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When I used to be an "IT guy", everything had to be in Excel. I begged to switch to Access. Hell, I even built a few prototypes in Access in my free time to d
by jchavannes 14y ago
When I used to be an "IT guy", everything had to be in Excel. I begged to switch to Access. Hell, I even built a few prototypes in Access in my free time to demonstrate how much better it would be (I was still a student).
My point: Over time, I came to appreciate Excel and realize what an amazing program it is. It is accessible to pretty much anyone who knows how to use a computer, and at the same time can basically be used to create mini-programs.
That's the reason you only have the two choices you mentioned: a) do it the wrong Excel way b) do it the huge giant IT initiative way
Also, Excel does provide the ability for both the data type and foreign key constraints you mentioned.
- cubicle67 14y agoAlso, not many people realise, but you can build forms in Excel which makes data entry much nicer
- intended 14y agoMaybe there should be a book. Doing the wrong thing the right way - How to use Excel in ways it was never intended.
- epo 14y agoI am sceptical about your final sentence, are you talking about anything other than the broad brush data validation constraints provided by Excel? If so please give examples.
- jchavannes 14y agohttp://chandoo.org/wp/2010/11/01/mix-vlookup-with-data-validation-for-some-magic-vlookup-week/ http://chandoo.org/wp/2010/11/01/mix-vlookup-with-data-valid...
- NickNameNick 14y agoAnd then someone emails 'the' spreadsheet to someone else, and now you have 2 different versions and no rational way to reconcile them. neither is authoritative anymore, and one probaby calculates the average of a list of phone numbers. (actual example...) They're great up to a point, and that point is sharing. I'm actually surprised that google docs hasn't picked up more traction for that reason alone. sharing a google docs spreadsheet doesn't cause divergence.