...And Apple just introduced a new spreadsheet app.
about damn time.
I don't fancy spending the next month trying to get librarian out of the carpet.
Spike ,'Chosen'
Buffistechnology 3: "Press Some Buttons, See What Happens."
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amych - Aug 07, 2007 9:19:50 am PDT #2359 of 25496
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
beekaytee - Aug 07, 2007 9:23:16 am PDT #2360 of 25496
Compassionately intolerant
Will it import an excel spreadsheet and let me sort by record?
§ ita § - Aug 07, 2007 9:25:55 am PDT #2361 of 25496
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Excel's not for records. Access is for records.
I know, I know--that ship has sailed and it's a de facto database for many people, but it's so damned broken that way I've given up on trying to fix it with shoestrings and ceiling wax.
Sophia Brooks - Aug 07, 2007 9:30:26 am PDT #2362 of 25496
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
The problem with Access is that when you open it up, as a person who jsut wants to do a mail merge, it is very confusing. Most people at my job just actually TYPE ALL THEIR MAILING LISTS DIRECTLY ONTO LABELS IN WORD and then HAND PICK THROUGH THEM TO MAIL THE ITEMS or merge to lists. So, using excel is an improvement, I think.
I am not sure I understand why it needs your cells to be all one size, or why they wouldn't be. I feel like I could probably fix it if you emailed it to me...
tommyrot - Aug 07, 2007 9:31:49 am PDT #2363 of 25496
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
You can sort "by record" in Excel - just select the entire range of stuff you want sorted and use the sort function (under the Data menu).
The sort function keeps telling me that my cells have to be the same size.
OK, I don't understand what's going on here.
Jessica - Aug 07, 2007 9:35:06 am PDT #2364 of 25496
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Beej, you probably have some merged cells in the list you're trying to sort.
sumi - Aug 07, 2007 9:38:56 am PDT #2365 of 25496
Art Crawl!!!
Sophia do you have Word 2007? Because the mail merge for that is really very good.
Sophia Brooks - Aug 07, 2007 9:42:53 am PDT #2366 of 25496
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
I don't sumi--we only end up getting new computers/software about every 6 years!
I ended up learning enough access that it is no longer confusing to me, and now we are actually spending the money to get a database built, which is great! But a large number of people admins here really do not have the skills or the desire to take it upon themselves to be more "computer savvy", and pretty much act like a computer is a giant typewriters, so they here send me their "mailing lists" typed on labels, at which point I have to merge and sort and de-duplicate them.
Edit- I know I am spewing vitriol, but I have to do this A LOT, and I am constantly saying "at least put in in excel, even if you don't understand access"
beekaytee - Aug 07, 2007 9:47:49 am PDT #2367 of 25496
Compassionately intolerant
I know, I know--that ship has sailed and it's a de facto database for many people, but it's so damned broken that way I've given up on trying to fix it with shoestrings and ceiling wax.
Le sigh.
My mac version of excel is not giving me the sort by record option. And the 'cells must be identical size' thing isn't going away. I even made all the cells the same size. No joy.
Ginger - Aug 07, 2007 10:23:03 am PDT #2368 of 25496
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
For me, doing mailmerge out of a Word table works better, actually.