G
Guest
This is to anyone having a say about the development of coming versions of
Microsoft Office, especially Excel.
Maybe not an error, rather a probably deliberate, but definitely
questionable inconsistency between Excel and the rest of Office, and now I've
really had it and want tot make a change (apart from wondering if truly no
one else has been bothered...??)
The following reported annoyances apply to Microsoft Office 2003.
When several Excel documents are being edited, one cannot resize only one of
the windows - resizing the window of one document means resizing ALL
documents, so you cannot place two Excel windows beside each other. This is
annoying, and moreover NOT consistent with e.g. Word.
When several Excel documents are being edited, a click on the outer cross
does not mean "close only this window/this program having one tab in the task
bar" but it means close all Excel documents. OK, actually not too
un-intuitive, I COULD definitely have lived with it, if it weren't for the
fact that Word DOESN'T behave like this. In Word, both the inner and the
outer cross close only the CURRENT document. This inconsistency has led to
many Excel-files being unsaved and changes lost, since I've used Word more
often and, of course, with my backbone click on the same things in Excel as I
do in Word. It happens to me all the time, it just seems impossible to learn.
Again because Excel behaviour is not consistent with that of the other Office
programs (at least that of of Word and PowerPoint).
When several Excel documents are being edited, the Undo History of all open
documents is combined and it is not possible to undo something in one
document after changes have been made in another. This is completely wacko,
absolutely annoying, and, again, inconsistent with the other Office programs.
The following scenario may thus occur: document A was opened, and the sizes
of some columns changed just because I wanted to read the long contents of
one specific cell. Then document B was opened and edited. If I would like to
know which was the last change made in document A I would have to undo all
changes in document B first. (And if I remember correctly it might not even
be clear in which document an action was undone after pressing Ctrl-Z). Now
suppose document B is closed - then the Undo history of all remaining
documents seems to be cleared. When trying to close document A a message
warns me that document A has been changed but I cannot see which changes have
been made - I'll have to remember whether I just resized some column, whether
I made some important changes, OR if I made some test changes I really WOULD
like to undo. So what I would have to do now is save document A under a
temporary name and compare with the old document A. This is indeed quite
annoying.
Apparently the culprit for all this must be the additional Excel program
that shows up in the list of programs when pressing Alt-Tab. This program
must be acting as some sort of "umbrella" for all open documents, causing a
lot of grief.
I also haven't found out how to predict whether pressing Alt-Tab once will
lead me to the same document again or to the other document(s). Both have
proven to be possible, but I haven't been able to see a pattern yet.
Neither can I see any reason for Excel having this "umbrella" program. Word
is working perfectly without this horrible invention. If all Excel documents
should be regarded as being edited by only one program instance, you should
have taken a step back in time and give Excel only one button in the task
bar, instead of one per open document.
Interestingly, OpenOffice has come up with a quite good solution for the
window-closing cross problem: when only one document is open, there are two
crosses - one for closing the document but leaving the program open and one
for closing OpenOffice Text editor or Spreadsheet altogether. But as long as
two or more documents are open, there is ONLY ONE cross in the right upper
corner, meaning "close this document". Not until after closing some documents
only one document is left, the outer closing-cross reappears.
Whoa, this became quite a long letter - let's hope someone with influence
still has time to read it...
Also hoping for some other community comments,
Erik Doekes
Sweden
----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...e97e112&dg=microsoft.public.excel.crashesgpfs
Microsoft Office, especially Excel.
Maybe not an error, rather a probably deliberate, but definitely
questionable inconsistency between Excel and the rest of Office, and now I've
really had it and want tot make a change (apart from wondering if truly no
one else has been bothered...??)
The following reported annoyances apply to Microsoft Office 2003.
When several Excel documents are being edited, one cannot resize only one of
the windows - resizing the window of one document means resizing ALL
documents, so you cannot place two Excel windows beside each other. This is
annoying, and moreover NOT consistent with e.g. Word.
When several Excel documents are being edited, a click on the outer cross
does not mean "close only this window/this program having one tab in the task
bar" but it means close all Excel documents. OK, actually not too
un-intuitive, I COULD definitely have lived with it, if it weren't for the
fact that Word DOESN'T behave like this. In Word, both the inner and the
outer cross close only the CURRENT document. This inconsistency has led to
many Excel-files being unsaved and changes lost, since I've used Word more
often and, of course, with my backbone click on the same things in Excel as I
do in Word. It happens to me all the time, it just seems impossible to learn.
Again because Excel behaviour is not consistent with that of the other Office
programs (at least that of of Word and PowerPoint).
When several Excel documents are being edited, the Undo History of all open
documents is combined and it is not possible to undo something in one
document after changes have been made in another. This is completely wacko,
absolutely annoying, and, again, inconsistent with the other Office programs.
The following scenario may thus occur: document A was opened, and the sizes
of some columns changed just because I wanted to read the long contents of
one specific cell. Then document B was opened and edited. If I would like to
know which was the last change made in document A I would have to undo all
changes in document B first. (And if I remember correctly it might not even
be clear in which document an action was undone after pressing Ctrl-Z). Now
suppose document B is closed - then the Undo history of all remaining
documents seems to be cleared. When trying to close document A a message
warns me that document A has been changed but I cannot see which changes have
been made - I'll have to remember whether I just resized some column, whether
I made some important changes, OR if I made some test changes I really WOULD
like to undo. So what I would have to do now is save document A under a
temporary name and compare with the old document A. This is indeed quite
annoying.
Apparently the culprit for all this must be the additional Excel program
that shows up in the list of programs when pressing Alt-Tab. This program
must be acting as some sort of "umbrella" for all open documents, causing a
lot of grief.
I also haven't found out how to predict whether pressing Alt-Tab once will
lead me to the same document again or to the other document(s). Both have
proven to be possible, but I haven't been able to see a pattern yet.
Neither can I see any reason for Excel having this "umbrella" program. Word
is working perfectly without this horrible invention. If all Excel documents
should be regarded as being edited by only one program instance, you should
have taken a step back in time and give Excel only one button in the task
bar, instead of one per open document.
Interestingly, OpenOffice has come up with a quite good solution for the
window-closing cross problem: when only one document is open, there are two
crosses - one for closing the document but leaving the program open and one
for closing OpenOffice Text editor or Spreadsheet altogether. But as long as
two or more documents are open, there is ONLY ONE cross in the right upper
corner, meaning "close this document". Not until after closing some documents
only one document is left, the outer closing-cross reappears.
Whoa, this became quite a long letter - let's hope someone with influence
still has time to read it...
Also hoping for some other community comments,
Erik Doekes
Sweden
----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...e97e112&dg=microsoft.public.excel.crashesgpfs