Worksheet grouping

  • Thread starter Thread starter Johnson Lukose
  • Start date Start date
J

Johnson Lukose

I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with the
usability and user friendliness of MS Excel...

I am using MS Excel 2003 SP1. I was working on a ~300
row worksheet (Sheet 1) and ~50 row worksheet (Sheet 2).

I had finished the work. This was a quotation for a
system proposal amounting to US$500K... for a tender
proposal closing in 4 hours time!!

When I had 'pretty-ed' Sheet 2, I saved the file and
clicked on Sheet 1 to comlete my work. To my aghast, the
data below was GONE!!

After much consternation, I gave-up trying to recover my
data. I closed MS Excel, called my Directors to give
them the bad news... Fortunately, they are understanding
as they had bad things happen to them using MS Office
too... phew, thank God for MS's worldwide reputation!!

I went to my laptop for a post-morterm...

It seems I had inadvertantly clicked on worksheet Sheet 1
and Sheet 2, thus grouping them. So when I deleted
unwanted formatting in Sheet 2, the delete was also
applied to Sheet 1... The damn Sheet tabs are so
negligible in colour difference under grouping that I
couldn't tell!! There is no prompt or pop-up to provide
any inkling that the worksheets have been grouped!!
Especially, in my Compaq laptop, if you work on battery
power, the screen dims to save on power.

Why can't the monopolists use some common sense to make
life easier for users??

Anyone can forward this to the damn monopolists in
Redmond to save others in the world...

thanks.
 
Another satisfied user!

In general, have backups. All software is subject to user error, and some
(but not all) user error is caused by poor design. The only effective way to
protect yourself is with backups, ideally on multiple media.
 
snip...

There is no prompt or pop-up to provide any inkling that
the worksheets have been grouped!!

snip...

Actually, there is a "warning". In the title bar you will
see the word: [Group]

Biff
 
In addition, there's also the undo button in the standard
toolbar.

Biff
-----Original Message-----

snip...

There is no prompt or pop-up to provide any inkling that
the worksheets have been grouped!!

snip...

Actually, there is a "warning". In the title bar you will
see the word: [Group]

Biff
-----Original Message-----
I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with the
usability and user friendliness of MS Excel...

I am using MS Excel 2003 SP1. I was working on a ~300
row worksheet (Sheet 1) and ~50 row worksheet (Sheet 2).

I had finished the work. This was a quotation for a
system proposal amounting to US$500K... for a tender
proposal closing in 4 hours time!!

When I had 'pretty-ed' Sheet 2, I saved the file and
clicked on Sheet 1 to comlete my work. To my aghast, the
data below was GONE!!

After much consternation, I gave-up trying to recover my
data. I closed MS Excel, called my Directors to give
them the bad news... Fortunately, they are understanding
as they had bad things happen to them using MS Office
too... phew, thank God for MS's worldwide reputation!!

I went to my laptop for a post-morterm...

It seems I had inadvertantly clicked on worksheet Sheet 1
and Sheet 2, thus grouping them. So when I deleted
unwanted formatting in Sheet 2, the delete was also
applied to Sheet 1... The damn Sheet tabs are so
negligible in colour difference under grouping that I
couldn't tell!! There is no prompt or pop-up to provide
any inkling that the worksheets have been grouped!!
Especially, in my Compaq laptop, if you work on battery
power, the screen dims to save on power.

Why can't the monopolists use some common sense to make
life easier for users??

Anyone can forward this to the damn monopolists in
Redmond to save others in the world...

thanks.

.
Click to expand...
.
Click to expand...
 
Biff said:
Actually, there is a "warning". In the title bar you will
see the word: [Group]
Click to expand...

Which doesn't appear when running Excel in Full Screen mode.

This will always be a problem in software like Excel. If it's safe enough
for the unwary, it's cumbersome for advanced users. If it's convenient for
advanced users, it's dangerous for unwary users. It's also true that the
OP's experience is the surest way to learn how to become a wary user.

FWIW, 123, Quattro Pro, and StarOffice/OpenOffice Calc work the same way in
their equivalent group modes. 123 doesn't even prompt for confirmation when
deleting worksheets (but in 123 you can undo worksheet deletion). Shame the
OP saved without checking the other worksheet. It might have been possible
to undo the grouped deletions (at the cost of the formatting).
 
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