williamss@topaz.ucq.edu.au (05/23/91)
I am considering upgrading my Excel 2c spreadsheet programme to Excel 3. However, my friendly University Bookshop manager (I am an academic) told me that it would just as cheap to purchase the Academic version of Quattro-Pro. Is there any advantage in one over the other, and if so which would I be better of getting. Steve Williams Williamss@topaz.ucq.edu.au s , ai
colfelt@news.colorado.edu (COLFELT ANDREW BRINTON W) (05/23/91)
williamss@topaz.ucq.edu.au writes: >I am considering upgrading my Excel 2c spreadsheet programme to Excel 3. >However, my friendly University Bookshop manager (I am an academic) told me >that it would just as cheap to purchase the Academic version of Quattro-Pro. >Is there any advantage in one over the other, and if so which would I be better >of getting. This is the subject of considerable debate. If you're an avid Windows user, I'd suggest getting Excel. It's prettier and totally compatible with other Windows apps. You wont have the flexibility with a DOS application if you want to run it from Windows. To make the point another way, I have been ultimately loyal to WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 for 5 years. Anytime someone even mentioned "Word" or "Excel" I cringed. My friend in D.C. got Windows around the same time I did and he was also a WordPerfect fanatic. Then he got Word for Windows and told me about it, raving praises. I mocked him for even THIKING about Microsoft Word for anything. Then I was motivated to buy Word for Windows for a research project and I'm now a full convert. Then I saw Excel on another friend's machine and bought the program the next day; killed my 123 directory that night! The issue of speed is an important one, however. Word and Excel for Windows are both slower than WP51 and 123r3. But then again, these are DOS apps and running them from Windows is sometimes a hassle. On the other hand, the ability to easily exchange data from spreadsheet to document and elsewhere is attractive. The Windows interface is also pleasant to work with, although, again, it is slow on some machines. But if you've got gobs of memory, speed becomes less of an issue, much. Anyway, it has by now become apparent that I might as well be a Microsoft sales rep. This is probably because my attitude toward MS has shifted 180 degrees in the last six months. I've had BIG problems with the documentation MS generates and had a personal boycott of MS for a little while. (I'm a psychology major pursuing an honors thesis in human-computer interaction, technical documentation, and software usability.) But I've been so pleased with the Windows environment and the Windows apps. that I'm learning to ignore the documentation and enjoy the plusses. Tell me, in what DOS apps. can you have a word processor and a spreadsheet running at the same time and dynamically link data from one to the other so that changes in one are linked to the other in real time?! Nope, I can't think of any either. P.S. Buy everything you can while you're still a student. After you graduate you'll be paying what the rest of the world pays: too much! Andrew colfelt@tramp.colorado.edu
ckinsman@yoda.eecs.wsu.edu (Chris Kinsman) (05/23/91)
In article <1991May23.095836.7313@topaz.ucq.edu.au> williamss@topaz.ucq.edu.au writes: >I am considering upgrading my Excel 2c spreadsheet programme to Excel 3. >However, my friendly University Bookshop manager (I am an academic) told me >that it would just as cheap to purchase the Academic version of Quattro-Pro. >Is there any advantage in one over the other, and if so which would I be better >of getting. > If you want something that runs in Windows then you are much better off getting Excel. I also feel that Excel 3.0 is much more powerful than Quattro-Pro but that is personal opinion. Chris -- Chris Kinsman KINSMAN@WSUVM1 Washington State University 22487863@WSUVM1 Computing Service Center ckinsman@yoda.eecs.wsu.edu Computing Resources Laboratory 76701.154@compuserve.com