Ban Dumb People from Using the Computer

@bobmnu (8157)
United States
June 2, 2008 11:23am CST
I was working (as a volunteer) with my Wife and I developed an Excel Spread sheet to help her tract student attendance and parent attendance, for the year, for a special program she is running. I set up the program to count (counta) the students and give me the total of parents attending (SUM). The report will give her monthly, semester and yearly totals. We are dealing with a spread sheet that is over 500 columns wide and about 150 rows long. I worked with the people who were going to input the data (her boss did not want to have me input the date he wanted others to do it) and told them to mark the students with a x when they were present and the parents with a number. (If parents attend a student also attends) I explained that this was important because we were tracking both student and parent data. I told them that if they had to enter new data then just put the student at the bottom of the list and I would change it later. The first thing that happened was a person entered the first and last name in the same column. Then about 3 months into the year one person wanted a list of students so he went and high lighted only the students names and sorted by last name. It took me several hours to re like the names and data. At the end of the year I went to check on them and found gaps in the data being entered. It was more convenient for the people entering the data to save it on their computer and not the network. When they saved the information they did a save as and put it on their computer and sometimes on the network. It has taken me and my wife several hours over several days to get this all compiled correctly. My son tells me , when I complain to him about this, Dad they should not let idiots near a computer until they have been trained. Too many people are using computers and think that you can ask the computer to do anything and it will get done. I am fast becoming of the opinion that some people should not be allowed on a computer.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@tx_666 (191)
• India
2 Jun 08
I don't go through all of your topic above. I'm responding according to the title of this topic. I don't think a student should stop studying if he/she fails in an exam. It's our responsibility to give a good lesson that he/she can over come his difficulties. If a person makes a mistake on computer that really ruins the whole work, it's obvious to get angry, it's our duty to rectify their mistakes that he/she can improve. Mistake makes the difference between GOD and MAN..
1 person likes this
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
2 Jun 08
i have no problem with people playing with programs but don't do it on a program of someone else. I taught my self Excel by trial and error but never on a good document. I was trying something and if I bothced ti big time I was not out anything but my time.
1 person likes this
@Elixiress (3878)
2 Jun 08
That sounds so annoying, basically all your hard work went to waste as they messed up your database. Maybe you could learn from it and add access levels and stuff so only certain people can do certain things, so people can't randomly delete and add stuff.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
3 Jun 08
I will look to see what I can do to make it easier and safer for everyone.
• United States
2 Jun 08
I would be happy to allow dumb people on computers if they only would not vote.
@ferdzNK (3211)
• Philippines
2 Jun 08
A 500x150 spreadsheet is very intimidating even for someone who is familiar with Excel. A good program design should take into consideration the user's computer background or the lack of it if you really want to get data out of them. What you have now are the feedback of using yours and should make the necessary adjustment for it to work properly. If it would be impractical to give them training then modify the program to make it more user friendly, employ cell validations that prompt them to be aware that something is missing or not right. If possible hide columns or row that they wont need and lock cells that shouldn't be altered. In short make it simple for both the user and people who need the data. This is not an easy task especially for a volunteer job. Microsoft is paying big money for designers to make their windows and every thing in it to be user friendly. Good luck to you Bobmnu.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
3 Jun 08
I am also learning Excel and will try some improvement for next year. Thanks for the info.