Glenfern Associates: Exploiting Microsoft Office
Most personal computers in a commercial environment, outside the home, have Microsoft Office® installed.
The three best known components are Word, Excel and Access. The names of these products are registered trademarks, as is Office itself.
Many users pay scant regard to the software tools so readily at their disposal, using Word regularly to type up letters and reports, and Excel to produce a simple spreadsheet occasionally.
However, there is much more to Office than "meets the eye"!
Advantages of Office
The components of Microsoft Office:
- contain a great deal of functionality,
- have a consistent "look and feel", and
- are easy to use.
Furthermore, training is plentiful, accessible and affordable.
Although we do not sell Microsoft products, we believe that Microsoft Office offers a gateway to inexpensive, affordable and practical software solutions for small businesses.
TinyApps - Small Applications
TinyApps are small applications. We build them from components of Microsoft Office, extended by VBA.
Excel is the backbone of each TinyApp, supplemented by Access and Word.
Why Excel?
Microsoft Excel is not limited to the simple applications recognisable to most users. It has a host of rich features, many of which are unsung and unexploited.
Microsoft Excel is:
- very familiar to a large number of users, with proficiencies ranging from novice to expert;
- installed commonly on the "desktop" of most personal computers, especially in a commercial environment;
- a robust and very reliable software application;
- capable of handling large volumes of data;
- an excellent analytical tool through lists, pivot tables and "what-if" scenarios.
Excel allows:
- data to be imported and exported easily in a variety of formats. e.g. CSV, XML;
- the use of different fonts, colours and weight of text to highlight data, and to hide it where necessary;
- individual cells and worksheets to be protected from being altered accidentally;
- links to other documents.
Also, Excel:
- produces charts in various forms. e.g. pie and bar charts;
- contains a wide range of mathematical, statistical and engineering functions;
- can be extended using VBA by the software developer to hide some of the mechanics from the user, who does not need to see them.
Finally, a "smart user" can enhance a basic Excel workbook, and customise it to suit his/her special requirements without upsetting the underlying application.