people using 'set print area' on an excel spreadsheet

[thecolonelbumminganugget]

It annoys me so much I have to leave my desk and make a cup of tea to calm down everytime someone emails me a spreadsheet where they've done this!

There is no justification for this. Either:

A - you have set the important information to print and everything else is backing information. In which case you need two tabs, one with the summary, the other with the backing so anyone who wants to can trace it through but the important information is summarised on the front sheet. Or;

B - it's all equally important but YOU only needed to print part of it. In which case either select cells and use print selected or use clear print area before you save it in a shared location or forward it on. If it is the case that the bit you needed to print is the same bit everyone else will need then I refer you to point A above.

All that happens is that you send it on, the recipient prints it to read, or worse still when they've added their own work to it and printed it, the bit they wanted didn't print because it's not in the print area you dictated, they throw it in the bin, swear at you behind your back and have to go back to their desk, clear print area, and print it again.

I know I'm not being unreasonable when I say the only reason to do this is because you hate everyone you work with!

(Oh god that feels better)

[SwedishEdith]

PowerPoint is good for creating little films I believe, I'm no good at them - isn't that what all the whizzy functions are for? It's clearly not just for presentations.

Trouble with Excel (and Word) is that you have to use it regularly to get good at it. Does IDEA still exist?

[nothruroad]

I'll come here next time I'm stuck then - you may come to regret mentioning this!

[Topseyt]

Thereis, we have some clients who do not even have computers. A slowly dwindling number, but they still exist.

Stuff has to be printed for them. No way around that.

In an ideal world we could just totally tech up, but others are not at that stage yet.

[StatisticallyChallenged]

I think it's easy to be idealistic about not printing or using databases or whatever bit the reality is that many many people are still pretty computer illiterate. They can surf the net, but that's often about it.

I worked for a company which did use access a lot for analysing and storing data. Problem was that they created a huge key man dependency because only one person knew it to anything like the standard that most of the team knew excel. It was a big problem practically. In a small, non data focused business that's even worse as you might be working with people who don't actually like computers at all.

[ClashCityRocker]

We can tech up. We can't make our clients tech up.

And, as I said, a client file typically includes lots of third party data where it would just be duplication of work to enter it into a spreadsheet. If you don't print the spreadsheet work, you end up with half the information on file and half in electronic form.

And we get in trouble for that.

[ThereIsIron]

There really is very little need to print anything nowadays. Just tech up.

[prettybird]

I loved WordPerfect - much more intuitive than Word.

[wasonthelist]

Why? I use Excel without mathematical content - there is numeric content but that doesn't necessarily require excel. However, it is one of the best ways of creating a catalogue that can be used by relative beginners but has the functionality necessary for uploading to a database.

I obviously can't comment in detail about this as I haven't seen it - but 99% of the times I have seen it done, it wasn't necessary, and was being used either as a make-work or a way for the person to control/understand the data, but one which introduced extra unnecessary work. I am 100% sure that's not the case for you of course.

[Ego147]

I remember using WordStar as a student. I then worked in California for a summer and was introduced to some of the first packages like Word, Excel and Powerpoint - Clarisworks?

[Eastpoint]

I used WordPerfect in my first job & may even have been taught it at college - it was so much better than the earlier versions of Word. I liked the earlier versions of Publisher too, I used it a lot 20 years ago.

[DrDreReturns]

Before my time I'm afraid tyres - I do remember some archaic BBC micro word processor we had at home. You had to type in 'codes' to format the text and it was hooked up to a proper typewriter!

[tyres]

Does anyone remember WordPerfect? I pine for it...

[prettybird]

I deliberately send out a spreadsheet that has had the print range set: I've created a registration form (for ds' rugby club) that looks like a word document and prints out on a single page so that they can sign the completed form. Along side the part that is in the print range are some descriptors, explaining why/how some cells are to be completed. It wouldn't print on A4 if it wasn't pre-set.

