The Digital Home Video: What's up with Microsoft Excel?

In today's episode, I discuss what I just don't like about Microsoft Excel..

And as always, drop me a line or follow me on Twitter!

[optionshiftk]

Don, for making gorgeous graphs I recommend "numbers" which is bundled with Apple's iwork. I love it!

[donsms]

Sounds like a younger,crankier version of Mr. John C Dvorak to me.Keep up the good work Don,hope to hear you more often on the twit network also.

[cporpheus]

I found the new interface of Office 2007 FAR better than digging through toolbars and pop-up menus. As far as Excel, I had a hell of a time trying to get two lines on a graph in Open Office and Excel was far more intuitive. I guess it depends on the user, because I found the new layout in Office 2007 very intuitive. If only they had the layout for Outlook, I'd be set.

[ozzyovenmitts]

I agree. I have spent a little time with excel but the old one was just easier to use. I could find everything well enough to make a basic graph and some other basic functions.

However, I think that they need to make one simple change to the entire Office Suite. Customizable interface, or some degree of customization. If I want to move a button or two around then I should just be able to go into a menu and move buttons around. If this were the case with the Office Suite then I feel it would much more usable. If this were made somewhat more user friendly then it would be one of the best pieces of software ever.

Oh well, I can always hope.

[Wisnaeme]

The latest Office versions are a mess. They've gone all Vista-like on the front end and made it all "pretty" (in their opinion.) The main thing they've forgotten is usability. It really is difficult to use now.

I have not met a customer yet that likes the new front end of the Office suite. I'd appreciate a program suite that looks business like and not like something a 6 year old designed. Give me the Windows 2000 look to all windows please; It worked and it was fast. We just want a fast, secure operating system to install fast and efficient programs onto.

As you say, Microsoft it's time for a rethink.

[optionshiftk]

Look, the entire MS office suite is bloated! I do not understand why the student edition(striped down) costs over 200 dollars. Word processing is so brain dead basic, but Microsoft still can not figure it out. I am happy with Apple iwork. Pages is fine form my writing requirements(bloging) and keynote makes power point look like an ugly stepchild(not offense intended)

[jonpeltier]

Well, I sure got a good first impression of the Digital Home Video. Not very professional, but I guess it does say "Home" in the title. Did you plan what you were going to say first, or did you just have 5:00 to kill? Taking your puppy on your honeymoon, d00d?

You seem to have much more trouble with Excel and charts than someone who talks about technology. Hmm, select data, go to the Insert tab, click on a chart type, and out pops a chart. Sure, the defaults are ugly, but they're marginally better in the latest version (2007) than before. Sure, the charting interface in 2007 is more cumbersome than before, but it's somewhat serviceable.

And like any other object in every Office application, and a lot of non-Microsoft applications, you can right-click to find a context menu of options for changing whatever you've clicked on. 2007 makes it harder, because in earlier versions you could also double click to bring up a formatting dialog directly, but you can still get to the dialog through the right-click menu.

One of the strengths of Excel is how infinitely flexible the charts are. You can combine different types and apply lots of formatting to achieve effects that other packages wish they had. If you encountered any inflexibility, I'd suspect it's a case of PEBKAC, or maybe PEBCAK. Watching the video only reinforces this diagnosis.

Side note to optionshiftk - there is a non-stripped-down version of Office available to students for $69. Google for "The Ultimate Steal".