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Excel remains one of my most used pieces of software, and one where I feel like any education/training has re-paid for itself multiple times over. The more you

Excel remains one of my most used pieces of software, and one where I feel like any education/training has re-paid for itself multiple times over. The more you learn, the more productive you are (and sometimes more informed, thanks to data visualizations). OneNote (desktop) and Excel are the only two pieces of Microsoft Office that I regularly continue to use. They're the only reason I license it. Microsoft Word after I graduated rarely gets used (typesetting? I don't even print!), and while I understand the value of Microsoft Access, I feel like using it is investing effort into a dead-end (i.e. people want online/real-time reports, not locked into a desktop software). PowerPoint, at least where I work, is almost a meme (as in "Power Point meeting" is a pejorative implies waste of time meeting). As to Excel: Hopefully it won't take another 35 years for them to fix CSV opening so it doesn't auto-format long numbers into scientific notion or dates, then cause unrecoverable data loss when you save. If you don't know what the data format is DON'T GUESS!

xnx 6y ago
> As to Excel: Hopefully it won't take another 35 years for them to fix CSV opening so it doesn't auto-format long numbers into scientific notion or dates, then cause unrecoverable data loss when you save. If you don't know what the data format is DON'T GUESS! Amen! Also removing the leading zeros from US ZIP codes.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Would also say corrupting gene names, but in this case the scientists literally decided to rename genes to not conflict with Excel's treatment of date-like strings.
hateful 6y ago
My first job in 2000 was converting files from the "PC" so they can be used on the Mainframe - and this was one of our biggest issues. Some things never change. Used to rename csv files to anything but csv to import them so you'd get the wizard. Hey, but luckily they removed the import option recently! /sarcasm
markus92 6y ago
Also stop using locale settings for importing CSVs, or at least make a setting for it. I had to change my PC's locale to English (US) just to decently import CSV files in Excel
amichal 6y ago
i recently got burned because at some point in the last few years Excel decided it would be better if it attempted to use localized thousands and decimal separators. item,cost,currency "Socks",1.234,USD Represents socks costing about a dollar in countries that use '.' as a decimal (most) and about a thousand dollars in countries that use a ','. In locales using a decimal period '.' double clicking will open the CSV just fine. In locales using a ',' it comes in as text but the default settings for text to columns use localized number parsing but still let you choose a now ambiguous comma as a column separator. I'm 99% sure it didn't used to do this as we've been making CSVs for the same clients in the same regions (Netherlands) for years and only more recently have they had this trouble. Edit: I've used Excel for at least 20yrs. I thought i new how to use it and how to search it's docs. This is the only article I've found online that mentions how to handle this as a end user. Near the bottom under "Converting International Number Formats" where it of course assumes you have decimal comma and need a decimal period. https://www.howtogeek.com/407217/how-to-use-text-to-columns-like-an-excel-pro/ https://www.howtogeek.com/407217/how-to-use-text-to-columns-... I did also find a 20 minute youtube eventually
- ndespres 6y ago
  I have long suspected that Excel's treatment of CSV files was intentionally antagonistic. For example, opening a CSV file will start an importer function where you must specify how fields are delimited within the file, and "comma" is not automatically selected, ever, despite "comma-separated" being literally named in the file extension. Surely the folks programming it are not that short-sighted. It's just a punishment for not using their default format.
  - rightbyte 6y ago
    Well I would give Excel some cred for acctually following local number conventions. It the beginning there was no internet and interoperability issue. Usually it is the us-en way or the highway.
  - kalleboo 6y ago
    It also has really broken handling of text encodings. I've taken to importing CSV files using Apple Numbers, and saving as Excel (i use Numbers primarily, Excel is just when I need to be interoperable with someone else)
n4r9 6y ago
> Hopefully it won't take another 35 years for them to fix CSV opening so it doesn't auto-format long numbers into scientific notion or dates, then cause unrecoverable data loss when you save. This has been a major issue when working with Australian address data, where the street number was quite often a range e.g. "1-12". Excel would auto-convert to "12-Jan" upon opening the file, and save it as that if you clicked save, and there was no workaround I could find. I eventually told the tester to use Libre Office Calc instead.
agumonkey 6y ago
I used to say, MS will be remembered for NT5 and Excel
kyriakos 6y ago
Add Outlook to the list and it sums up all the useful Office applications in 2020.
- Someone1234 6y ago
  Respectfully disagree. Desktop Outlook is largely abandon-ware at this point, with no real development or improvements taking place for over ten years and Microsoft's efforts being almost exclusively focused on their online/webmail offers (e.g. Outlook.com/Office 365).
  - ludditeparttime 6y ago
    > no real development or improvements taking place for over ten years You write this like it is a bad? Outlook does what it needs to do, send and receive email. I personally am glad that the changes which affect me have been minor. Email is a solved problem, no need for change for change sake. Have you used Outlook365 on Desktop recently?
    - ricohboy 6y ago
      They change and break Outlook regularly, and the only communication channel is a random Microsoft employee on a support forum I wish they would leave it alone but they are changing things for change’s sake
  - jankiehodgpodge 6y ago
    Not that I use it but Outlook in Office 365 is radically different. Has full integration with M365 groups etc.
- ricohboy 6y ago
  Second the disagree. As someone who supports users on Outlook on a daily basis, my anecdata is that it’s a buggy, abused, flaming dumpster fire Perhaps it’s users who misuse it (think document management with 100gb+ inboxes) but a lot of times the solution for Outlook issues is to reinstall the whole Office suite since it’s just kinda one package now
nojito 6y ago
>Hopefully it won't take another 35 years for them to fix CSV opening so it doesn't auto-format long numbers into scientific notion or dates Connect to the CSV using Powerquery in Excel. Solves 100% of the problems of CSVs.

