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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To feel like I'm banging my head off a wall...

30 replies

WhitePhantom · 23/01/2017 18:14

I have a friend, a lovely person, who is quite computer-illiterate. I'm very computer literate (I work on computers all day every day).

She wants to be able to do something on the computer that I have been doing for her since the beginning of 2015. I've gone through it with her very slowly, step by step, numerous times, and every time she's totally mystified. I explain what we're about to do and why, then point at the screen and explain what she needs to click / type / whatever, and (with quite a bit of difficulty) she does it.

It takes me under 10 minutes to do it, start to finish. Each time I go through it with her it takes about an hour and a half, because she genuinely just doesn't get it.

I did out a set of notes for her, laying it out step by step, including screenshots. I really can't make it any clearer (and it's not even something particularly difficult). I give computer training courses, and am always told that I give very clear instructions and notes, so I don't think it's that I'm not explaining it well.

She tried to do it at home by herself last night, and she couldn't manage it. She wants to call over and go through it again, which I know is going to be at least another hour, where she's totally and utterly baffled at every step. I suggested to her that I continue doing it for her, but she said she really wants to be able to do it herself.

She's a good friend, and I don't want to hurt her by telling her that if she hasn't grasped it at this stage she's not going to, but that's the reality of it. I've gone over it and over it with her, but there's never a flicker of recognition - it's like every time is the first time.

What do I do??

OP posts:
dollydaydream114 · 23/01/2017 22:48

Why does it have to be Excel?

Unless it's a table that actually requires formulas, I'd have thought she'd find a Word table much easier to manage.

user1484317265 · 23/01/2017 23:07

Doing up a very simple sign in sheet does not in any way equate to being computer literate. I used to teach a silver surfers club, they could manage that in 30 mins.
She's messing with you, or she has some kind of issue, if you've explained it over and over again.

WhitePhantom · 23/01/2017 23:21

BrowsOnFleek, I've done exactly that. I can't understand why she can't follow it.

It's Excel because I have a formula in the original sheet to keep track of how many times people have attended in the last 6 weeks - once someone hasn't attended in that time they get removed from the sheet, otherwise we'd have sign in sheets with hundreds of names (she doesn't have to do that bit though). It just wouldn't work in Word.

Mother FC, that sounds like a good thing to say - thanks for that.

OP posts:
Astoria7974 · 25/01/2017 21:12

Get her to update the names each week. You create a macro or manually upload her data into a central sheet to make the calculations?

Astoria7974 · 25/01/2017 21:13

There are several good You Tube videos to help you with this. I work in Finance - all of my Advanced Excel stuff comes from there. You just need to know how to search and need to know what you're looking for.

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