“the modern distinction between “programmers” and “users” is evil and destroys agency,” approving of #loper-os Stanislav. #Excel is #malleable. #free-software #politics #toread
on 02025-07-20apparently reinsurance, of all things, is moving from #Excel to #Python
on 02021-01-13Some versions of #Excel can’t handle #CSV files that begin with “ID” because they misinterpret them as SYLK files (and then the SYLK parser says, “SYLK: File format is not valid”)
on 02016-11-21#Excel #finance #video of Martin Shkreli analyzing eBay
on 02016-10-02You Suck at #Excel, by Joel Spolsky: tip #video, from which I learned #Gnumeric tips including double-clicking on the bottom of a range to autofill down to the end of the current table (including by-example numeric sequences and date sequences), Paste Values (part of Paste Special in Gnumeric), Paste Special Add, Paste Special Transpose, F4 for point-and-click absolute cell references, & for string concatenation, ^` to toggle formula display, R1C1 mode (under Format → Sheet in Gnumeric), Format Cells Text to avoid numeric interpretation on input, conveniently naming cells and ranges, MATCH/INDEX/VLOOKUP/HLOOKUP,, ^$ and ^% to format as dollars or percent, ^; to insert today’s date, and Tools → Goal Seek (which I didn’t know about, but which can numerically solve equations). Also it looks like the ribbon interface, the updated autofilter interface, and Excel’s new tables feature are super convenient. Spolsky’s Excel style is a lot more mouse-driven than Shkreli’s, and he seems to be missing some basic stuff like TAB to move to the cell to the right and not trying to enter dates as formulas. A really great user demo of data-first, structure-later systems.
on 02016-10-02