Lately I’ve started getting questions from the online forum Quora in my inbox. Maybe because I’ve answered a question or two, they think they’ve found a new source.
Mostly I ignore these questions, because who has time. But recently, I answered the question, How can I have multiple scatter plots and one trendline for all of them combined in Excel. Then I decided it was worth turning my answer into a blog post, Add One Trendline for Multiple Series.
A few of the questions have been interesting. I thought I’d share them here and see how you readers might answer them. You can answer in the comments, or if you’re ambitious, you can click on the questions and answer them in Quora.
What is the most random thing you’ve created an Excel spreadsheet to track?
I have tracked a lot of random stuff in Excel worksheets, and I don’t think I can even remember the most random things. I’ve been tracking my weight almost every day since mid-2006.
I’ve been tracking traffic to my blog and sales of my software products for nearly as long. I guess website statistics, business performance, and even personal health metrics aren’t very unusual.
What random things do you track in Excel?
Is it true that about 4,000 features of Microsoft Excel are never used?
There are a lot of long-winded answers to this question. My answer went like this:
What I’ve heard is that everyone only uses 10% of the features. But the 10% I use probably overlaps with only half of the 10% you use. Of course some features are used by everyone, and some are used by hardly anyone. But I doubt there are very many features that nobody uses.
Nowadays, Microsoft wouldn’t even consider designing a new feature that users weren’t already clamoring for.
Why do employers care if you’re proficient in MS products (word, excel, etc)?
Are you serious? Employers want to know if you can already work with these important tools. If you can’t, why not, and how long will it take to get you up to speed?
Can I install Microsoft office to a flash drive on my PC?
That’s actually an interesting question. I guess the motivation is that you can install on a flash drive, then carry the flash drive around with you and use Office on any computer you plug it into.
Of course, the program files go in one place, and all the registry information goes another.
Never mind that it’s becoming harder with Office 365 to install Office into a custom path. And I suspect there is a check that the installation path is on a hard drive and not some removable medium.
What do you hate the most about Microsoft Excel?
My pet peeve in Excel varies from day to day, or minute to minute, depending on what just ticked me off. Usually it’s a shortcoming in the VBA Object Model, though there have been some formatting issues that can irritate me (how about that Office color theme system?)
I’m sure everyone has their own answer to this one: what’s yours?
Carlos Barboza says
Combine and Center is the anticrist of Excel.
Jon Peltier says
Carlos –
Yes, that is one thing that I wish were harder for users to do. The Center Across Selection is much better, since it doesn’t actually merge cells. Back when Microsoft was designing the ribbon, during the beta program for Office 2007, they left it out of the Merge dropdown. They said, remind us. But now that part of the ribbon seems cast in concrete.
My colleague Chris Newman, the Spreadsheet Guru, has a free add-in you can use that adds Center Across Selection to the ribbon. Read about it here: How To Add A Center Across Selection Button To Excel’s Home Ribbon Tab.
There is also a suggestion on Excel UserVoice, Add “Center Across” to the Ribbon, which was also the work of Chris Newman. Go vote for it.
Carlos Barboza says
Thanks for sharing the link Jon : ) . I have voted for this suggestion and I hope they change it for good soon.
Jon Peltier says
New one today:
What is the purpose of MS Word Excel and PowerPoint?
Uh, to make lots of money for Microsoft? Or maybe to distract us from the Internet.
Chip Gorman says
I use Excel to track my running activity, because I want to record stuff that the various apps don’t make easy or trackable. I also keep track of usually 5-6 pairs of running shoes I’m rotating so that I know how many miles each has, and its projected retirement date. Naturally, it also has an email macro that sends each day’s workout to me and the times I am shooting for and the date, number of days until, and distance of my next race, plus the warmup routine for the day. (So I can look at it easily on my phone when I wake up rather than open up my laptop.) The same sheet includes a weight column, where I only record one time a week. (This has bee in existence since 2002).
In 2017 I started tracking all my movie and TV watching by date and rating the things I watched and what language it was in. It’s mainly so (for TV) I can remember what episodes of shows I am on (we don’t watch that often so we forget where we were) and for movies so when people ask me for a recommendation I can look at what I’ve watched lately. I’ve been tracking my book reading since 2005.
Congrats on the recent weight loss by the way! You must have worked hard on that.
Jon Peltier says
Chip –
I’ve done similar things. I am working on some VBA that will help me track my hikes and kayak trips, importing GPS coordinates and plotting them on maps of trails or rivers. All the various apps only plot one trip at a time, so you can’t compare multiple trips or plot several in the same view.
Also when I got my Kindle, I enrolled in several mailing lists with links to free books. I use a spreadsheet to track which I’ve read and whether I liked them, so I can identify favorite authors as well as authors to avoid.
The weight loss was easier than I expected. My wife and I joined Weight Watchers. I figured I was joining to lose ten pounds, and more important, to learn how to prepare meals that conformed to their program. It turns out that their app makes it easy to track your diet and to be aware of what you are actually eating, and I’m more honest with the app than I’d be with myself. The program allows you to eat anything you want, as long as you track it, but the way you report food encourages sensible portion sizes and limited amounts of some foods (oils, nuts, snacks, alcohol). I’ve been in “maintenance” since about March, which means I don’t have to pay to keep using the app, as long as I weigh in once a month and stay within a few pounds of my target.