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Microsoft is making Excel’s formulas easier

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Re: Microsoft is making Excel’s formulas easier

#11

Post by ketralnis »

sokoloff wrote: post #9
function_seven wrote: post #2

My current #1 wish for Excel formula entry: Please let me use [Tab] and [Enter] in the formula bar without trying to commit the change! I like to format my formulas with multiple lines and indentation, but to do that I have to hold down [Alt] and mash the spacebar like a caveman. I am happy with the new features I've been seeing. LAMBDA() and the new TEXT functions are nifty.

I use Option-Enter (on Mac, which is probably Alt-Enter on Windows) to insert line breaks in formulas: https://imgur.com/a/kXHzU9T

Right they explicitly mentioned it in the comment you replied to. They're asking for a regular normal human multiline text entry box that doesn't require a special mode where all of the keys mean different things than they're used to in code editors.

Re: Microsoft is making Excel’s formulas easier

#12

Post by function_seven »

sokoloff wrote: post #9
function_seven wrote: post #2

My current #1 wish for Excel formula entry: Please let me use [Tab] and [Enter] in the formula bar without trying to commit the change! I like to format my formulas with multiple lines and indentation, but to do that I have to hold down [Alt] and mash the spacebar like a caveman. I am happy with the new features I've been seeing. LAMBDA() and the new TEXT functions are nifty.

I use Option-Enter (on Mac, which is probably Alt-Enter on Windows) to insert line breaks in formulas: https://imgur.com/a/kXHzU9T

Yeah, I do the same, but I wish I didn't have to. It's opposite of how I write text in all other contexts, and is really annoying when I forget to hold down [Alt] and get a modal admonishing me for having written a shit formula. Then I have to dismiss that modal, click on the cell again, and get back to where I was.

Even worse, I spend a good chunk of time in Power BI, and it has a similar formula field (for DAX expressions), that mimics Excel a bit, but there you use [Shift] to insert newlines. So I'm always using the wrong modifier key and spewing insults at my computer.

Re: Microsoft is making Excel’s formulas easier

#13

Post by unsupp0rted »

Recently I started building Excel addons with custom formulas (e.g. =company.inventory(upc, WAREHOUSE), which call an api. This has blown the minds of non-tech folks among my clients. They equate this to magic.

I was forced into doing this because after a year of digging to find out what reporting they wanted in the dashboard (“oh a thousand things… where’s the Excel spreadsheet export button?”), I gave up and now default to giving them all reporting via Excel, using these custom formulas.

Re: Microsoft is making Excel’s formulas easier

#15

Post by sokoloff »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #5
function_seven wrote: post #2

My current #1 wish for Excel formula entry: Please let me use [Tab] and [Enter] in the formula bar without trying to commit the change! I like to format my formulas with multiple lines and indentation, but to do that I have to hold down [Alt] and mash the spacebar like a caveman. I am happy with the new features I've been seeing. LAMBDA() and the new TEXT functions are nifty.

And [Home] without jumping to select column A, and the arrow keys should work consistently instead of sometimes moving the cursor and sometimes inserting a cell selection.

@airstrike gave me the following very helpful clue when I complained about this a couple years ago: "Just hit F2 while editing a formula to toggle between Edit and Enter modes, one of which will behave as you expect. The other mode, which you hate, is very useful when you want to add references to other cells into your formula"*

There is a designation in the lower left of the window to show whether you're in Edit or Enter mode.

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26388148

Re: Microsoft is making Excel’s formulas easier

#16

Post by sxg »

cratermoon wrote: post #4

Great. Can they fix the autocorrect so it doesn't mangle gene names? https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02211-4

Excel is a generic spreadsheet program that's designed to be used by 90% of people for 90% of use cases. Accommodating for this niche use case will definitely break things for many existing users. The real solution is for geneticists (and other data scientists) to use software designed more specifically for their use cases, such as CSV files and pandas or something more GUI-based but meant for researchers.

Re: Microsoft is making Excel’s formulas easier

#17

Post by sokoloff »

ketralnis wrote: post #11
sokoloff wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Option-Enter (on Mac, which is probably Alt-Enter on Windows) to insert line breaks in formulas: https://imgur.com/a/kXHzU9T

Right they explicitly mentioned it in the comment you replied to. They're asking for a regular normal human multiline text entry box that doesn't require a special mode where all of the keys mean different things than they're used to in code editors.

Did they?

> to do that I have to hold down [Alt] and mash the spacebar like a caveman.

Re: Microsoft is making Excel’s formulas easier

#18

Post by function_seven »

sokoloff wrote: post #15
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And [Home] without jumping to select column A, and the arrow keys should work consistently instead of sometimes moving the cursor and sometimes inserting a cell selection.

@airstrike gave me the following very helpful clue when I complained about this a couple years ago: "Just hit F2 while editing a formula to toggle between Edit and Enter modes, one of which will behave as you expect. The other mode, which you hate, is very useful when you want to add references to other cells into your formula"* There is a designation in the lower left of the window to show whether you're in Edit or…

THANK YOU. This doesn't fix my original gripe, but it solves another one I've had. When doing conditional formatting rules, I thought I was stuck with a "dangerous" arrow key. F2 works in those boxes as well to let me position the cursor instead of clobbering my formatting rule with cell references.

Re: Microsoft is making Excel’s formulas easier

#19

Post by function_seven »

sokoloff wrote: post #17
ketralnis wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right they explicitly mentioned it in the comment you replied to. They're asking for a regular normal human multiline text entry box that doesn't require a special mode where all of the keys mean different things than they're used to in code editors.

Did they? > to do that I have to hold down [Alt] and mash the spacebar like a caveman.

I don't know why I wrote it that way. For the indenting, I have to use the space bar to line things up. No [Alt] needed in that scenario.

Re: Microsoft is making Excel’s formulas easier

#20

Post by rr808 »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #13

Recently I started building Excel addons with custom formulas (e.g. =company.inventory(upc, WAREHOUSE), which call an api. This has blown the minds of non-tech folks among my clients. They equate this to magic. I was forced into doing this because after a year of digging to find out what reporting they wanted in the dashboard (“oh a thousand things… where’s the Excel spreadsheet export button?”), I gave up and now de…

Any new or good ways to do this? I used Excel-Dna 10 years ago.
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