N
Niki
First let me preface by saying, if I have somehow missed any sort of
add-on(s) or specialized programs that accommodate scientists, please forgive
me for troubling you.
Over the years, I have used various products of yours ranging from Windows
(1988-present), and office products from the late 80's early 90's till now. I
am now in the field of science,
and have been for some time... It is extremely frustrating to use your
products for charts, tables,
and word documents in the science fields. The charts and tables act
possessed at times, shifting and
moving themselves every which way around a document, the excel options are
antiquated and far from
seamless with the continual changes you guys make, and as a scientist
(specifically in the biological
sciences) your programs are at best a last resort for scientific reports,
and spreadsheets with charts to
show microbial growth and other things. Since no add ons exist (that I'm
aware of) or specialized program
for scientist, we scientist are forced to make due, often wanting to unplug
and chuck the computer through
a window or across a cubicle (nationwide). My scientist friends in various
fields, nationwide, all grumble about
the frustration of having to deal with such a frustrating program that is
far from Microsoft standards and
misses the mark in nearly every way. I have written before and asked for
Microsoft to please help,
specifically regarding the scientific vocabulary, and am not altogether sure
anything has been added
to office to adjust for this error.
Excel is what most scientists use to illustrate data, and convey changes in
things, but unfortunately,
one must literally spend sometimes four to five times manually calculating
info in order to enter it into
excel as an alternative to simply entering the raw data, since there are no
accommodations for things
such as time (separately, in minutes or hours, or even across a period of
days...). There is a time option,
but does not fulfill almost any needs of the scientist, and are more related
to accounting. The only thing
offered to scientists is sci. notation, which at times is useful (but often
in limited use). In addition, using
word to type a document is wrought with extra hours of editing as the
program often seems to hijack your
work, shift things around, delete stuff.... let's just say it's a
scientists' worst nightmare second only to losing
all of their data, which is also an issue with this program at times as
well. On numerous occasions over the
years, at different computers, I've typed a document, then saved it at a
later date after editing has been
performed, and even set it to auto save every minute. When I came back, the
only a version of the document
found was one from months or weeks ago, with no method or way of retrieving
the updated version, no
matter how much tech support I got from different sources. I have lost
entire chunks of reports that took
months to type and edit, standard operating procedures, data logs, etc. It
is enough at times to lose one's
mind.
Finally, when typing a document in word, which makes absolutely no
accommodations for scientific vocabulary,
I have ended up (often) with so many supposed "misspelled" words, that it
stopped counting altogether. First,
I need the spellcheck to work through the entire document to correct words I
ACTUALLY spelled wrong, and
on the other hand, I have to self check every individual scientific word
before proceeding to the next....
Second this sometimes takes hours (literally) to edit one single document...
and after all of the words
allowed in spellcheck have been used, the rest of the document has to be
spell checked again to account
for the rest, which means more hours spell checking. Microsoft makes
accommodations for every major
language in the world. How is it that the most successful software /
hardware company on earth, cannot
seem to make an accommodation for scientist, a population as vast as a
nation if all scientists worldwide
were to be counted. Now, not every sci. word in every language would
necessarily be added, but even if
it were the words which are used and accepted internationally the standard
for chemical, biological, and
physical sciences were to be created as an add-on, it would allow a lot more
time free to edit the
other words in a document and make time for the countless days and hours
spent prepping data
simply to enter into an excel spreadsheet, table, or chart to be
comprehensible to the software program
in order to get out a decent result.
This is ridiculous! Seriously, it is something (a product version
specialized for scientific work, like
professional/home/etc. use) that thousands would be willing to pay for,
schools, students, everyone
in the scientific community! You know why, because after investing years
upon years of our lives solving
the world's problems, doing research, and investing our lives into this
work, to have a program that would
save us time, and help us be better at quantifying our results, for the
world to understand, would be worth
millions (or possibly more) to you or whoever is willing to develop such
product that would seamlessly
interface with our hardware.
This is our cry for help to Microsoft! Make a product that scientists
worldwide would enjoy using, that would
take the frustration out of data reporting and dealing with Microsoft's
products, please! We want to and enjoy using your products but want them to
be something that work in a way to help us do our jobs, not make our jobs
harder, and take three to four times longer to do.
Thank you!
