Jabbing at my computer like a confused monkey with a cell phone.
I'm no Luddite. Bought a new laptop and downloaded Microsoft Word and Excel. I have been a volunteer college mentor since 2006.
For each person I mentor, I make an Excel spreadsheet that lists:
- Scholarship names.
- Due date.
- Date submitted.
- Amount won (and totals).
- Whether the scholarship is renewable. Very helpful.
The new Excel is extremely different. "Help" screen is useless. Have been jabbing at my computer like a confused monkey with a cell phone. Maddening.
I refuse to let Microsoft stop me from doing a good job of mentoring.
In desperation, I opened a scholarship application list I made for another student in 2017. (Sorry, dear!) Then changed her name and used the old Excel program for my new student.
Saving changes triggers a scary warning from Microsoft. "Do you still want to save it in the old unsupported format?" Yes, you jackasses! Stop bothering me.
Ten years ago Microsoft enormously changed Excel. Stumped, I took a college class on the new Excel. Other students were bookkeepers and accountants. We were all in the same boat.
"Microsoft added dozens of new bells and whistles to Excel and hid them," the instructor said. Class eye roll.
Your thoughts?
Photos: Young women I previously mentored. Four medical doctors, an accountant and a civil engineer. Hooray!
9
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9 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I use excel daily and have taught it at the advanced level. tell me what you want it to do
Larimar
Level 8
Nov 18, 2023
1
Thanks for offering to help. I don't know tech speak or current slang, and frankly don't care. "What does dox mean?" I searched for today. Eye roll.
I was trying to save Julia's scholarship list with other scholarship lists I made over the years. I named the group/file/gaggle/covey of scholarship lists under "College Mentor."
Instead of saving Julia's scholarship list (that I retyped six times), it was deleted or vanished. Bad word.
So I asked my daughter Claire, 33, to save it in College Mentor for me. "You'd better write it down so you remember it," Claire said. To be safe, I'm leaving Julia's scholarship list open and not turning off my computer until July 2023. Don't trust the damn thing.
Use Google Sheets instead. It's free.
BitFlipper
Level 8
Nov 14, 2023
1
I want nothing to do with Google. They charged me monthly for saving my hiking photos. Got my daughter to cancel Google.
@LiterateHiker revenge can be expensive too. They have never charged me for storing photos.
Since age 21, I have been hiking and taking photos. I have thousands of photos in my computer, including pictures of daughter Claire growing up.
All of your pictures here are great but I know your frustration. My operating system is Microsoft but I have programs that kill the parts of it that I do not like. Every now and then they find a way to stop me and I have to do it again.
As for malware there are free versions of the top programs against it that you can look up Online. They will pester you to buy them but you can use them free. Malware comes simply from being on a computer.
DenoPenno
Level 9
Nov 12, 2023
3
I use open office, it has fewer hidden options and is user supported, and free. I feel your frustration.
glennlab
Level 10
Nov 12, 2023
3
@glennlab Thank you, if I ever need to do this, I'll ask for your help!
@michelle666gar I've installed it on all my computers and it has the full office suite for free, and it is a lot easier to use than microsoft anything.
@glennlab I wouldn't have known if you didn't comment on this post! You're such a sweetheart to give us this information, thank you!!! 
❤️❤️❤️❤️
What is "open office"? Can you please send me a safe link?
Microsoft keeps deleting the spreadsheet I made for Julia, the girl I'm mentoring this year. It's aggravating, to say the least.
I'm afraid of downloading malware.
@LiterateHiker Apache software puts it out, this is the link I used [openoffice.org]
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Just reading about your frustration makes me want to scream. LOL
silverotter11
Level 9
Nov 12, 2023
3
Thank you, dear. You are hilarious! I appreciate your support.
Back in the early 90s at a small very high tech metrology company on Mercer Island our largest customer was Intel and they kept their internal manufacturing data in Excel. We built Excel into our product for them and both Intel and we knew Excel extremely well -- including almost all the nuances like where most of the bugs were.
For years whenever Microsoft would publish a new Excel version Intel would buy it to stay legal but the new software would just stay on the shelf in the box.
Intel was afraid of releasing a new crop of bugs onto their manufacturing line.
Especially back then Microsoft was too creative for its own good.
A story... One of our salesmen thought of a good idea for Excel so he called it in to Microsoft's support line. It was long enough ago that I don't remember the suggestion or his name but the end of the call he joked -- "by the way, tell Bill I said 'Hi'."
It was good idea and Microsoft put it in.
When the next version of Excel came out they put out a full page ad in a major New York newspaper listing the changes. And at the bottom of the ad they put his name and said "by the way, <the name> Bill says 'Hi' back". I'm sure that's all he ever got out of it.
RichCC
Level 8
Nov 12, 2023
3
Interesting story, especially:
"Intel was afraid of releasing a new crop of bugs onto their manufacturing line."
"Especially back then Microsoft was too creative for its own good."
Microsoft used to be a smallish company too. They used to mostly all go to a great BBQ counter that a mechanic's wife ran in the back of a garage. The line would run through the garage out the front.
For us, we used to all eat lunch together at a table near the back of our place (it was that small a company).
You could usually depend on the phone ringing... Intel Albuquerque had learned that they could get to their principal engineer then (not me).That was the best way they knew to get direct access to the product.
That was a fun company. I was their 8th employee and they had over 50 when we came back to AZ.
One Christmas party we rented the Seattle Aquarium and had the run of the place plus catering. Another time it was the Seattle Science Center. I know I'll never find as good a group.
One time it happened to come up that someone at the table had been a valedictorian in high school.
Someone else spoke up and said 'Hey. Me too.' We ended up going around the table and 5 of the 7 people there had been valedictorians.
Another time one of the owners insisted we all wear name tags for a gathering but we said 'we know everybody'. We all ended up wearing tags with the owners' name.
I guess I'm a Luddite. I resist changes in technology, I've just gotten comfortable with what I've got. But sometimes ya gotta bite the bullet and take on the challenge. I tell myself it is keeping me young. I don't want to retire yet, but I am counting down the days.
HippieChick58
Level 9
Nov 12, 2023
6
Enjoy being online again!
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