This is inappropriate. My comments may have been rude. But I am not your
employ.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Re: Google Apps
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2018 09:57:15 +0000
From: Brian Barker <[email protected]>
To: Gary Leroy Wampnar <[email protected]>
At 15:31 14/02/2018 -0600, you wrote:
This is why after years I have now stopped using Open Office and
switched to Google Apps.
Ah, so you have been using it successfully for years?
I am a programmer.
Good: so you'll know what you are doing, then.
I quickly dump software that does not comply to User Ergonomics.
Er, hold on: you are dumping OpenOffice "quickly" after using it for
years? That makes no sense at all!
It should be simple and intuitive. Especially the simplest task.
Yes, matters should be made as simple as passable, but that is by no
means always trivial. If I buy a piano, I don't expect playing the
Moonlight Sonata to come easily: I have to learn how to operate the
instrument. If I buy a car, I don't expect to be able to complete the
"simplest task" of driving to work without extensive lessons and
setting up fuel, licensing, insurance, and so on. Using computer
software is similar: you need to expect to learn how to drive it
before you can be proficient. It's very difficult to see how you are
a programmer but apparently do not appreciate this simple idea.
All I wanted was to set up a budget like I have many time in Open
Office but the Sum command now does not sum.
Well, it does, of course - and you know it does, as you have used it
before. Nothing has changed. Simple logic implies that you are now
simply doing something different to create your problem, although you
may well not recognise this.
Why? I read online suggestions which mentioned it could have
something to do with the value being treated as Text with no
explanation to convert them to numerical values.
If you don't understand this distinction, you are very much a
beginner at using spreadsheets - and you will find the same problem
whichever spreadsheet software you choose to use - yes, even
Google's. What you see is *not* what you get in spreadsheets, and
never has been:
o What is displayed in a spreadsheet cell is a *version* of the value
hidden in that cell, according to the formatting of that cell - which
you may have set explicitly or may have been determined from what you
typed or pasted. For your spreadsheets to work, you need to be aware
of the format type of all your data.
o When you type values into a spreadsheet, they are - possibly
invisibly - edited by the software to determine what is actually
stored in the cell. This is a convenience, in fact, but will confuse
you if you have not learned the basics about spreadsheets. (You will
not be the first person to make this mistake.)
It seemed quickly much easier to sign in to Google. Goodbye.
You are very welcome, of course, to choose to use any alternative
software you wish. Yes, really. But if speed means to you avoiding
learning about the tool and about your own mistakes, you will find
the same problems in the future. Google's offering will behave in a
very similar way; if it didn't, users would be complaining! In
particular, if you enter your data there *in exactly the same way*
(do not confuse typing with pasting, for example), you will see the
same results there. Why not - instead of complaining that OpenOffice
doesn't work - ask about your problem on the mailing list and learn
the solution?
I have little patience when companies make simple tasks complicated.
Again, this makes no sense:
o You cannot say that you have "little patience" with something after
claiming to have used it for years!
o Surely you know enough about OpenOffice to appreciate that it is
created by a cooperative venture, not a "company"?
o Like most things, when you understand it, you will find the way
spreadsheets work a convenience, not a complication.
OK: now to your problem. If you have managed to enter values as text
instead of as numbers, you will not expect to be able to calculate
with them. But there are easy solutions. You may need to set the
format of cells before you enter data (though you probably don't, in
fact). If you have entered values inappropriately, there are easy
ways to correct your mistake. You can find these in the help text, in
the documentation available from the web site (you have read this,
haven't you?), through a web search, or by asking on this mailing list.
It always amuses me when people making such claims choose to
advertise them to hundreds, perhaps a thousand or two, of fellow
users around the world, most of whom will understand the software
well enough not to find the same problems. Why not describe your
problem instead and obtain help?
I trust this helps.
Brian Barker - privately
