Excel
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Someday, I'll write a book about all the freaking awful things Excel does...but this will suffice for today:
There's no trickery here. I've only selected 1 cell, yet Excel is telling me in order to continue I should select 1 cell and try again. I'm trying to do a paste special -> transpose, since it's not possible to transpose in place.
Seriously, Excel, F*CK YOU
(sorry about the weird image...paint also sucks)
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I can see how that could happen. If your copied selection has more rows than that version of excel supports as the max number of columns, it wouldn't fit.
One of the improvements in Excel 2007 is that they raised the column limit to 16384, up from 256 in earlier versions. You might consider upgrading. You might also decide not to, but at least you'd have considered it.
It could do with a better error message though.
EDIT: Image looks like you saved it as a 256-colour bitmap or gif (or maybe even fewer colours, or you're running at that colour depth or lower), and then you saved as a jpeg. Seriously? Use png for saving screenshots off apps, only use jpeg for photo-type pictures.
EDIT2: Actually, didn't I hear something about the forum software having a jpeg obsession? (it won't display anything else or something like that). I might have been too quick to blame you.
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@Thief^ said:
EDIT2: Actually, didn't I hear something about the forum software having a jpeg obsession? (it won't display anything else or something like that). I might have been too quick to blame you.
I've had no problem using the forum software to display png images, provided I upload them to another server. The OP did apologize, so I'm not going to bug him
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@belgariontheking said:
@Thief^ said:
EDIT2: Actually, didn't I hear something about the forum software having a jpeg obsession? (it won't display anything else or something like that). I might have been too quick to blame you.
I've had no problem using the forum software to display png images, provided I upload them to another server. The OP did apologize, so I'm not going to bug him
Or, really, who gives a shit because you can see the image fine.
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TRWTF is that you're trying to transpose a single cell.
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Yeah, it's crazy. I can even copy a whole paragraph in Word and paste it into a single space!
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TRWTF is that it's not so difficult to write an algorithm for copy and paste between areas of different sizes or shapes, yet 'Excel' can't handle it.
Or maybe TRWTF is that my program that does this is written in C#.
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@Thief^ said:
EDIT: Image looks like you saved it as a 256-colour bitmap or gif (or maybe even fewer colours, or you're running at that colour depth or lower), and then you saved as a jpeg. Seriously? Use png for saving screenshots off apps, only use jpeg for photo-type pictures.
It actually looks like it may be a remote session of something. In those cases, the image is reduced in colour depth to improve speed over slow networks.
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I think I might have found the WTF:
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@Eternal Density said:
Excel normally pastes fine if a single cell is selected. I reckon the transpose comment was correct; in which case, it's a shitty error message - should say something like "You cannot transpose a selection with more than 256 rows as Excel only supports 256 columns"TRWTF is that it's not so difficult to write an algorithm for copy and paste between areas of different sizes or shapes, yet 'Excel' can't handle it.
Or maybe TRWTF is that my program that does this is written in C#.
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Bah... Excel does much worse.
1. It never, ever follows behavior Microsoft guidelines. The Excel cut/copy/paste handling hasn't evolved since it was first made in the 80s by some new guys at the company.
2. There's no way to see why in certain cases you can't move between cells using arrow keys, and you pan the whole sheet instead. Reason? ScrLk key. Try it.
3. 0.2-0.2 is not zero.
4. Closing an Excel window closes all spreadsheets, while closing a Word window closes the current document only.
5. You can't open 2 files having the same fname at the same time, even if they're stored on separate drives. The warning dialog suggests changing filename.
6. Mouse scroll is a pain in the ass.
7. Undo is very, very selective. You can't undo beyond last save, or revert changing a cell format.
Many of those have already been mentioned on this forum.
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I just realized something else. I'm sure it has already been posted here, but here goes:
I use IE at work. There's this webapp that I can use to find documents (mostly word and ppt). when I click on a link to a document, I get the "Some files can contain viruses or otherwise be harmful to your computer. You should be certain that this file is from a trustworthy source. Would you like to open this file?" I never thought about it until now.
<rant>
Why the hell can't they make VBA secure?
</rant>
<rant>Seriously, this can't be impossible</rant>
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@belgariontheking said:
I just realized something else. I'm sure it has already been posted here, but here goes:
I use IE at work. There's this webapp that I can use to find documents (mostly word and ppt). when I click on a link to a document, I get the "Some files can contain viruses or otherwise be harmful to your computer. You should be certain that this file is from a trustworthy source. Would you like to open this file?" I never thought about it until now.