A loyal customer for 20+ years
----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...e13a&dg=microsoft.public.office.developer.vba
add-on(s) or specialized programs that accommodate scientists, please forgive
me for troubling you.
Over the years, I have used various products of yours ranging from Windows
(1988-present), and office products from the late 80's early 90's till now. I
am now in the field of science,
and have been for some time... It is extremely frustrating to use your
products for charts, tables,
and word documents in the science fields. The charts and tables act
possessed at times, shifting and
moving themselves every which way around a document, the excel options are
antiquated and far from
seamless with the continual changes you guys make, and as a scientist
(specifically in the biological
sciences) your programs are at best a last resort for scientific reports,
and spreadsheets with charts to
show microbial growth and other things. Since no add ons exist (that I'm
aware of) or specialized program
for scientist, we scientist are forced to make due, often wanting to unplug
and chuck the computer through
a window or across a cubicle (nationwide). My scientist friends in various
fields, nationwide, all grumble about
the frustration of having to deal with such a frustrating program that is
far from Microsoft standards and
misses the mark in nearly every way. I have written before and asked for
Microsoft to please help,
specifically regarding the scientific vocabulary, and am not altogether sure
anything has been added
to office to adjust for this error.
Excel is what most scientists use to illustrate data, and convey changes in
things, but unfortunately,
one must literally spend sometimes four to five times manually calculating
info in order to enter it into
excel as an alternative to simply entering the raw data, since there are no
accommodations for things
such as time (separately, in minutes or hours, or even across a period of
days...). There is a time option,
but does not fulfill almost any needs of the scientist, and are more related
to accounting. The only thing
offered to scientists is sci. notation, which at times is useful (but often
in limited use). In addition, using
word to type a document is wrought with extra hours of editing as the
program often seems to hijack your
work, shift things around, delete stuff.... let's just say it's a
scientists' worst nightmare second only to losing
all of their data, which is also an issue with this program at times as
well. On numerous occasions over the
years, at different computers, I've typed a document, then saved it at a
later date after editing has been
performed, and even set it to auto save every minute. When I came back, the
only a version of the document
found was one from months or weeks ago, with no method or way of retrieving
the updated version, no
matter how much tech support I got from different sources. I have lost
entire chunks of reports that took
months to type and edit, standard operating procedures, data logs, etc. It
is enough at times to lose one's
mind.
Finally, when typing a document in word, which makes absolutely no
accommodations for scientific vocabulary,
I have ended up (often) with so many supposed "misspelled" words, that it
stopped counting altogether. First,
I need the spellcheck to work through the entire document to correct words I
ACTUALLY spelled wrong, and
on the other hand, I have to self check every individual scientific word
before proceeding to the next....
Second this sometimes takes hours (literally) to edit one single document...
and after all of the words
allowed in spellcheck have been used, the rest of the document has to be
spell checked again to account
for the rest, which means more hours spell checking. Microsoft makes
accommodations for every major
language in the world. How is it that the most successful software /
hardware company on earth, cannot
seem to make an accommodation for scientist, a population as vast as a
nation if all scientists worldwide
were to be counted. Now, not every sci. word in every language would
necessarily be added, but even if
it were the words which are used and accepted internationally the standard
for chemical, biological, and
physical sciences were to be created as an add-on, it would allow a lot more
time free to edit the
other words in a document and make time for the countless days and hours
spent prepping data
simply to enter into an excel spreadsheet, table, or chart to be
comprehensible to the software program
in order to get out a decent result.
This is ridiculous! Seriously, it is something (a product version
specialized for scientific work, like
professional/home/etc. use) that thousands would be willing to pay for,
schools, students, everyone
in the scientific community! You know why, because after investing years
upon years of our lives solving
the world's problems, doing research, and investing our lives into this
work, to have a program that would
save us time, and help us be better at quantifying our results, for the
world to understand, would be worth
millions (or possibly more) to you or whoever is willing to develop such
product that would seamlessly
interface with our hardware.
This is our cry for help to Microsoft! Make a product that scientists
worldwide would enjoy using, that would
take the frustration out of data reporting and dealing with Microsoft's
products, please! We want to and enjoy using your products but want them to
be something that work in a way to help us do our jobs, not make our jobs
harder, and take three to four times longer to do.
Thank you!
A loyal customer for 20+ years
----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...e13a&dg=microsoft.public.office.developer.vba