Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Labeling in Calc

On 7/22/2012 10:34 AM, Andreas Säger wrote:
> Enter raw data into a spreadsheet (Excel, Gnumeric, Calc, whatever), a 
> text editor, some dBase application, a true database, whatever.
> Connect a Base document to the tabular data source and design a report.

But that's the point isn't it.  I've got to enter data into the 
spreadsheet.  We're in agreement.

Why must I take the time, expense and trouble to "design a report" when 
I can get satisfactory results with a bare minimum of time, expense and 
trouble using Calc?

Clearly, you know Base and designing said report is no big deal for 
you.  I think I may have opened Base once, and I simply don't have the 
time to learn it, nor the money to pay someone else to do the work for 
me.  Especially not when a solution presents itself in Calc so readily.

Yes, your solution is elegant, ideal and based in academia where people 
have all the time in the world to learn applications and techniques and 
then design dream or "best practice" solutions.  In the world of 
business it's about simplicity, speed, expense and return on 
investment.  I can hire a virtual assistant from a third world country 
for less than $2 an hour, who already knows how to use a spreadsheet 
(not that cut & pasting requires much knowledge), whereas to hire a 
programmer to design a report would cost in excess of $8 an hour (and 
everytime I need a change I either have to go find that same contractor 
who now charges more, or start the interview process all over again; a 
time consuming task) - plus I still need to hire the assistant that ends 
up doing just about the exact same (busy) work anyway.  So where is the 
economical benefit to your solution?

Your solution works for you because you have not considered the real 
cost of implementing it.  It may be "best practice" from an academic, 
engineering and/or scientific standpoint, but from a SMALL business 
perspective it makes little sense.  You've absorbed the cost of your own 
time and pegged it's value at zero.  I'm taking real dollars out of my 
own pocket and paying someone to do the work.  It's the same reason why 
people hire housekeepers - if the cost of the housekeeper were more than 
the employers income they couldn't afford to pay the housekeeper for 
long and would eventually have to clean their own house.  You're 
cleaning your own house and that works for you.  Great!  I prefer to pay 
someone so I'm free to focus my time on what I hope are more profitable 
endeavors.

> As a matter of fact, database forms (even Base forms) provide much 
> faster and less error prone ways of data entry. In the last 2 years I 
> replaced a dozend of useless spreadsheet lists with simple databases 
> because "my users" never really got used to spreadsheet editing 
> (navigation, dates, numbers, clear, delete, ...). Spreadsheets are too 
> versatile for untrained users. Wrong data yield wrong results. My 
> databases collect a thousand of manually entered records per month on 
> a local network.

So really you're trying to apply a one-size-fits-all approach.  My users 
(1 or 2 assistants) already know how to use spreadsheets so technically 
they're not "untrained", whereas your users do not know how.  You 
collect thousands of MANUALLY entered records per month. I might have 
maybe a thousand or so records total, which can be cut & pasted from 
website to spreadsheet.  My needs are different than yours.  Any 
solution needs to take the customer's needs and unique situation into 
account and in this case I'm the customer.



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