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I'm not so sure I agree about access, but I totally agree about excel. I mostly use Mac and but I will always keep a Windows box around if only to run excel.

I'm not so sure I agree about access, but I totally agree about excel. I mostly use Mac and but I will always keep a Windows box around if only to run excel. Sometimes that's the tool you need for the job, and no other will work as quickly or as well. The windows excel team knocks it out of the park pretty much every time.

mirimir 10y ago
I love mainly two things about Excel. One is calculation on multiple cores. The other is grace in handling huge files. I've worked with 100MB files in Excel. If I turn off auto calculation, that's actually workable. Linux spreadsheet apps tend to fall over and die when files get too big, or there are too many formulas.
- Vexs 10y ago
  Libreoffice calc is the only bit of libre software I've ever found inferior to the non-libre version. Excel is just that good, and most people use it as "Microsoft Grid Paper 2016"
kawera 10y ago
Excel for Mac is excellent too. Any particular reason for using the Windows version?
- jpau 10y ago
  Excel for Mac is excellent, compared to the wider market. Unfortunately it is both missing many features and runs much slower than its Windows equivalent. For the work I do (as a financial analyst), Excel for Mac is unworkable. See Microsoft's side-by-side comparison - https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Compare-Excel-2016-for-Mac-with-Excel-2013-for-Windows-1b24f293-739c-4120-b884-893b6687e0d0 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Compare-Excel-2016-...
  - mirimir 10y ago
    Are you using 2016, which seems to be single-threaded?
  - rtpg 10y ago
    There's no way to customise shortcuts in the Mac version? Huh
p_l 10y ago
The real big power of Access was that it could use other database engines through ODBC. Quick RAD tool for databases!
- glaberficken 10y ago
  That's exactly how I use Access at work. We host all the data on MS SQL Server that is managed by the IT department (scheduled imports, maintenance etc) and then everyone links to the tables from Access where they create queries with the visual wizard. these can then be linked to from Excel to produce reports where a layman can just do data refresh to update. Makes for a really flexible data reporting workflow that fits the knowledge level of each user. SQL Server (Data Tables and Views) >>> Access (Queries via visual wizard) >>> Excel (Reports linked via MS Query) PS: We also use data cubes (SQL Analysis Services) but those have to be setup on the IT side, so we tend to disfavour them due to depending on a bottleneck human resource. Although with Cubes you can write Cube formulas straight from excel bypassing the Access stpe

mirimir 10y ago

I love mainly two things about Excel. One is calculation on multiple cores. The other is grace in handling huge files. I've worked with 100MB files in Excel. If I turn off auto calculation, that's actually workable. Linux spreadsheet apps tend to fall over and die when files get too big, or there are too many formulas.

Vexs 10y ago
Libreoffice calc is the only bit of libre software I've ever found inferior to the non-libre version. Excel is just that good, and most people use it as "Microsoft Grid Paper 2016"

kawera 10y ago

Excel for Mac is excellent too. Any particular reason for using the Windows version?

jpau 10y ago
Excel for Mac is excellent, compared to the wider market. Unfortunately it is both missing many features and runs much slower than its Windows equivalent. For the work I do (as a financial analyst), Excel for Mac is unworkable. See Microsoft's side-by-side comparison - https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Compare-Excel-2016-for-Mac-with-Excel-2013-for-Windows-1b24f293-739c-4120-b884-893b6687e0d0 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Compare-Excel-2016-...
- mirimir 10y ago
  Are you using 2016, which seems to be single-threaded?
- rtpg 10y ago
  There's no way to customise shortcuts in the Mac version? Huh

p_l 10y ago

The real big power of Access was that it could use other database engines through ODBC. Quick RAD tool for databases!

glaberficken 10y ago
That's exactly how I use Access at work. We host all the data on MS SQL Server that is managed by the IT department (scheduled imports, maintenance etc) and then everyone links to the tables from Access where they create queries with the visual wizard. these can then be linked to from Excel to produce reports where a layman can just do data refresh to update. Makes for a really flexible data reporting workflow that fits the knowledge level of each user. SQL Server (Data Tables and Views) >>> Access (Queries via visual wizard) >>> Excel (Reports linked via MS Query) PS: We also use data cubes (SQL Analysis Services) but those have to be setup on the IT side, so we tend to disfavour them due to depending on a bottleneck human resource. Although with Cubes you can write Cube formulas straight from excel bypassing the Access stpe