Re: [libreoffice-users] MS Office woes

On 2/7/14 4:24 PM, anne-ology wrote:
>        Can you go into the properties to turn off the auto-fills? -
>            that's always been my solution.

True enough.  But my point is it's set up to work oddly.

> 1. The auto-fill and other "aides" in MSO make it much HARDER to 
> construct formula fields in Excel.
>        [if you're able to turn off those 'auto's then you should be 
> able to work as you desire]

Actually, it's more than the auto-fill.  The biggest problem is that if 
the formula doesn't meet MSO's standards, you can't leave it in place to 
work on later.  I've had formulas which took me days to work out, and if 
I can't leave them in place even when faulty, then I have to re-create 
them each time.  When they are so terribly long, with many layers of 
nested functions, losing them is a disaster. Yet Excel prevents you from 
saving them unless they "work."  BAH!

> 2.  The "smart" text select system,
>
>        [I'm not sure I understand but if you're attempting to copy, or 
> move, then paste elsewhere, then there must be a 'bug' in the system  
> ;-) ]

It's a bit specific, and not a bug (it has behaved this way for many 
releases and is, I think, intended as a function, though it acts more 
like a bug to me).  Yes, it's copy and move.  Take this paragraph text 
and copy to MSO.  Then highlight one sentence from before the first 
letter to the last.  It will highlight not just the sentence intended, 
but also the proceeding period.  At least that's how it works with my 
two-spaces between sentence style (which is the original standard for 
all typing, which MSO has chosen to dictate is no longer necessary, but 
which really does help to define sentence and paragraph structure IMHO).

> 3.  Biggest frustration (and I've heard talk of this but not 
> experienced it until last few days) - I've been saving a ton of small 
> spreadsheets as CSV to move into a database that requires CSV file 
> types.  But if I have to open them to re-edit, about half of them say 
> they are the "wrong" file type (extension is .csv, but Excel thinks 
> they are SYLK).  They open fine, but Excel, which moments before had 
> saved the file as CSV, now thinks it's SYLK.  HTF does excel NOT know 
> its own file type?
>
>        [haven't a clue here]
Yes, and that's the point.  Excel apparently hasn't a clue either. Take 
a spreadsheet file, save as CSV (the Excel version, not the plain text 
or Mac version), then open again with Excel.  Roughly 50% of the times 
Excel fails to open these.  I don't have a clue what's going on, but it 
seems like Excel should understand the format that it just saved the 
file to, so that it can re-open it.  Especially for something as simple 
as a CSV file.  Note too that I tried to open another CSV file today, 
slightly different situation, and Excel chose to ignore the CSV format 
and open it as if it were one column/field of data, ignoring the commas 
and quotes delineating the different fields.
> Rant done.  Just thought I'd share specific frustrations with LO 
> users.  To be fair, there are a few minor things I've appreciated in 
> MSO, but the frustrations are legion.
>
>
> Dover, NH 03820
>
>        [very pretty area - especially in the colourful fall]
Indeed!  SNOWY and cold now though (which is good if you're willing to 
get out in it as I am).

--

Carl Paulsen

Dover, NH 03820


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