<rant>
Why the hell can't they make VBA secure?
</rant>
<rant>Seriously, this can't be impossible</rant>
Making the system secure would inconvenience all the morons who want to write insecure crapplications. That's pretty much their reason, once you strip away all the marketing drivel.
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@Kiss me I'm Polish said:
Bah... Excel does much worse.
1. It never, ever follows behavior Microsoft guidelines. The Excel cut/copy/paste handling hasn't evolved since it was first made in the 80s by some new guys at the company.
2. There's no way to see why in certain cases you can't move between cells using arrow keys, and you pan the whole sheet instead. Reason? ScrLk key. Try it.
3. 0.2-0.2 is not zero.
4. Closing an Excel window closes all spreadsheets, while closing a Word window closes the current document only.
5. You can't open 2 files having the same fname at the same time, even if they're stored on separate drives. The warning dialog suggests changing filename.
6. Mouse scroll is a pain in the ass.
7. Undo is very, very selective. You can't undo beyond last save, or revert changing a cell format.
Many of those have already been mentioned on this forum.
1. Please name at least 2 guidelines that it doesn't follow. Not that's I'm saying it follows all guidelines, but you need to back up this claim.
2. Apparently there is a way. look at you rfucking keyboard.
3. .2-.2 is zero. I just did it.
4. Lots of programs behave this way. Word has no tabs. Why not complain about word?
5 haven't checked this.
6. define "pain in the ass". I wish it had sideways scroll with the mouse, but the normal scrol works fine.
7. Yes you can undo beyond last save. Formatting is not changing data so it makes no sense to undo it.
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@tster said:
1. Please name at least 2 guidelines that it doesn't follow. Not that's I'm saying it follows all guidelines, but you need to back up this claim.
You can't think of 2??
1) IF you copy something to the clipboard, then perform one of a number of operations*, the clipboard disappears.
2) Some documents open inside the same frame. Some documents open inside a new Excel instance. It's hard to control this behavior. If you wanted to view two sheets simultaneously (say on separate monitors), it takes some tricky clicking to get those docs into separate instances.
3) Can't open 2 files if they have the same name, EVEN IF THEY ARE IN COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PLACES!! What's the point of organizing things into folders if each filename has to be universally unique as well?
*Operations not specified in full. Empirically, I've discovered the following belong on that list:
a) Add worksheet
b) Change formatting
c) Delete cells in target sheet -- this is the worst. You go to paste something, see something else already there which is not the same shape as what you are pasting, so you select all and delete to clean up the sheet, then hit ctrl+V and nothing happens. Arg.
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@m0ffx said:
@Eternal Density said:
Excel normally pastes fine if a single cell is selected. I reckon the transpose comment was correct; in which case, it's a shitty error message - should say something like "You cannot transpose a selection with more than 256 rows as Excel only supports 256 columns"TRWTF is that it's not so difficult to write an algorithm for copy and paste between areas of different sizes or shapes, yet 'Excel' can't handle it.
Or maybe TRWTF is that my program that does this is written in C#.
Supposedly, Excel can handle the following conditions:
1) Paste area is same size and shape as clipboard area. In this case the outcome is obvious.
2) Paste area is one cell and and clipboard area is not one cell. In this case, the clipboard content is anchored so the that the top left cell fills the selected cell.
But I swear to effin Jebus that I have gotten excel to perform other kinds of paste -- not that I could reproduce these right now:
3) Paste area and clipboard area are not same size and shape at all, nor is either a single cell. If destination is larger than source, than the source is tiled to fill destination. Otherwise, you get an error message asking you to attempt a #1 or #2 as seen above.
In this particular case, I was attempting to paste about 100 rows and 100 columns, and I wanted them transposed. The mistake I made was to click the upper left "select all" box. Apparently when you select all and copy, excel actually tries to copy 65535 rows and 6000 columns (or whatever the max is) despite the fact that my content is much smaller. And from what I've seen here, Excel can't transpose more than 256 rows & columns--which, by the way, is fucking weak sauce.
It's 2008!!! We mapped the human genome already! We can simulate protein folding on a dynamically distributed workgroup cluster around the world! Isn't it time that Excel could create arbitrarily large sheets and transpose arbitrarily large selections -- in place?
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@DaEagle said:
@Thief^ said:
EDIT: Image looks like you saved it as a 256-colour bitmap or gif (or maybe even fewer colours, or you're running at that colour depth or lower), and then you saved as a jpeg. Seriously? Use png for saving screenshots off apps, only use jpeg for photo-type pictures.
