mikef@bbs.acs.unc.edu (Michael Freedburg) (03/05/91)
1. The fact that the progam does not work as *you* expect it to
is not sufficient evidence of poor design or even bugs. The fact
that you, perhaps inadvertantly, used a feature with which you
were not familiar, does not mean that the program is poorly
designed. One author writes that this type of mistake is too
easy to make. How so?? If you are not paying attention, how is
Excel supposed to know that you did not mean to click and drag
here on the column titles? Do you want Excel to ask you every
time: "Are you sure you want to change the column widths of
columns E-J"? Surely not!!
2. On the matter of some indicator being required to show the
user that he or she has set the column width to zero:
When I use Excel I have "Show column/row headings" turned on.
This shows me a sequence of letters!!
Like A B C D E F G H
If I look at the top of the worksheet and it goes:
A B E F G H I J
then I assume that C-D are zero width. Is this perhaps the sign
you seek? :-}
flame me all you want, I wear flame-retardent pj's
mikef@samba.acs.unc.edu
or
mikef@next1.mscre.unc.edu
Love and Peacederosa@motcid.UUCP (John DeRosa) (03/06/91)
mikef@bbs.acs.unc.edu (Michael Freedburg) writes: >1. The fact that the progam does not work as *you* expect it to >is not sufficient evidence of poor design or even bugs. The fact >that you, perhaps inadvertantly, used a feature with which you >were not familiar, does not mean that the program is poorly >designed. My intent when writting about my problem (note that I am taking full credit for my mistake) was not to indicate poor design or a bug. I understand that my problem was an inadvertant use of a feature of Excel, in fact now that I know about it, I have been using it. My intent was to tell other users of a potential pitfall of the many capabilities of Excel. That, I think (IMHO), is the intended purpose of news groups such as this. I have received several mailers stating, in so many words, "thanks, I didn't know that, I wondered how I had screwed up". Gives me a warm feeling right here. >2. On the matter of some indicator being required to show the >user that he or she has set the column width to zero: >When I use Excel I have "Show column/row headings" turned on. >This shows me a sequence of letters!! >Like A B C D E F G H >If I look at the top of the worksheet and it goes: > A B E F G H I J >then I assume that C-D are zero width. Is this perhaps the sign >you seek? :-} This is precisely how I spotted my problem. Unfortunately, this single missing row was buried in a spreadsheet of several hundred rows, making it difficult to detect. I wish life was as simple as your example, errors would fall by the wayside. >flame me all you want, I wear flame-retardent pj's This was a very little flame. You only needed flame resistant. -- = John DeRosa, Motorola, Inc, Cellular Infrastructure Group = = e-mail: ...uunet!motcid!derosaj, motcid!derosaj@uunet.uu.net = = Applelink: N1111 = =I do not hold by employer responsible for any information in this message =