Users

[Ruddles]

As this is Excel Questions, I guess my post ought to contain a question...

"Users: couldn't you just strangle them?!"


In the past couple of weeks I've had users:-

• Rename a worksheet, crashing my VBA code. (Okay, I should have anticipated this but in my defence I didn't know they had such an advanced level of expertise!)
• Insert a new worksheet and copy all the data from the main sheet into it because they wanted a different font. (The main sheet was protected so they couldn't change it there.) This stopped the VBA code from working because of course it only existed behind the main sheet.
• Make a copy of a workbook with a different filename - I have no idea why - which prevented the workbook consolidation routine from collecting the up-to-date information since it was still looking at the now-abandoned copy rather than the newly-created one. This was in spite of a very clear warning in the user guide that filenames and folder locations were not to be modified.
• Remove conditional formatting "because I didn't think it was doing anything".
• Report that they were unable to insert a new column into a sheet. When I asked them what additional information did they want to capture in this extra column, they said they wanted to store the folder where the workbook was located so that they could find it again easily in the future.
• Save a macro-enabled workbook as an XLSX file because someone told them that this would save them from having to click the 'enable macros' prompt each time they opened it. (The opening screen displays a numpty's guide on how to add a folder to Trusted Locations.)

A few years ago - and I'd forgotten this until it came to mind when I posted a reply to a new board member earlier this afternoon - a user asked me for a fresh copy of a worksheet I'd designed for him some time earlier and into which I knew he'd being entering a fair amount of data. He claimed to have deleted it accidentally and when I suggested getting it restored from a backup he said that the IT Help Desk had been unable to restore a version from any of the daily/week-end/month-end backups which had been taken since he had started using it. He said not to worry about it in any case, he had a hard copy of it and was quite happy to key it all in again.

So I gave him a fresh copy of the workbook but I then wandered over to the IT Help Desk and expressed my concern that they'd been unable to restore the file, resulting in a lot of wasted effort for my user. They couldn't find any calls on the system asking for the file to be restored. Strange... So I logged a call myself and was surprised when they managed to restore the file almost immediately from the previous night's backup.

I opened the workbook to make sure all the data was there, hoping to save my user having to type it all in again, only to discover that he had used parts of the worksheet to demonstrate how wide his vocabulary of profanities was, including body parts I wasn't sure existed and physical activities which I'd never even dreamt about. Unfortunately he'd entered these into cells which he hadn't realised became locked when the workbook was saved (for audit purposes), and when he tried to remove them he was unable to do so, so he panicked and decided the best course of action would be to delete the entire workbook.

I do hope he reads this amd remembers me...

 

[RoryA]

Could, and have. They'll never find the bodies though.

 

[SuperFerret]

Yes!

Are you sure we don't work for the same company? I promise I'm not a culprit to any of the aforementioned offenses but the rest of the people working here...well it wouldn't surprise me!

 

[MrKowz]

Could, and have. They'll never find the bodies though.

Probably under the ever-growing pile of Guinness cans/bottles.

 

[yytsunamiyy]

Probably under the ever-growing pile of Guinness cans/bottles.

I would have thought a true exceler would bury them in a formula...





























...eg: =H₂SO₄

 

[texasalynn]

ahhhh yes, the truth is revealed. No accidents at all

 

[Greg Truby]

...only to discover that he had used parts of the worksheet to demonstrate how wide his vocabulary of profanities was, including body parts I wasn't sure existed and physical activities which I'd never even dreamt about. Unfortunately he'd entered these into cells which he hadn't realised became locked when the workbook was saved (for audit purposes), and when he tried to remove them he was unable to do so, so he panicked and decided the best course of action would be to delete the entire workbook.

I do hope he reads this amd remembers me...

I don' care who ya are -- that's funny right there. Were you not a Brit, I'd suspect you used to work on the staff of one of our fine congressmen we have over here. Did our great Anthony Wiener's twitter scandal make it in the papers over there?

 

[xenou]

Report that they were unable to insert a new column into a sheet. When I asked them what additional information did they want to capture in this extra column, they said they wanted to store the folder where the workbook was located so that they could find it again easily in the future.

 

[diddi]

you didn't mention the utterly idiotic things users do when using a seemingly indestructable userform...

 

[arkusM]

Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. (I should know )