Go To: Special:Visible Rows Only command IS HORRIBLE DESIGN

  • Thread starter Thread starter Judith
  • Start date Start date
J

Judith

Doesn't it seem reasonable that when rows are hidden in
Excel, that means you *don't want to copy and paste what's
hidden*? In my opinion, the Go To: Special command should
not, by default, force you to select Visible Cells Only.
Instead, hidden information should stay hidden during
selecting, copying and pasting, and if someone wants the
data in hidden rows, they can unhide them, and/or be able
to select Include Hidden Cells as an option on the Go To:
Special dialog.

I don't do a lot w/ Excel, but today's project is a good
example of why the current functionality really stinks:

First I wanted to paste a column of numbers into a
spreadsheet that had a lot of extra rows (labels that
separate groups of data, etc.) I hid these extra rows and
then tried to paste the column using the Go To: Special:
Visible Rows Only command. I got an error message that I
can't paste because Visible Rows Only selects everything
as a separate range and I can't paste into multiple ranges.

Later, after tediously filling in said column of numbers a
few rows at a time, I filtered the data using an
Autofilter, w/ the intention of copying and pasting the
results of various autofilters into emails to send to
different people, but when I select the results of the
autofilter and copy and paste, Excel always pastes the
entire spreadsheet, even when I select the cells I want
using the Go To:Special: Visible Rows Only option
described above.

IN short, I resent having to take extra steps (that
apparently don't even work) to only select what's visible
when hidden rows are used, and I can't imagine any
business reason why anyone would want Excel to function
this way. Please FIX IT, thanks.
 
You must get a lot of joy in this life with the charming way in which you make *requests*.

I can only assume you are using a version of Excel prior to 2000, that I have not been able to try
it with, bacuse I have no problems doing what you state in your second problem (First is correct
and cannot be done) that Excel can't, in both 2000 and 2002. If this is the case, then maybe you
should update to a later version to see if it has been fixed before ranting about a particular
feature. In actual fact, with both those apps I have not needed to go the special cells / visible
route, as Excel has automatically selected only visible rows anyway when I did Edit / Copy.
I don't do a lot w/ Excel,
Click to expand...

That would kind of imply that maybe, just maybe, you are not as familiar with the tool as you
would hope, and in my experience, people that believe a piece of software has no merits because
they can't get it to do something, would *usually* be better off investing some of their time in
trying to learn how to use it properly before putting pen to paper to deride it.

Excel isn't perfect, far from it in fact, but those people who have done their homework, and have
taken the time and trouble to try and learn how to use it, are usually cogniscant of it's real
shortcomings, and are able to compensate where necessary, and hopefully in time those real
shortcomings get fixed with new releases (Hopefully I said).

Lastly, as you have already been advised, nobody in here works for Microsoft, so demands such as
*FIX IT* are really not going to buy you too much in the way of anything at all.
 
There's is no one here who can FIX anything about Excel or any other MS
product, Judith. There are many advanced users, here, but we are all simply
users, not MS employees or MS product developers.
 
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