Sending Effective Bug Reports to the Excel Team

[joeu2004]

@MARK858, thanks for the link to the explanation of the logs. Since I have Excel 2010, I don't know have access to any of this. ("Frown". wink)

As for the differences in Excel 365 that you guys are experiencing.... That's why I'm still on Office 2010 and Win7. I do not trust the auto-updates that MSFT forces upon users.

But if I'm interpreting your posts correctly, it sounds like an early update removed the "Attach Logs" features, and a later update reinstated it. Am I reading that right?

Be that as it may, my question was (to MrExcel, hopefully after another ``conversation with several members of the Excel team``): do they still read the report and take it seriously enough to act upon it (if appropriate) if the feedback user does not attach logs, either because the feature is not available or because the user chooses not to?

I am looking for a "sure-fire" way to get the attention of the Excel team, both for other users with legitimate issues and for myself.

 

[joeu2004]

I am looking for a "sure-fire" way to get the attention of the Excel team, both for other users with legitimate issues and for myself.

Ha, ha! I forgot that __I__ do not have access to the feedback feature, at all. Doh! (Senior moment.)

 

[Peter_SSs]

Ha, ha! I forgot that __I__ do not have access to the feedback feature, at all. Doh! (Senior moment.)

I was wondering about that.

There was not a similar program in Excel 2010.

 

[MARK858]

But if I'm interpreting your posts correctly, it sounds like an early update removed the "Attach Logs" features, and a later update reinstated it. Am I reading that right?

It is a possibility, the targeted version comes out a few weeks (they state about a week but I have known it to be longer) before the normal version and usually the features are the same.

Btw, you can turn updates off these days.

 

[MARK858]

I am looking for a "sure-fire" way to get the attention of the Excel team, both for other users with legitimate issues and for myself.

Doubt if you would get much help with 2010 as it goes off their supported list in October.

 

[joeu2004]

Doubt if you would get much help with 2010 as it goes off their supported list in October.

Ohfersure! I am interested in this feedback mechanism primarily to advise the many people that I help. On rare occassion, they stumble across a real defect or design flaw that even I think should be brought to the attention of MSFT. (Even though I think that's a waste of time. In my experience, MSFT is non-responsive, even to bona fide defects, as I'm sure you're aware.)

As I noted later, the line that you quoted was a "senior moment" -- wishful thinking. In the old days, I might ask a savvy user to capture a network trace of sending feedback using Office 365. I might reverse-engineer that to give me a way to submit feedback even though I do not have Office 365. Then I remembered: we're all using "httpS" now; IP packets contain encrypted data. I don't have hacker skills.

Anyway, all I really want is clarification from MrExcel, if possible, that attaching a log is not really necessary to grab the attention of MSFT, according to Excel engineers. I don't want to give users yet-another way to waste their efforts in reporting real problems. (As I mentioned before, excel.uservoice.com is a waste of time, IMHO.) Or if it is necessary, it would be nice to have confirmation that the disappearance of that feature was a temporary lapse in judgment that has been or will be reversed, as Peter seems to demonstrate.

 

[MARK858]

On rare occassion, they stumble across a real defect or design flaw that even I think should be brought to the attention of MSFT. (Even though I think that's a waste of time. In my experience, MSFT is non-responsive, even to bona fide defects, as I'm sure you're aware.)

I would agree in the past but from what I have seen the project team have been more responsive to issues raised by people on the 365 Insider program and certain members of the project team are a lot more visible and happy to communicate than I have ever known Microsoft to be in the past.

Anyway, all I really want is clarification from MrExcel, if possible, that attaching a log is not really necessary to grab the attention of MSFT, according to Excel engineers.

Hopefully Bill with his connections can enlighten you a bit more