The reason it's in Excel rather than Word is that I ask them to send it back to me in soft copy so that I can copy and paste (and transpose) the relevant information into my own Master Spreadsheet.

I can then filter and analyse to my heart's content (by age group, by subscription type, by paid or not, by gender, by school.....)

I've actually stopped bothering getting them to print it off though - very few people ever did . I just ask that they "sign" it by typing their name into the signature box and sending it back to me, so that we've got permission for photos/medical treatment/commitment to behave etc. A sort of unofficial electronic signature.

[DrDreReturns]

One of the reasons excel is the market leader is because it can be used to organise and display non numerical data. Back in the day a lot of it's competitors couldn't do this.

[nickelbabe]

Oooh, that must be what she's done!
I got a spreadsheet where only a small amount of the leaflet showed and was printable - the rest was all greyed out.
Bloody annoying!

[Ego147]

if you want to keep it for 500 years have a paper copy

Or vellum..... Magna Carta 1297 AD


www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35569281

[Ego147]

I rarely use excel at work but whenever I do I have to watch a YouTube video to learn how to do anything

I have found MN to be quicker than YouTube sometimes. I had a ridiculously stupid formula involving dates and Excel couldn't cope.

MN helped me out in a few minutes. They even formatted the right formula as well for me.

[Gabilan]

may I reserve a special place in hell for all those people I work with who insist on creating spreadsheets for stuff that has no mathematical or numeric content at all please?

Why? I use Excel without mathematical content - there is numeric content but that doesn't necessarily require excel. However, it is one of the best ways of creating a catalogue that can be used by relative beginners but has the functionality necessary for uploading to a database.

As for paper vs electronic copies, the general advice I give is that if you want to keep it for 5 years, have an electronic copy, if you want to keep it for 500 years have a paper copy. There are ways and means of working out ancient texts. Trying to read a corrupted 5 1/4" floppy disc is next to hopeless.

[wasonthelist]

nothruroad You are doing it right - a lot of people (there are a number of honourable exceptions on this thread of course) shouldn't be using Excel.

[mirime]

I've used unreadable fonts when trying to replicate the work of The Designers Republic. Brightened up a few notice boards, so there is a design use for them.

But that was in Publisher and not Word or PowerPoint.

On the presentations, I hate it when people cram so much text on a slide that they end up reducing the font size. So the first three points are readable then it gets smaller and smaller like they're combining a presentation with an opticians visit.

[nothruroad]

You people terrify me. I rarely use excel at work but whenever I do I have to watch a YouTube video to learn how to do anything. Only I often don't even know what to look up. I'd never survive in a real job. Luckily am a teacher!

[Ego147]

'Did you mean to press Print without at least doing a preview first'

[unlucky83]

the paper clip ....used to get my choicest language in my irritated shouting at the computer stage ...must be the MOST irritating idea ever
It looks like you are typing a letter ...well you'd be wrong - so fuck off...a few minutes later up it would pop again - I said FUCK OFF...
It was actually really easy to disable it (although that might have been after updates) but it took time to find out how (and more choice language)...and it was the kind of thing you didn't want to have to do whilst you were trying to do something more important under time pressure -in the end I put 'kill the paperclip' on my to do list...
In Windows 7 there was an irritating dog in the search box - and I can't remember what but they had done something irritating with the search - maybe stopped you searching for xxxx.doc or .xls or stopped you selecting the drive you knew the file was on or something- can't remember what but I know with that and the bloody libraries I used to swear at....
(Windows 10 search irritates me more - got used to the the fact that I could use the search in windows to bring up files and now they have the irritating search that keeps trying to search the internet - do need to look at that properly some time to sort it out but for now I just have it disabled and hidden...)

[Freshprincess]

Love the PA paper clip. 'Set print area, that's useful. '

[Ego147]

I do wonder if some people on here have their own MN spreadsheets?

And what you could find out on the MN database? What extra fields have they got on users?