Board index › Topical Discussion › Computers, Math, Science, and Technology

Excel and Numbers

Page 1 of 1 [ 11 posts ] 

Previous topic | Next topic

SyAn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,822

27 May 2014, 4:38 am

I love Excel, have done so for a few years now. Finding solutions for "I wonder whether it can . . ." keeps me amused for hours on end.
Recently I have gone into Numbers, and after initially thinking that it cannot do anything decent I have found a few things it can do; and the fun of learning a new software that I never worked with before, bliss!
Anyone else out there who equates spreadsheets (among other things) with happiness?



DancingDanny
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 24 Sep 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 351

27 May 2014, 5:33 am

Are there any good online resources for learning Excel?



TallyMan
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Mar 2008
Gender: Male
Posts: 40,061

27 May 2014, 5:34 am

SyAn wrote:
Anyone else out there who equates spreadsheets (among other things) with happiness?


One of my former employers certainly did. The most successful spreadsheet I ever wrote managed to increase their profit margin by £ 1/2 million per year - it optimised their manufacture of garments to better match what was actually selling in shops. This is much more complex to achieve than it may seem at first glance.


_________________
I've left WP indefinitely.


Stargazer43
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Nov 2011
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,604

27 May 2014, 5:41 am

SyAn wrote:
I love Excel, have done so for a few years now. Finding solutions for "I wonder whether it can . . ." keeps me amused for hours on end.
Recently I have gone into Numbers, and after initially thinking that it cannot do anything decent I have found a few things it can do; and the fun of learning a new software that I never worked with before, bliss!
Anyone else out there who equates spreadsheets (among other things) with happiness?


More like equate them with despair



SyAn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,822

27 May 2014, 5:54 am

DancingDanny wrote:
Are there any good online resources for learning Excel?


I'm sure there are, never checked as figuring things out myself is an essential part of the fun 😊. However, if stuck with a problem I usually google it.



SyAn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,822

27 May 2014, 5:55 am

TallyMan wrote:
SyAn wrote:
Anyone else out there who equates spreadsheets (among other things) with happiness?


One of my former employers certainly did. The most successful spreadsheet I ever wrote managed to increase their profit margin by £ 1/2 million per year - it optimised their manufacture of garments to better match what was actually selling in shops. This is much more complex to achieve than it may seem at first glance.


I know - good for you 😊



SyAn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,822

27 May 2014, 5:57 am

Stargazer43 wrote:
SyAn wrote:
I love Excel, have done so for a few years now. Finding solutions for "I wonder whether it can . . ." keeps me amused for hours on end.
Recently I have gone into Numbers, and after initially thinking that it cannot do anything decent I have found a few things it can do; and the fun of learning a new software that I never worked with before, bliss!
Anyone else out there who equates spreadsheets (among other things) with happiness?


More like equate them with despair


Oh no, really? How can that be?
They are logical, helpful, consistent . . .



Stargazer43
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Nov 2011
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,604

27 May 2014, 5:44 pm

SyAn wrote:
Stargazer43 wrote:
SyAn wrote:
I love Excel, have done so for a few years now. Finding solutions for "I wonder whether it can . . ." keeps me amused for hours on end.
Recently I have gone into Numbers, and after initially thinking that it cannot do anything decent I have found a few things it can do; and the fun of learning a new software that I never worked with before, bliss!
Anyone else out there who equates spreadsheets (among other things) with happiness?


More like equate them with despair


Oh no, really? How can that be?
They are logical, helpful, consistent . . .


Until you find out that cell AF-3576 was referencing cell BC-243 instead of cell BC-244, causing the calculated results of your iterative circular reference loop that you've been setting up for 8 hours to be completely wrong.



SyAn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,822

28 May 2014, 1:14 am

Stargazer43 wrote:
Until you find out that cell AF-3576 was referencing cell BC-243 instead of cell BC-244, causing the calculated results of your iterative circular reference loop that you've been setting up for 8 hours to be completely wrong.


. . . but the feeling when you HAVE found out!



MDD123
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 May 2009
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,007

31 May 2014, 10:23 am

I don't think I like them as much as you, but in generator school last summer, I taught myself to use excel functions to calculate power loads. If you have to make repetitive calculations, it makes sense to use excel.


_________________
I'm a math evangelist, I believe in theorems and ignore the proofs.


SyAn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,822

31 May 2014, 6:08 pm

I started with a spreadsheet to help me manage life's complexities. By now it has become my goto place for all things that I 'need' to remember / keep track of, such as birthdays (calculates ages), bills and appointments (shows reminder on due date) and much more. I often get ideas about what else it might be able to do using formulas, conditional formatting or macros.
Numbers is quite limited in comparison to Excel, but it was great fun to convert my spreadsheet and find alternative ways to do the job.