suggestion for excel tool option

add option to auto deselect all other selected sheet tabs and edit current
sheet only on first keypress... or right click... maybe a few other options
to make it not too automatic.

maybe escape would reselect... make it another option on a UI tab for

Excel.tools.options.dialog

----------------
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suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

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David Coleman wrote...
add option to auto deselect all other selected sheet tabs and edit current
sheet only on first keypress... or right click... maybe a few other options
to make it not too automatic.

Why not run Windows New Window to create a new window to display the
same file, select only the worksheet you want in that second window,
edit at will, then close the window when done to return to the original
window with multiple worksheets selected?

Simple enough to record a macro to create a new window.

Or maybe you could just record a macro and assign it to a button, and
not have to wait.

David Coleman wrote:

add option to auto deselect all other selected sheet tabs and edit current
sheet only on first keypress... or right click... maybe a few other options
to make it not too automatic.

maybe escape would reselect... make it another option on a UI tab for

Excel.tools.options.dialog

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ic.office.misc

or you could consider that reducing this logic to an option would
allow faster navigation of complex workbooks.

The non-technical user is presented with a single sheet. As such it is a
reasonable expectation that unless configured as an advanced option, the
current sheet would be the only one being edited...

The average user does not change multiple pages at once, and usually, when
they do, it's not what they wanted to do...

The obvious need for the feature is given, that it cannot be turned off is a
barrier to usability.

"Bob I" wrote:

Or maybe you could just record a macro and assign it to a button, and
not have to wait.

David Coleman wrote:

add option to auto deselect all other selected sheet tabs and edit current
sheet only on first keypress... or right click... maybe a few other options
to make it not too automatic.

maybe escape would reselect... make it another option on a UI tab for

Excel.tools.options.dialog

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ic.office.misc

David Coleman wrote...
or you could consider that reducing this logic to an option would
allow faster navigation of complex workbooks.

The question is just how many simplifying options does Excel need? If
all Excel users got to add just one convenience feature, Excel would
balloon in size.

The non-technical user is presented with a single sheet. As such it is a
reasonable expectation that unless configured as an advanced option, the
current sheet would be the only one being edited...

The UI shows when multiple worksheets are selected by showing the
highlighted tabs with the same, usually white, background color. Now
the UI *should* include a better means of indicating that multiple
worksheets are selected when not all selected worksheet tabs can fit
below the worksheet in the active window. Excel *should* provide an
indicator in the right side of the status bar showing the number of
worksheets selected.

The average user does not change multiple pages at once, and usually, when
they do, it's not what they wanted to do...

The obvious need for the feature is given, that it cannot be turned off is a
barrier to usability.
....

It *CAN* be turned off. Hold down a [Shift] key and click on the active
worksheet's tab. It's just that there's not necessarily a single click
way to reselect the previously selected group of worksheets. However,
multiple worksheet selections are properties of Window objects, not
Workbook objects, so the user only needs to create a new Window, select
only a single worksheet in the new window, edit it, then close that
window and the original window still has all the originally selected
worksheets still selected.

"Harlan Grove" wrote:

David Coleman wrote...
or you could consider that reducing this logic to an option would
allow faster navigation of complex workbooks.

The question is just how many simplifying options does Excel need? If
all Excel users got to add just one convenience feature, Excel would
balloon in size.

true, so consider a way to allow users to chose from a list of Look-And-Feel
options suitable to this type of option as well as other similar UI options
which would simplify the functional options from the UI options. Such a
cleanly arrayed set of categorized program options would clearly benefit an
application such as Excel.

The non-technical user is presented with a single sheet. As such it is a
reasonable expectation that unless configured as an advanced option, the
current sheet would be the only one being edited...

The UI shows when multiple worksheets are selected by showing the
highlighted tabs with the same, usually white, background color. Now
the UI *should* include a better means of indicating that multiple
worksheets are selected when not all selected worksheet tabs can fit
below the worksheet in the active window. Excel *should* provide an
indicator in the right side of the status bar showing the number of
worksheets selected.

