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Re: Time for something new for Excel?

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I'll preface this by saying that for now I can only respond with
answers to your questions with regard to NebulaXLite.  But perhaps you
can articulate what requirements you have for spreadsheets in general
that seem to be unanswered with other tools.  I'd like to understand
the divide between what power spreadsheet users expect and what MV
people think they can provide.  I'd like this discussion to be broader
than the limited set of tools we are now using.

dawn  wrote:
>I am one of those who exports to csv, which means the spreadsheets are
>not pretty when opened in Excel or anywhere else. What would be very
>helpful to me is to export with more features without losing the cross-
>spreadsheet-tools support. For example, I have not even looked into
>how to make a column the width I want it to be in the exported csv,
>much less put a background color on the header or change the header
>row font.

Kevin is right, there is no formatting when you use CSV.  CSV is just
delimited data intended for any consumer.  There are no instructions
in there which are specific to any consumer application.

NebulaXLite does allow your BASIC code to define column width, row
height, borders, colors, merged cells, fonts, and a lot of other
details.  See the documentation PDF on the download page for a
complete list of options.

>I have no idea what cross-spreadsheet features there are.

The documents that NebulaXLite exports can be opened by Excel,
OpenOffice, and Google Spreadsheets.  This is possible because the
output is an XML document which conforms to standards.  Your BASIC
code can post-process this if you wish to inject things into your
document that NebulaXLite does not.  This is one of the reasons why
I've kept this a "lite" product.  If I coded too heavily for one
application or another I'd alienate others.

Note that this is also where we can separate the term "Spreadsheets"
from "Excel".  (I could have used "spreadsheets" in the subject for
this thread instead of "Excel" but too many people equate the two
inextricably.)  Excel is a program that manages spreadsheets, but not
all spreadsheets are Excel spreadsheets.  Some nuances of OpenOffice
and Google preclude exchange of some documents, though to some extent
they can be interchanged.  While there is a lowest common denominator
amongst these platforms, that LCD is much higher than CSV.  I'm trying
to get MV people to raise that LCD to deliver better solutions to
people who expect more.

Dawn, if you'd like to look at NebulaXLite, for now you'll have to
check it out in QM, D3, U2, or jBase.  I didn't finish the Caché port
simply for lack of demand, but that situation can change.

Best,
T

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Re: Time for something new for Excel? Tony Gravagno <tony_gravagno@nospam.invalid> - 2011-01-29 17:52 -0800
  Re: Time for something new for Excel? dawn <dawnwolthuis@gmail.com> - 2011-01-31 09:10 -0800
  Re: Time for something new for Excel? mdsi2000 <mdsi2000@yahoo.com> - 2011-01-31 07:21 -0800

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