<p>shawbridge, on the review tab (office 2007), you will see protection options for the worksheets. Those are important if you are giving your spreadsheet to somebody to view but don’t want them to have the ability to change anything. </p>
<p>I agree that a lot of this can be self-taught, but it’s a little like teaching yourself to type. It’s easy to develop bad habits if not taught correctly. CS101 should be taught in high school, if not earlier. The more advanced stuff should be incorporated into every class, the same way writing is now taught as part of history and science and not just English. At every firm I have worked, the IT department is too busy to get to a fraction of the needs and productivity suffers needlessly because midlevel managers on down don’t have the technical skills to develop simple templates for themselves or their staff. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>HEAR HEAR!!!
TheAnalyst has hit the nail on the head.</p>
<p>Spoken as one who regularly observes clients forego the simple in favor of the complex, which is usually more expensive and difficult-to-support, to acheive functions that are simple in excel!
The uninformed always think it’s a little strange that our OWN quotation system (highly detailed) has been developed over the years completely in excel, since we do web development and database work that includes robust relational systems. Ergo, people assume that we’d use something ‘richer.’ We always say use the simplest, most ubiquitous solutions first.</p>
<p>TheAnalyst, got it. I wasn’t sure what protection referred to but I do know what you are talking about. I only make spreadsheets for myself these days but other people make them for clients and our clients share theirs with us. In my case, I was fortunate to get in to computing fairly early and got well paid to write software while I was in school. When I was in HS, I got paid to write code in a language called b (a predecessor to c which was a predecessor to c++) on the original Unix machine at Bell Labs. I got very good training, so picking up new stuff is easy. But, these days, I’m only a spectator, except to learn new things (when analysts at a firm I helped start were using object oriented programming, I decided to figure out what that entailed that was different so that I know what people are doing even though it didn’t affect me directly in any way). Given big projects and the need for systematization, I can see why CS courses are very important.</p>
<p>When I returned to work a few years ago my computer skills were very outdated. In my prior jobs I had used Lotus spreadsheets. I bought a computer based Excel tutorial and sat down for an hour each weekday and practiced. My office recently upgraded to the 2007 version, but the transition was pretty easy for me.</p>
<p>S had to take keyboarding in MS, it is usually worthless, but he was lucky enough to have a really good teacher who taught them Excel as well as Word and Powerpoint.</p>
<p>I dont know anything about computers, just learned to cut and paste. But on the idea of gifts, My H had an exchange student live with him in HS, and he gave his parents one of those figures of a field worker from France. She still cherishes it. I am from the south shore of Mass. so I send ones from Plymouth Plantation when my kids have had homestays. They are figures in a line of victorian or Christmas figures. I just bought two old fashioned baseball players to decorate my mantle, GO SOX!</p>
<p>missypie, I forwarded S1 The Onion piece on Adderall and he loved it, particularly the, “clapping in near unison for 25 straight minutes, temporarily forgetting where they were.” I was so happy to be able to put a little laughter in his day, since he is working so hard, so thank you. </p>
<p>His free time in the evenings right now is being spent reading a book on SAP. I told him his learning curve for the first few months would likely feel like being in a jet liner taking off from a short runway. Lots of pressure.</p>
<p>Well, I learned that the family my son is going to be visiting lived one town over from us many years ago while they were in school (likely getting graduate degrees in economics) so local gifts are not going to be all that special. ShawWife says elegant serving spoons for the house and board games for the brothers.</p>
<p>I’m with ShawWife - a houseguest recently gave me an antique silver serving spoon - coolest hostess gift ever! And for the brothers…Bananagrams, of course ;)</p>
<p>I agree Shawson can stay with me anytime!!!
or shaw D.
Well on the appliance front just replaced the fridge after 9 years now the stove went postal is this a conspiracy?</p>
<p>I know that we all got misty eyed when NorthMinnesota described her older D’s graduation…but do you ever wish you were a single emply nester (with only yourself to worry about)? Son’s summer school schedule ties my stomach in knots, D lost her new (expensive) cheer jacket (what a rookie parenting mistake I made to let her wear it out of the house without her name in it), H is perpetually grouchy…</p>
<p>Egghouse appliance update: New stovetop works great, looks great. Easy to clean, too. (and since we bought it for less than half price, I love it.)</p>
<p>Hole in wall where DH removed oven on a whim remains a hole in the wall. DH is grilling a lot. DS cooked a frozen pizza in toaster oven by cutting the edges off first. </p>
<p>Sigh, if I didnt have the lack-of-oven to worry about, there would be something else.</p>
<p>Summer school set back here: guess it’s not surprising but not all ‘pre-med’ physics courses are alike. D1 is/was signed up to take an 8 credit physics course at Harvard Summer Session - described as meeting the medical school physics req. It turns out her college won’t give credit for the course because it doesn’t have enough lab hours. In hindsight, she should have researched this better, but the course description sounded like it fit the bill. Back to the drawing board … plus there is the matter of the housing deposit :(</p>
<p>I remember last summer people complaining about the cost of textbooks, ordering from diso**** sites, etc. but I didn’t pay a lot of attention When a semester of school costs $20,000, the cost of textbooks doesn’t seem like much. But yesterday Son paid $300 for his set of French textbooks for a cc class that cost us $100. Jeez! I’ll have to look into the discount sites from now on!</p>
<p>peonies, the lab requirement is something I have worried about as well. D’s physics courses have been 4 credits- 3 being lecture and 1 being workshop but I guess I haven’t seen where the “workshop” comes into play. </p>
<p>Missypie, I have checked frequently on Amazon for textbooks and have actually gotten some good deals. There may be cheaper sites but I am always anxious about getting scammed.</p>
<p>When D was thinking of completing her science requirement at home this summer, she had to look long and hard at the offerings around here. (Yale is about 20 minutes away!) The lab requirement was key.
She got the OK for a course from a 2nd tier university - not the one from Yale - on account of the lab requirement!</p>
<p>The other thing I like about Amazon are the “suggestions” - study guides, etc. that may prove to be helpful. </p>
<p>eggmom, I don’t know what we’d eat if I didn’t have my oven. I am knocking on wood reading about the appliance issues for everyone. We’d be up the proverbial creek should anything go awry.</p>
<p>missypie - I know exactly what you mean. There are days when I just want everyone to go away! My girlfriend is about to collapse and I’m suggesting a day at a spa as a quick, relaxing, rejuvenating retreat. Would love a weekend but I can’t even imagine when I have a free weekend in the next few months!</p>
<p>Deep breaths - one way or the other, it all gets taken care of.</p>