As a developer I often color code tabs for my end users so accounting sheets
and production sheets are grouped for ease of reference. I am very familiar
with the windows UI, and Excel is by far the best windows 3.1 application
I've ever seen.

I admit that the functional interface is exceptional and constantly
improving...

but only in texture. Nearly every other MS application remembers how each
user last viewed the document, and also how they like their UI to interact.

The new shared workbook feature in MS is academic until the profile is
integrated with UI. Excel sheets are a volitile method of sharing
information due to the fact that when you select multiple sheets to perform a
network action, they are frequently saved grouped. Thus the instant danger
for the remote user to unknowingly change unrelated data is unavoidable in
many circumstances...

Excel is so powerful, that it is understandable that the level of user view
control present in most MS apps has not been implemented. But it is close to
time, as increasing numbers of businesses rely on IS to use aught but Excel
and its powerful data tools to provide reporting... reporting which is
famously the neverending IT headache, since excel *is* the best option in
those cases...

I think the tabs should work like file selection... if you click a single
one w/o the shift or ctrl key, it goes right to only that one... same for
edit content in excel and clicking tabs to bring up the pane... add an
action level option to affect a group, so selection is for actions or
something more logical than the current document managment scheme... It's
still win31 level. If we have a separate window for each document then why
is every one the same app, w/the same win31 excel workspace as always inside
a fancy win3k window border?

Nuff said... Excel is so good it doesn't need to be modern, I truely mean no
scarcasm. But I do think it's time offically say it's noticable.

The average user does not change multiple pages at once, and usually, when
they do, it's not what they wanted to do...

The obvious need for the feature is given, that it cannot be turned off is a
barrier to usability.
....

It *CAN* be turned off. Hold down a [Shift] key and click on the active
worksheet's tab. It's just that there's not necessarily a single click
way to reselect the previously selected group of worksheets. However,
multiple worksheet selections are properties of Window objects, not
Workbook objects, so the user only needs to create a new Window, select
only a single worksheet in the new window, edit it, then close that
window and the original window still has all the originally selected
worksheets still selected.

David Coleman wrote...
"Harlan Grove" wrote:
David Coleman wrote...
or you could consider that reducing this logic to an option would
allow faster navigation of complex workbooks.

The question is just how many simplifying options does Excel need? If
all Excel users got to add just one convenience feature, Excel would
balloon in size.

true, so consider a way to allow users to chose from a list of Look-And-Feel
options suitable to this type of option as well as other similar UI options
which would simplify the functional options from the UI options. Such a
cleanly arrayed set of categorized program options would clearly benefit an
application such as Excel.
....

In an ideal world in which neither users nor IT departments had to
worry about storage it might be beneficial for users to be able to
choose which particular UI convenience features from thousands of
pre-programmed options to include with the base software. However, in
the real world each of those thousands of optional features would take
up storage. They might not eat RAM, but they'd make it necessary to
distribute Excel or Office on many disks. If individual business users
were installing Excel or Office on their own from disks, maybe this
would be workable, but most business users have their software
installed by IT departments, and allowing users large scale
post-installation configuration options simply won't happen because
it'd be a nightmare - too much could go wrong.

Excel and Office are programmatically customizable. Use the macro
recorder in Excel to record the actions necessary to perform your most
needed convenience features.

but only in texture. Nearly every other MS application remembers how each
user last viewed the document, and also how they like their UI to interact.

?

There's nothing remotely like Excel's multiple worksheets per file in
any of the other Office applications. Sections in Word documents are
nothing like them.

Excel remembers considerably more than Word from session to session.
Create 2 windows into the same Excel file, save it, exit Excel, reopen
the saved Excel file and it'll still have two windows displaying it.
Create multiple windows displaying the same Word document, save the
Word document, exit Word and reopen the file and Word will only show
the single window into the file that was active when the file was last
saved.

Forgive me for believing Excel's UI functionality is distinctly
superior to that of Word's.

