Am I thinking right?

[jim may]

Just saw this (Typical) type message from someone/somewhere who has Excel in their office. And probably, there isn't anyone in the office that has needed experience to perform their request (that's plenty of offices in the world, I'm sure).

Anyway, here's my gripe (concern?). I make my living performing Excel Tasks/applications, automating office routines, etc...
All to often this site and others ends up be "Application Central" for freeloaders wanting something-for-nothing, a sort of welfare state mentality.
And it ticks me off. Before saying any more, is there a consensus among the group here on this subject? If so, I'd like to hear it.

Jim May

Here's the message:

Sending data from multiple sheets to one master sheet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi there,

I'm trying to do something that's probably way over my head, but here goes.

We have several people filling in a copy of the same spreadsheet all day and are hoping that there's a way to transfer the data to a master spreadsheet in some automated manner without having to copy and paste it on a daily basis.

I'm assuming that if it is possible, it would involve VB, which I've yet to use but have used other languages and am eager to give it a shot. I'd be really grateful if anyone point me in the right direction.

Thanks

 

[Marbles]

If you don't want to help, then don't. This site is here to help people with their problems, without asking anything in return. If only a small proportion of those who get some benefit from their questions go on to use, and learn from the site, and try to help when they can, there can't be anything wrong with that. An added bonus, is that when someone has been helped by an answer to what maybe a simple question, they'll probably be the first to help anyone with the same problem.

 

[Joe4]

This is site is all about the "sharing" of information and helping others. I know that on numerous occassions, we have even helped consultants such as yourself, with projects that they get paid for (and we don't even ask for any of the money they are getting paid!)

I understand where you are coming from, but you also need to consider that many small offices do not have the budget to hire consultants to do things for them (especially in the current economic climate). And who in their right mind would pay for something that they think they may be able to get for free?

Personally, I am more apt to help someone who is making an earnest effort to try to learn/do the project themselves and needs some guidance, or just has a simple question. I see many posts where it is evident that the person has a big project, and really has no desire to learn it or do it themselves. Usually, I will not reply to those requests, or if I do, I will try to steer them in the direction of hiring a consultant to do it for them.

 

[DonkeyOte]

Hi Jim. Echoing Joe4 - at the end of the day there's no obligation here for anyone to answer anything they don't want to and for that reason I think the general consensus has always been to simply ignore those posts that irk you.

Have a read through the variety of answers below -- I think there's probably one or two attempted thread-hijacks in there (being a Lounge thread'n'all) but some good points made etc...

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=243542

 

[jim may]

Thanks guys It's just that after 4 years on contant banging on this product, I have all the scares (which represent my pain in learning what I now know), plus sometimes it is just a bad day on top of that - and you have some free loader who doesn't want to se "soiled" with the dirtiness of actually learning....

Oh Well - Thanks again !!

 

[MorganO]

When I originally joined this board about 2 years ago I would assist any poster with any question I had reasonable experience with, partially to help me learn more about Excel and also to assist someone in need.

But recently I've shied away from these 'build my application' questions in partly due to the afore mentioned thread but also because of the lack of appreciation from the majority of these requesters. Most people with simple issues will respond back to a solution with thanks, but the larger the issue the less thanks I seem to get. Maybe I'm just not that good at building apps!

My 2 cents.

Owen

 

[Domski]

There's generally a couple of posts a day asking pretty much exactly the same as the example you gave. To be honest I generally ignore them as the person has either not bothered to do a search or appears not to have tried to solve the problem themselves. Unfortunately I have less and less time to spend around here these days so really stick to the quick answers and leave the more in depth ones to those with the time and the inclination. As far as people getting paid for the help you give them for free then surely that is probably the case with the majority of posts to some extent so really it comes down to your choice as to the level of help you are willing to give.

Dom

 

[jim may]

Thanks guys for the additional comments -- All of you are expressing the situation BETTER THAN I Did initially.

 

[kgkev]

. I think I have done a bit of freeloading when I first joined.

just asking how do I do this.

Copy and paste the code given, then a quick thanks.

however when I posted asking for help here http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=344468

and my post was not replied to I had a bash my self and got a long way through.

Any help I needed was added to a new thread with smaller questions that were answered quickly with good explaination. I have learnt ALOT more this way.

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=344624
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=345105
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=344616

My code might not be as clean / effiecient as it would have been with a bit of free loading but I am genuinly please about it.

 

[earldunning]

I started on this site just a few months ago.
I am fairly proficient in the main excel (formulas, charts, pivot tables, etc.).
I however had no experience in VB and macros but needed to learn about it.

My approach was to record tasks that I needed and then look at the code it created. I then would record multiple macros and put them together. I still asked questions but I learned a lot first and then got stuck on harder things.
It would be great if responses to basic VB questions on here gave the advice to record a macro for what you want to do and look at the code. Then come here if you cant figure it out.

Non VB questions I try to look for people with zero responses and see if i can help. I am seeing though that very very basic things are not being responded to.
I have seen people ask how to sort or how to calculate years of service. These are very basic things.
I believe some are using this board in place of basic Excel help within the application.

So, I cant blame people for not responding to some. If you answer they will likely come back with more simple questions that basic help should answer.

just my 2 cents