I had some trouble reading nested IF functions, so I wrote a piece of code which translates them into flowcharts: http://excel2flow.asp2.cz/ (weekend project)
That is super cool! Bookmarked!
Show HN: Instantly Understand Any Spreadsheet
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Re: Show HN: Instantly Understand Any Spreadsheet
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
What we have found is that one of the biggest problems in the BI space is the fact people are not able to code and resort to some of the horrific formulae we see. But agreed - including macros would add a huge new layer of complexity!
I much prefer reading Excel spreadsheet with complex formulae, than those with complex macros. It's much easier to follow things around and literally 'see' what's going on. Parentheses FTW!
Absolutely!
Also, the people who write macros are invariably not programmers[1], and the macro code they write is... not so great.
[1] I am a programmer who writes macros, and presumably there are others too.
Re: Show HN: Instantly Understand Any Spreadsheet
#33Looks nice, sadly it's not only for Excel and I'm on Linux, having only LibreOffice or Gnumeric.
would be interesting to know what installed userbase libreoffice has. especially compared to excel. i rarely use spreadsheets, so libreoffice calc is perfect for me.
Re: Show HN: Instantly Understand Any Spreadsheet
#34OK here is my feedback. First some superficial stuff: Installshield is not going to fly with the market you want to make real money off, i.e. big organisations who want to deploy through Active Directory. The Office addin installer can be put as a merge module into an MSI, that will make the overall install experience much slicker. The instructions on the web page that opens after installation say to look in tab 'Add…
That's fantastic feedback.
I want to contact you regarding another Excel addin idea. I could not find your email in your profile. How do I reach you? Alternatively, you can also email me at contact@solutionyogi.com
Re: Show HN: Instantly Understand Any Spreadsheet
#35I had some trouble reading nested IF functions, so I wrote a piece of code which translates them into flowcharts: http://excel2flow.asp2.cz/ (weekend project)
Far more useful than the OP, IMO. Awesome!
It briefly bugged out (dumping everything as a string into a single result block) on entering a ":" or ";" after the word "Error" in a string as part of the long formula I tested it with, but since then I've changed a few minor things and it's stopped happening :S
Re: Show HN: Instantly Understand Any Spreadsheet
#36I get:
Error reading setup initialization file.Re: Show HN: Instantly Understand Any Spreadsheet
#37I had some trouble reading nested IF functions, so I wrote a piece of code which translates them into flowcharts: http://excel2flow.asp2.cz/ (weekend project)
Far more useful than the OP, IMO. Awesome! It briefly bugged out (dumping everything as a string into a single result block) on entering a ":" or ";" after the word "Error" in a string as part of the long formula I tested it with, but since then I've changed a few minor things and it's stopped happening :S
Thanks for testing! ";" is delimiter for function arguments in czech version of Excel (because "," is decimal delimiter). Parser tries to guess if you're using czech or english version and it probably guessed wrong.
Anyway, I wrote the parser by hand so I cannot guarantee it will work on every valid Excel formula. But I'm working on improved version which will use formal grammar.
Re: Show HN: Instantly Understand Any Spreadsheet
#38OK here is my feedback. First some superficial stuff: Installshield is not going to fly with the market you want to make real money off, i.e. big organisations who want to deploy through Active Directory. The Office addin installer can be put as a merge module into an MSI, that will make the overall install experience much slicker. The instructions on the web page that opens after installation say to look in tab 'Add…
> if(iserror(formula), 0, formula)
The IFERROR function was designed for this pattern:
IFERROR(formula, 0)Re: Show HN: Instantly Understand Any Spreadsheet
#39OK here is my feedback. First some superficial stuff: Installshield is not going to fly with the market you want to make real money off, i.e. big organisations who want to deploy through Active Directory. The Office addin installer can be put as a merge module into an MSI, that will make the overall install experience much slicker. The instructions on the web page that opens after installation say to look in tab 'Add…
"So I think I'm exactly your target customer."
From what you've said, I would argue that you're /not/ their target customer. I used to work with medium- to high-complexity Excel spreadsheets on an almost daily basis, and while understanding someone else's spreadsheet can be tricky in the first 3-6 months, after a while you just get used to working out where data is coming from, usually with the help of F2 (which highlights the cells which are contributing to the formula).
Which leads me on to the main point: 'Who exactly is the target customer here?'. If someone uses Excel so much that it makes sense to buy something to explain formulas, they're probably going to be good enough to make sense of formulas using Excel's in-built tools/just reading the formula.
Re: Show HN: Instantly Understand Any Spreadsheet
#40OK here is my feedback. First some superficial stuff: Installshield is not going to fly with the market you want to make real money off, i.e. big organisations who want to deploy through Active Directory. The Office addin installer can be put as a merge module into an MSI, that will make the overall install experience much slicker. The instructions on the web page that opens after installation say to look in tab 'Add…
"So I think I'm exactly your target customer." From what you've said, I would argue that you're /not/ their target customer. I used to work with medium- to high-complexity Excel spreadsheets on an almost daily basis, and while understanding someone else's spreadsheet can be tricky in the first 3-6 months, after a while you just get used to working out where data is coming from, usually with the help of F2 (which high…
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