The new shared workbook feature in MS is academic until the profile is
integrated with UI. Excel sheets are a volitile method of sharing
information due to the fact that when you select multiple sheets to perform a
network action, they are frequently saved grouped. Thus the instant danger
for the remote user to unknowingly change unrelated data is unavoidable in
many circumstances...

New? excel has offerred it since Excel 97, so for more than 8 years. 8
year old software features generally aren't considered 'new'.

If you want to ensure any user opening the file starts off with only a
single worksheet selected, then ensure that by including the statement

ActiveWindow.ActiveSheet.Select

in the ThisWorkbook_Open event handler.

Sometimes programming is necessary to ensure idiot-proofing. Developers
should know more than average users.

Excel is so powerful, that it is understandable that the level of user view
control present in most MS apps has not been implemented. But it is close to
time, as increasing numbers of businesses rely on IS to use aught but Excel
and its powerful data tools to provide reporting... reporting which is
famously the neverending IT headache, since excel *is* the best option in
those cases...

No, Access and most any other database front-end are much better than
Excel for standard, periodically recurring reporting tasks. It's far
too easy to screw up Excel workbooks. It takes some deliberate effort
to screw up existing Access reports.

And what specific user view control features in, say, Word does Excel
lack?

I think the tabs should work like file selection... if you click a single
one w/o the shift or ctrl key, it goes right to only that one... same for
edit content in excel and clicking tabs to bring up the pane... add an
action level option to affect a group, so selection is for actions or
something more logical than the current document managment scheme... It's
still win31 level. If we have a separate window for each document then why
is every one the same app, w/the same win31 excel workspace as always inside
a fancy win3k window border?
....

MDI (in the old sense - multiple document interface). It's common to
Excel, Access and Word, and a great many other applications. Dunno &
don't care about PowerPoint and Outlook.

From my perspective, Excel does mostly the right thing with respect to
worksheets as portions of workbook files. If *YOU* want single
worksheet workbooks, you can make *YOUR* own workbooks default to
contain one worksheet, then *YOU* can experience the joys of nothing
but external reference links between worksheets.

For me, the good news is that Excel already works mostly the way I want
it to. The bad news for you is that there's a considerable portion of
the total Excel user base who share my opinion, and combined with
Microsoft's demonstrated inertia, you'd better get used to current
functionality.

"Harlan Grove" wrote:

David Coleman wrote...
"Harlan Grove" wrote:
David Coleman wrote...
or you could consider that reducing this logic to an option would
allow faster navigation of complex workbooks.

The question is just how many simplifying options does Excel need? If
all Excel users got to add just one convenience feature, Excel would
balloon in size.

true, so consider a way to allow users to chose from a list of Look-And-Feel
options suitable to this type of option as well as other similar UI options
which would simplify the functional options from the UI options. Such a
cleanly arrayed set of categorized program options would clearly benefit an
application such as Excel.
....

In an ideal world in which neither users nor IT departments had to
worry about storage it might be beneficial for users to be able to
choose which particular UI convenience features from thousands of
pre-programmed options to include with the base software. However, in
the real world each of those thousands of optional features would take
up storage. They might not eat RAM, but they'd make it necessary to
distribute Excel or Office on many disks. If individual business users
were installing Excel or Office on their own from disks, maybe this
would be workable, but most business users have their software
installed by IT departments, and allowing users large scale
post-installation configuration options simply won't happen because
it'd be a nightmare - too much could go wrong.

lol... I was almost trying to avoid the same thing. less of a world wide
login profile thing and more like the preferences level of IE. From your
perspective, it would be a way to allow greater user interaction since NT
permissions already enforce whatever end user level set by by any of the data
protection features already present.

As you say, old school. The existing framework supports any level of
integration w/the options settings already categorically stored with properly
structured documents.


Excel and Office are programmatically customizable. Use the macro
recorder in Excel to record the actions necessary to perform your most
needed convenience features.

but only in texture. Nearly every other MS application remembers how each
user last viewed the document, and also how they like their UI to interact.

?

There's nothing remotely like Excel's multiple worksheets per file in
any of the other Office applications. Sections in Word documents are
nothing like them.

