Database

My posting was spotty the last several days due to some fun transferring a membership roll from an existing Excel spreadsheet to a new one in which the data were organized completely differently. The old one had merged cells, data not required in the new one that was linked directly to the data I wanted from the old one, and other sundry inconveniences.

Some of my transfer problems come, of course, from my limited ability to navigate Excel. I'm sure there are experienced users who could have gone "click, click" and had everything done before their coffee was cold. But some of the problems come because Excel is a spreadsheet app being used as a database, and those are two different things.

The electronic heirs of Messrs. Webster and Merriam identify a spreadsheet as "a computer program that allows the entry, calculation, and storage of data in columns and rows." The word first appeared in 1981. Whereas a database is "a usually large collection of data organized especially for rapid search and retrieval (as by a computer)." That word goes back to 1962. The entry also tells me, erroneously, that "database" can be used as a transitive verb. 

They seem very similar, of course, but as one who has used both Microsoft Access and Excel I can assure you that they are different. Access is designed to organize and sort data. Doing so on the program is intuitive and the rows and columns of a database can be sorted, organized and changed around very simply. Had our church's list and the requested format both been in Access the transfer would have been a lot quicker and a lot easier on my eyes.

But...Access is not offered for Mac users nor is it offered on Microsoft's home computer package. Most home users might not need it, but it seems to me that enough Mac-based businesses would probably buy it to make the conversion worth the while. Although maybe Microsoft knows things I don't that would make it not as easy as I believe it would be. Apple does offer database software but it's not bilingual, as it were, either.

So we are stuck with Excel -- which can be used as a non-accounting database most of the time even though the non-most times are a considerable pain -- because Excel is one of the programs Microsoft makes for Macs. We can all muddle through with a lesser tool because it's available for everyone.

This is just one of the things I remember every time I see or hear a Mac or PC ad that talks about how their products are designed with me, the user, in mind. Very little of the online or computing world is designed with the user in mind, except when the user is a source of revenue. For a continuing -- and better-written -- version of this rant focused on Facebook, see this post from Ted Gioia.