xnx 6y ago

> As to Excel: Hopefully it won't take another 35 years for them to fix CSV opening so it doesn't auto-format long numbers into scientific notion or dates, then cause unrecoverable data loss when you save. If you don't know what the data format is DON'T GUESS! Amen! Also removing the leading zeros from US ZIP codes.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
Would also say corrupting gene names, but in this case the scientists literally decided to rename genes to not conflict with Excel's treatment of date-like strings.

hateful 6y ago

My first job in 2000 was converting files from the "PC" so they can be used on the Mainframe - and this was one of our biggest issues. Some things never change. Used to rename csv files to anything but csv to import them so you'd get the wizard. Hey, but luckily they removed the import option recently! /sarcasm

markus92 6y ago

Also stop using locale settings for importing CSVs, or at least make a setting for it. I had to change my PC's locale to English (US) just to decently import CSV files in Excel

amichal 6y ago

i recently got burned because at some point in the last few years Excel decided it would be better if it attempted to use localized thousands and decimal separators. item,cost,currency "Socks",1.234,USD Represents socks costing about a dollar in countries that use '.' as a decimal (most) and about a thousand dollars in countries that use a ','. In locales using a decimal period '.' double clicking will open the CSV just fine. In locales using a ',' it comes in as text but the default settings for text to columns use localized number parsing but still let you choose a now ambiguous comma as a column separator. I'm 99% sure it didn't used to do this as we've been making CSVs for the same clients in the same regions (Netherlands) for years and only more recently have they had this trouble. Edit: I've used Excel for at least 20yrs. I thought i new how to use it and how to search it's docs. This is the only article I've found online that mentions how to handle this as a end user. Near the bottom under "Converting International Number Formats" where it of course assumes you have decimal comma and need a decimal period. https://www.howtogeek.com/407217/how-to-use-text-to-columns-like-an-excel-pro/ https://www.howtogeek.com/407217/how-to-use-text-to-columns-... I did also find a 20 minute youtube eventually

ndespres 6y ago
I have long suspected that Excel's treatment of CSV files was intentionally antagonistic. For example, opening a CSV file will start an importer function where you must specify how fields are delimited within the file, and "comma" is not automatically selected, ever, despite "comma-separated" being literally named in the file extension. Surely the folks programming it are not that short-sighted. It's just a punishment for not using their default format.
- rightbyte 6y ago
  Well I would give Excel some cred for acctually following local number conventions. It the beginning there was no internet and interoperability issue. Usually it is the us-en way or the highway.
- kalleboo 6y ago
  It also has really broken handling of text encodings. I've taken to importing CSV files using Apple Numbers, and saving as Excel (i use Numbers primarily, Excel is just when I need to be interoperable with someone else)

n4r9 6y ago

> Hopefully it won't take another 35 years for them to fix CSV opening so it doesn't auto-format long numbers into scientific notion or dates, then cause unrecoverable data loss when you save. This has been a major issue when working with Australian address data, where the street number was quite often a range e.g. "1-12". Excel would auto-convert to "12-Jan" upon opening the file, and save it as that if you clicked save, and there was no workaround I could find. I eventually told the tester to use Libre Office Calc instead.

agumonkey 6y ago

I used to say, MS will be remembered for NT5 and Excel

kyriakos 6y ago

Add Outlook to the list and it sums up all the useful Office applications in 2020.

Someone1234 6y ago
Respectfully disagree. Desktop Outlook is largely abandon-ware at this point, with no real development or improvements taking place for over ten years and Microsoft's efforts being almost exclusively focused on their online/webmail offers (e.g. Outlook.com/Office 365).
- ludditeparttime 6y ago
  > no real development or improvements taking place for over ten years You write this like it is a bad? Outlook does what it needs to do, send and receive email. I personally am glad that the changes which affect me have been minor. Email is a solved problem, no need for change for change sake. Have you used Outlook365 on Desktop recently?
  - ricohboy 6y ago
    They change and break Outlook regularly, and the only communication channel is a random Microsoft employee on a support forum I wish they would leave it alone but they are changing things for change’s sake
- jankiehodgpodge 6y ago
  Not that I use it but Outlook in Office 365 is radically different. Has full integration with M365 groups etc.
ricohboy 6y ago
Second the disagree. As someone who supports users on Outlook on a daily basis, my anecdata is that it’s a buggy, abused, flaming dumpster fire Perhaps it’s users who misuse it (think document management with 100gb+ inboxes) but a lot of times the solution for Outlook issues is to reinstall the whole Office suite since it’s just kinda one package now

nojito 6y ago

>Hopefully it won't take another 35 years for them to fix CSV opening so it doesn't auto-format long numbers into scientific notion or dates Connect to the CSV using Powerquery in Excel. Solves 100% of the problems of CSVs.