Excel remembers considerably more than Word from session to session.
Create 2 windows into the same Excel file, save it, exit Excel, reopen
the saved Excel file and it'll still have two windows displaying it.
Create multiple windows displaying the same Word document, save the
Word document, exit Word and reopen the file and Word will only show
the single window into the file that was active when the file was last
saved.

Forgive me for believing Excel's UI functionality is distinctly
superior to that of Word's.


A statment which resounds of solid fact. The reason, indeed that excel is
the spreadsheet application. Functional superiority is the selling point,
and it delivers.

I fear that perhaps, it is so well designed, that the old school MDI
approach may be the necessary implementation of some core component that just
shouldn't be mucked with and makes the thunkish look to the document frame
necessary.

The new shared workbook feature in MS is academic until the profile is
integrated with UI. Excel sheets are a volitile method of sharing
information due to the fact that when you select multiple sheets to perform a
network action, they are frequently saved grouped. Thus the instant danger
for the remote user to unknowingly change unrelated data is unavoidable in
many circumstances...

New? excel has offerred it since Excel 97, so for more than 8 years. 8
year old software features generally aren't considered 'new'.

If you want to ensure any user opening the file starts off with only a
single worksheet selected, then ensure that by including the statement

ActiveWindow.ActiveSheet.Select

in the ThisWorkbook_Open event handler.

Sometimes programming is necessary to ensure idiot-proofing. Developers
should know more than average users.


lol. I've got shared files from J&J that weren't shared right because
public people like to convince IT to let them look important, and hopefully
someone intelligent is on the other end or she didn't use the only copy.
Didn't matter, I was careful, but wide availability is creating a danger zone
where IT cannot intervene before a mistake is made.

Excel is so powerful, that it is understandable that the level of user view
control present in most MS apps has not been implemented. But it is close to
time, as increasing numbers of businesses rely on IS to use aught but Excel
and its powerful data tools to provide reporting... reporting which is
famously the neverending IT headache, since excel *is* the best option in
those cases...

No, Access and most any other database front-end are much better than
Excel for standard, periodically recurring reporting tasks. It's far
too easy to screw up Excel workbooks. It takes some deliberate effort
to screw up existing Access reports.


again. excel is easy enough for the lesser skilled people to use. They now
as I illustrated before, have the ability to accidentally do more things
under the watchful eye of IT whose job it is to write the reports that they
and their vast accounting minds need for the rest of us to understand their
blasted spreadsheets. :-)

And watchful is not able to catch this b/c if the file could be shared, she
could accidentally do many other thing that combined with anything I
accidentally did in the file I saved back to the workspace, who knows... but
nothing happended, so I guess we wait until it does...

Functionality for the masses is good only in carefully metered doses.

And what specific user view control features in, say, Word does Excel
lack?

I think the tabs should work like file selection... if you click a single
one w/o the shift or ctrl key, it goes right to only that one... same for
edit content in excel and clicking tabs to bring up the pane... add an
action level option to affect a group, so selection is for actions or
something more logical than the current document managment scheme... It's
still win31 level. If we have a separate window for each document then why
is every one the same app, w/the same win31 excel workspace as always inside
a fancy win3k window border?
....

MDI (in the old sense - multiple document interface). It's common to
Excel, Access and Word, and a great many other applications. Dunno &
don't care about PowerPoint and Outlook.

From my perspective, Excel does mostly the right thing with respect to
worksheets as portions of workbook files. If *YOU* want single
worksheet workbooks, you can make *YOUR* own workbooks default to
contain one worksheet, then *YOU* can experience the joys of nothing
but external reference links between worksheets.

For me, the good news is that Excel already works mostly the way I want
it to. The bad news for you is that there's a considerable portion of
the total Excel user base who share my opinion, and combined with
Microsoft's demonstrated inertia, you'd better get used to current
functionality.



Again, I agree that the way it works is and that's that. but an accademic
discussion of this nature is informative at least since, in truth, Excel is
an exception in all of these and many other ways.