Microsoft Excel 4+

"Microsoft Excel is an indispensable tool for anyone needing to manage data, create spreadsheets, or analyze information. With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, Excel makes it easy to organize and manipulate data with precision and efficiency. From basic calculations to complex data analysis, Excel offers a wide range of functions and formulas to suit any need. Its ability to generate graphs and charts allows for clear visualization of data, making it simple to identify trends and patterns. With cloud integration, collaboration on spreadsheets has never been easier, enabling seamless teamwork and real-time updates. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced user, Excel provides the tools you need to excel in your data management tasks. Overall, Excel remains the gold standard for spreadsheet software, offering unparalleled functionality and versatility."

I was able to pick up Word and teach myself how to operate it, coming from a completely different word processing background. Way back when a new office mandated Word as the processing program, I said “OK, I’ll be fine.” And I was.

I’ve really tried to do the same thing with Excel. But Excel doesn’t seem to be quite as novice-user-friendly as Word was ~25 years ago. I’m good at math, I’m good working with charts and tables, good handling computations and with setting up patterns for computations, whether by hand or in other programs. But Excel is hard to learn when you don’t have a background in this program specifically, a class on Excel, or you’ve purchased a book (some of which are terribly expensive). I wish there were ways built into the program that made it more intuitive and easier to learn. If there were, I would use it for every data table that required/included columns with numbers, data &/or mathematics. But I don’t have the time to try to teach myself a program that requires significant time learning simple tasks.

I’ve got multiple college degrees, two completely different professional licenses, and a background heavy in science and math. I’m not computer phobic. In fact, I’ve taught other people how to work in other programs & applications. Excel as the first program I haven’t been able to just handle.

I have to build work-arounds in the Ipad version of Excel. The most aggravating one being the fact that I have to be logged into my account in Excel even to work offline. I have to work around that by putting my Ipad in airplane mode. It is not appropriate that the Excel user who chooses the portability of the Ipad should be logged into an online account in order to use the product. And with every new iteration of Microsoft’s renewed user agreement, I grow more suspicious of Microsoft’s encroachment into my privacy. I do not have the time to read the minutia of the dozen pages of legalese. My choices are accept what ever new level of data privacy I am surrendering to Microsoft or don’t use the product. For this reason, I am presently learning Apple’s Number’s program. Once I get used to the loss of functionality Numbers may not have over Excel, I plan to abandon Excel altogether. I realize that there may be limitations on the Ipad version of Excel due to copyright, intellectual property agreements, and patent infringements between Microsoft and Apple, but these petty rivalries only make Microsoft look worse. And it does not excuse Microsoft from not making a fully functional version of Excel that can be used on the Ipad.