. None of which could be claimed for Access alone

I love both tools, but then I love data! 

-- 
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
nick_hodgeTAKETHISOUT@zen.co.uk.ANDTHIS
<aaron_kempf@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:udKj3xU4EHA.2676@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> why is it that people like Excel so much?
>
> I hate it with a passion-- it's like-- my job for the past 4 ot 6 years..
> has to been to run around and fix 'excel messes'... automate such and such
> excel report
>
> it's like-- if you guys would just stop using excel-- treat it as a drug-- 
> and start doing stuff in Access-- this world would be a much more 
> efficient
> world.
>
> it's like-- people _never_ have clean data in Excel... there is no
> validation.. people use it for data entry; and keeping track of stuff-- 
>
> and it just boggles my mind that people use this POS program for 
> reporting.
> I mean-- it isn't a reporting tool. It isn't in the same league as Access
> and Crystal Reports.
>
> It's like Access can automate what Excel people do; and then you won't get
> stuck writing the same report every week.
>
> Why don't more poeple hate Excel like I do?
>
> I just am frustrated.. because I've seen enough Excel in my life that it
> makes me sick.. It really is a drug, or a disease..
> And when I grow up; and I'm in charge of an IT department.. the first 
> thing
> that I'm going to do is to Uninstall Excel from _EVERYONE's_ machine and
> start with the basics.
>
> It's all about reusability-- and I dont see excel having any.
>
> And I just want to know why is it that poeple think that using Excel for
> reporting is an acceptable route?
> It's like a travesty-- 50% of all people in the modern workplace-- all 
> they
> do is make the same report in Excel; week in and week out.
> and I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't try to really help these 
> people
> to use their time more efficiently.   It's not about needing sharepoint--  
> i
> dont need sharepoint to help me to track my spreadsheets-- that makes the
> problem worse.
>
> Aaron
>
>
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