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413 points martinald | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.003s | source
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debo_ ◴[] No.46196982[source]
> I'm sure every organisation has hundreds if not thousands of Excel sheets tracking important business processes that would be far better off as a SaaS app.

Far better off for who? People constantly dismiss spreadsheets, but in many cases, they are more powerful, more easily used by the people who have the domain knowledge required to properly implement calculations or workflow, and are more or less universally accessible.

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robotresearcher ◴[] No.46197107[source]
Spreadsheets are an incredible tool. They were a key innovation in the history of applications. I love them and use them.

But it's very hard to have a large conventional cell-formula spreadsheet that is correct. The programming model / UI are closely coupled, so it's hard to see what's going on once your sheet is above some fairly low complexity. And many workplaces have monstrous sheets that run important things, curated lovingly (?) for many years. I bet many or most of them have significant errors.

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1. ASalazarMX ◴[] No.46197671[source]
It's astounding how useful and intuitive they are, but my biggest gripe is how easy is for anyone to mess calculations, say, SUM(<RANGE>), by simply adding one row/column/cell.

I use Google Worksheets frequently to track new things that fit into lists/tables, and giving someone else editor access without them knowing a few worksheet nuances means I have to recheck and correct them every month or two.

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2. robotresearcher ◴[] No.46198492[source]
Does anyone make a sanity checker for Excel or Sheets that notices things like that? Would be incredibly helpful!