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Interesting article on technology adoption and aging.

Remember, back in the MSDOS days circa ’91 and prior, when MAC and the burgeoning Win2 were each poo-pooed as the “WIMP” interface – “Windows, Icons, Mouse (Meese?), and Popups” by command-line proponents?

I remember even asking clients at the time “Why do you think cavemen abandoned icons and developed language? Could it be that Icons were not up to the task of transmitting information efficiently?”

Now we have “tweet speak.”

No, I’ll “see” your link and “raise you” this one (please skip the rotating ad and get to the meat, the link is to a YouTube presentation but it was passed to me by Windows Secrets).

Luddites have to ask – what happens when the power goes out, or when the powers-that-be pull the plug? No political commentary intended, just a proposed contemplation piggybacking on yours:

Of what possible use is a house that makes my decisions for me, except of course to those who would love to be in charge of “the chip” on the bottom of the plate?

Thank you for the thought-provoking post.

Regards,
Gene

@Gary AND @Andrew:

Good job, both of you! I hope the OP, your net “client,” feels the same; nevertheless, I appreciate the succinct reminder, thus the Thanks.

Regards,
Gene

Do you have the proper printer driver for HER machine loaded in YOUR machine? Please do not be offended by that, or the following, suggestion.

If NOT, do so now; then test your Excel sheet. If all is well, please post back, others may see this problem in the future, and they will learn (as will we all) from your experience.

1) Otherwise, print a Windows “Test Page” from YOUR machine to HER machine’s printer. Do “6” and “8” print thereon? If NOT, please re-install HER machines printer drivers on YOUR machine, ensuring you select “Shared Printer” not “connected Printer” and retry.

2) If still a problem after the above, then, from YOUR machine, using a “fresh” Excel sheet- i.e. a DEFAULT sheet without any custom header/footer and so forth, fill a single column A with a row “ABCDE” then another with “FGHIJ” and so forth, upper then lower case; then from the numeric keys above the alphabetic (i.e. not the keypad keys) 01234, then 56789, then the “shift”ed numeric key symols; finally the keypad numerals only. Print the result. Again, please leave all “default” Excel and worksheet print settings as they are.

3) PLEASE report back with your findings.

ASSUMING that this Excel sheet used to print okay from YOUR machine to HER machine; assuming, as I have (possibly erroneously, you must tell us) that HER printer is “shared” on a peer network (no Win Server intermediary), the above test should give us all a clue. If my assumption is correct – and, again, PLEASE do NOT be insulted by the simplicity of my suggestion both above and now – DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ON EITHER MACHINE until you’ve done the above and reported back.

Believe me, if I had to “blush” for each time I’d skipped the basics while tackling the sublime, I’d be sunburned beyond repair by now. There are only 2 kinds in IT: those who’ve slapped their heads in embarassment, and those who will.

My forehead’s already flat, so humor me, okay?

Regards,
Gene

Check the event logs.

Someone did something naughty, or didn’t finish doing something unauthorized – the latter assuming you would know about authorizations on that workstation.

Only IT would be posting a question like this after 1700; it’s a calling, I’ve heard, although I tend more to addictions…

We can’t assume you’ve done the obvious things – please let us know a little history on this workstation. It’s a geek thing.

I wonder if your “dealer” installed a legitimate copy of XP-SP3 on ANY of your 3 systems.

I’m not sure there IS a legitimate XP-SP3 new install.

If this is the case:
(1) your seller has attempted to install XP on a Win7-designed machine (well, 3 of them, one at a time) because you stated that OS preference;
(2) your seller has successfully discarded 3 inferior Win7 systems (one at a time) and used a bootlegged XP to attempt it (if so, see above); or
(3) along with either of the above, you are using hardware peripherals (mouse, keyboard, monitor – in that order, IME) that are NOT compatable with XP no matter the SP.

I use XP-SP3 on 3 systems, all pre-’03 aged. The “latest” designed for XP-Pro, the middle for XP-Home, and the eldest for ME. ALL run LEGIT SP3 flawlessly.

Please get a second opinion from another Geek in your area; take ALL peripherals in; take your power cords as well.

How are the individual “Actual Hours” entered:

If you have one record row for each unique combination of Order Number and Date, yet work on a particular order in several dis-jointed session on any one Date, say from 8-10 (2hrs) then from 3-5:30 (2.5 hours), how does your spreadsheet accept those entries from you?
(1) Do you store a simple sum in the Actual Cell for that Order/Date combo, i.e. “=2+2.5” and manually edit the cell for another session that day, say after another 1.5hrs THAT SAME DAY you change the cell to “=2+2.5+1.5“?
(2) OR do you store each work SESSION on its own row with duplicate Order Number and Date for each session?

To my knowledge, only in case 1 will conditional format help you.

You could keep a normalized record of your work SESSIONS, one row per session, in one tab (say, SESSION), and your Order (Job?) definitions in another (say, JOB) along with the “Quoted Hours”. Then use a Pivot Table to do your summary.

You really have a database management application in mind, not a simple flat-file spreadsheet app. Excel can do astounding things, but IMHO it makes a lousy general word processor and a dangerous DBMS: using it for all but the simplest data management applications results in many opportunities for error and much repetitive entry.

I’ve seen some good Excel-based “TimeSheet” apps, but they are VB and/or macro heavy, performing functions that are routine to Access, Excel’s DBMS sibling.

I don’t know if I helped you, but please consider Access for this application.

Regards.