Excel Formula Bar - frustration continues

[ken...@officeformac.com]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) I also am extremely frustrated with having the formula bar not embedded in with the other tool bars. And I have been working with it now for several months. It is not something I am 'getting over' or adapting.

I routinely use multiple monitors with spreadsheets on each side and to only have a formula bar on one side, usually blocking information, sheet tabs, or other toolbars is unacceptable.

I tool have experienced crashes that I now have learned is associated with this tool bar being on the wrong monitor. Well to me it was on the right monitor because that is where I needed it.

Feedback to a previous post was not not go on about it here and send feedback. I have done that repetively.

My question and request - are you going to address this issue? Could you please make this issue a priority, or I am going to find myself 'adapting' permanently to Sun's open source programs forever.

My patience has expired,
John

[Jeff Chapman]

Hello John,

On 2009.12.18 6:41, in article 59baf...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,
"ken...@officeformac.com" <ken...@officeformac.com> wrote:

> My question and request - are you going to address this issue? Could you
> please make this issue a priority, or I am going to find myself 'adapting'
> permanently to Sun's open source programs forever.

I understand your frustration.
You should know that Microsoft is not directly involved with
the discussion on this forum. This is a peer-to-peer user forum.
If we cannot help you to solve the problem, we cannot go in
and fix the problems in the application(s) for you, because we
are users like yourself. Rarely, a Microsoft employee will
visit these forums, but that is the exception and not the rule.

I personally don't work much with multiple monitors,
so I unfortunately haven't seen your problem, but I understand
that you are having problems with Excel crashing when the Formula
Builder toolbar is not on the same monitor as the current worksheet.
Is that correct?

Is there some reason why you absolutely need to display the
Formula Builder toolbar?
If you double-click on a cell, you can see the formula there.
Also, you can use the Formula Builder function in the
Formatting Palette (Toolbox) to see parts of your formula and
add or get help on functions as well.

Just for your reference, if you'll have a look at this page,
you'll understand what the support and feedback options are that
we have been provided to communicate our issues with Microsoft.

http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2007/08/feedback_translates_to_features_in_en
tourage.html

I know that most of this may not be very satisfying, and
that it can be extremely frustrating to communicate with
Microsoft; but if you are going to continue using Excel and are
willing to hang in there, we're here to help.

BTW, the formula builder function on OpenOffice's Calc is built
into the user interface rather than being a separate toolbar.
If Excel just isn't doing the trick for you with multiple
monitors, you might want to give Calc a spin and see how it goes.

Jeff

[Ala...@officeformac.com]

John, I use too monitors and have not experienced any problems "so far".

I usually stretch the Excel spreadsheet across the 2 monitors and select 2 x pages and rezoom to selection. This seems to work with me.

I just tried dragging the formula bar to the right hand monitor and did not have any adverse affects. Perhaps it may be a time or spreadsheet size problem as I use fairly small spreadsheets.

If I come across any probs I will come back

Alan

[Bob Greenblatt]

As pointed out here, this is a forum of your peers. It may be, but is not usually monitored by Microsoft. The best way to vent your frustrations is to use the send feedback in the help menu. Microsoft indeed reads these and uses the data to determine development priorities. We have no way of influencing the development schedule for either updates, or features for a new version other than this vehicle. The better you make your case for a need, and describe both the shortcoming, the amount of extra work, and how the change will make life easier for you, the better the chances for seeing the change in a future version.

--
Bob Greenblatt [MVP], Macintosh
bobgreenblattATmsnDOTcom

[ken...@officeformac.com]

OK. Sorry for venting to the wrong crowd.
I have found some good answers here in the past, and I thought I was giving credit to Microsoft and their support staff... silly me.

[Xin...@officeformac.com]

Hi John,

Microsoft has received a lot of customer feedback on the floating formula bar and we're currently investigating the feasibility of replacing it with an embedded formula bar in the next release. Thank you for sharing your feedback with us.

Thanks,
XinXin
Macintosh Business Unit, Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Jeff Chapman]

Hello XinXin,

On 2009.12.19 9:06 AM, in article 59baf...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,
"Xin...@officeformac.com" <Xin...@officeformac.com> wrote:

> Microsoft has received a lot of customer feedback on the floating formula bar
> and we're currently investigating the feasibility of replacing it with an
> embedded formula bar in the next release. Thank you for sharing your feedback
> with us.

Why not give users the option to dock the Formula Builder toolbar?
That way, if they want to dock it to the UI of the window, they
can; and if they want to float it out, they can do that too.
Would that be difficult to implement?

Jeff

[CyberTaz]

Hi Jeff;

<snip>
On 12/19/09 6:59 AM, in article C752EF24.AD6B%jap...@hotmail.com, "Jeff
Chapman" <jap...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Why not give users the option to dock the Formula Builder toolbar?

<snip>

What purpose would that serve & how could it be possible?

No matter how many windows you can display on however many monitors, only
*one* of those windows can be active at a time. Likewise, there is only
*one* Formula Bar & it is an application object, not specific to any given
window or file.

IMHO, even if you 'could' Dock it in a workbook window it would make the
problem even worse because most often you'd have to find it in a window
separate from the one you were active in and/or UnDock it in order to then
move it to another window. Otherwise, every workbook would have to have its
own independent Formula bar which would result in a totally unmanageable
state of confusion -- both programmatically as well as for the user.

And what if you happen to close the window the FB docked in? Is it supposed
to inherently know what window it's supposed to move to on its own :-)

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

[John McGhie]

Hi Jeff:

Take a look at how they're doing it in Office 2010. That's most likely what
we will get.

Cheers

On 19/12/09 10:59 PM, in article C752EF24.AD6B%jap...@hotmail.com, "Jeff
Chapman" <jap...@hotmail.com> wrote:

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:jo...@mcghie.name