It actually looks like it may be a remote session of something. In those cases, the image is reduced in colour depth to improve speed over slow networks.
It wasn't a remote session...just crappy graphics editing on my part using the corporate tools which I have at my disposal: Office and paint.
How does one make a PNG screenshot?
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@savar said:
How does one make a PNG screenshot?
1) Open Paint
2) Set image size to 1x1 - paint will auto-expand the canvas to fit whatever you're pasting. This saves having to try and crop later
3) Make screenshot
4) Paste into Paint
5) File -> Save As, change file type to PNG
6) ???
7) profit...
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@MarcB said:
@savar said:
How does one make a PNG screenshot?
1) Open Paint
2) Set image size to 1x1 - paint will auto-expand the canvas to fit whatever you're pasting. This saves having to try and crop later
3) Make screenshot
4) Paste into Paint
5) File -> Save As, change file type to PNG
6) ???
7) profit...
You forgot 5.5) Collect Underpants
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@tster said:
2. There's no way to see why in certain cases you can't move between cells using arrow keys, and you pan the whole sheet instead. Reason? ScrLk key. Try it.
Other than looking at the scroll lock light on your keyboard as previously mentioned, you can look for "SCRL" appearing on the right side of the status line.
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@savar said:
@tster said:
1. Please name at least 2 guidelines that it doesn't follow. Not that's I'm saying it follows all guidelines, but you need to back up this claim.
You can't think of 2??
1) IF you copy something to the clipboard, then perform one of a number of operations*, the clipboard disappears.
2) Some documents open inside the same frame. Some documents open inside a new Excel instance. It's hard to control this behavior. If you wanted to view two sheets simultaneously (say on separate monitors), it takes some tricky clicking to get those docs into separate instances.
3) Can't open 2 files if they have the same name, EVEN IF THEY ARE IN COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PLACES!! What's the point of organizing things into folders if each filename has to be universally unique as well?
*Operations not specified in full. Empirically, I've discovered the following belong on that list:
a) Add worksheet
b) Change formatting
c) Delete cells in target sheet -- this is the worst. You go to paste something, see something else already there which is not the same shape as what you are pasting, so you select all and delete to clean up the sheet, then hit ctrl+V and nothing happens. Arg.
I agree that Excel has many things that are not the same as other MS products, however most of the behavior does seem sane when you have been using it for a while, and understand what it is doing.
For example, the copy paste stuff does work differently. When you select a cell(s) and copy them, the copy box highlights your selection. Then you can paste that anywhere else. EXCEPT that if you take focus into a new cell, the copy selection box disappears (you can take the focus from the cell by doing the other things you mention too). This is a different way to do this, but can be handy in certain cases since you now have a visual representation of the copy selection. It is NOT erasing the clipbaord as you imply though. If you copy something in another application and perform any of your complaints, the clipboard is still there. Excel just handles its own copy/paste differently. Considering you have that visual indication that the copy is no longer effective, I don't see it as a major problem. Just something to get used to.
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@MasterPlanSoftware said:
however most of the behavior does seem sane when you have been using it for a while,
Quoted for hilarity.
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The fact that hitting "/" when typing the first character in a cell jumps up to the menu bar always irritates me.
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@Jonathan Holland said:
The fact that hitting "/" when typing the first character in a cell jumps up to the menu bar always irritates me.
I never knew that. I'm sure I've been annoyed with it in the past, but probably never figured out exactly what was causing it. Now I know it's /
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Wait until you want to type in url's etc as the contents of a cell.
It will make you angry.
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How to fix the / thing
Tools > Options > Transition Tab > remove / from the "Microsoft Excel Menu Key" text box.
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@asuffield said:
@MasterPlanSoftware said:
New sig!however most of the behavior does seem sane when you have been using it for a while,
Quoted for hilarity.
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@Jonathan Holland said:
The fact that hitting "/" when typing the first character in a cell jumps up to the menu bar always irritates me.
IIRC, this was inherited from Lotus 1-2-3.
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@operagost said:
@tster said:
2. There's no way to see why in certain cases you can't move between cells using arrow keys, and you pan the whole sheet instead. Reason? ScrLk key. Try it.
Other than looking at the scroll lock light on your keyboard as previously mentioned, you can look for "SCRL" appearing on the right side of the status line.
This isn't too big a deal, but I just want to say, for the record, I never said what you are quoting. You put the wrong name there.
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Speaking of Excel oddities when it comes to files, I noticed that you can't save files with [square brackets] in the name. If you open such a file, they're converted to (round brackets).
