Microsoft Excel

Avantages

Microsoft Excel is still the gold standard for spreadsheet creation and analysis. There is a crowd of competitors in the year 2019, but Excel is arguably still the most powerful/robust and accepted version of spread sheeting software. Here's what I like most about Excel:
- In my experience, Excel just has a greater amount of advanced features. When you really need to take a deep dive with data, Excel seems to consistently check more boxes than the competitors. Sure - "add-ons" my help other spreadsheet platforms, but based on what naturally comes with the software - Excel has the most robust capabilities.
- I would argue that it's logically arranged. If you've used any Microsoft software before, then I think learning the layout of Excel is not too difficult. You'll find it similar to Word, etc.
- I think Excel is truly versatile, too. Due to its capabilities, lots of people can use it for lots of purposes (i.e., personal finance and budgeting, small business owner, tax records, non-profits, student/research statistical analysis, or even larger corporations).
- In the last few years, Microsoft added the ability for multiple people to collaborate on spreadsheets. This was a phenomenal step and cuts out a lot of problems that existed beforehand.
- I alluded to the before, but more specifically, the functions that Excel offers are incredible. The ability to do large scale calculations with a function and a few clicks is so easy and helpful.
- Awesome template library.

Inconvénients

Here are some concerns I have with Excel:
- There is truly a steep learning curve. If you've never used Excel before, you can get "lost in the weeds" of all the advanced features. Even more, without a lot of exploration or guidance, you may never truly know all of the advanced features Excel offers. In short, it just takes a long time to have a firm grasp on Excel, and if you don't need the advanced features, it may be best to use a less robust competitor.
- Although collaboration is an option, I don't feel that Microsoft's method for this is as smooth as other big tech companies. I expect that to improve in the future, though.
- I think another con is just the cost of Excel. If you do not need all the frills Excel offers, there are cheaper alternatives.

Avantages

Excel is a tool that I have always liked because in addition to presenting a pretty nice design in its latest versions, its features allow you to take thousands of benefits, from list of products with prices, to generating lists of nominees to know how much you should charge each month, these applications can even be optimized through its powerful tool such as MACROS, which allows us to apply programming to optimize processes that must be performed very frequently. We can not let go that allows us to generate accounts reports to our liking, allowing the possibility of using the graphics that best fit for our presentation, this just to mention one of its valuable applications. The reality Excel has become a valuable tool for many processes within a company, since their applications are endless. Its simplicity to handle it makes that anyone with a little practice can handle it quickly

Inconvénients

The tool has evolved a lot, providing many advantages today that make it have few negative details, so I think that although it can still improve, I do not see very negative things that should be highlighted.

Avantages

The uses of MS Excel are endless! Working within the spreadsheet you can do so many things. For instance, keeping logs or running totals or data. You can then turn that data into various types of graphs. They have so many templates to choose from to get you started. With these templates, you can make budgets, to do lists, planners, calendars, financial reports, loan calculators, resumes, contact lists, financial models, statistical analyses and even keep track of your taxes! I have so many various types of spreadsheets I use. I even created a custom fat loss calculator for my clients! Like I said MS Excels capabilities are endless!

Inconvénients

One of the things I dislike about MS Excel is it can be expensive when upgrading from an old version to a new version. But for what it does and how much you'll probably use it, it can be worth the cost. Sometimes there are issues when someone with an older version is getting shared data from a newer version. When this happens there can be conflict and the software may not work right.

Also, there is somewhat of a learning curve especially when it comes to using formulas. I have had to look up youtube videos numerous times on how to use certain formulas which did take time.

Avantages

Easily store any and all data, information, photos, contacts... the use is endless. I believe I had only scratched the surface in Excel. The more I used it and explored its capabilities the more excited I got about how I could use it.

It uses as it applies to large and small businesses is never ending. You can use it for home business and personal storage of information as well. My Grand kids even started to use it at age 5, obviously not for business but they taught themselves how to use it, PowerPoint and Word.

Inconvénients

I think the only issue I ever had was with updates. For personal use it is pricey when you need to update to the newest version, I suppose in the scheme of things and for its many uses its not that expensive though. Again for personal use when working or sharing with others the various versions can create some issues but they have gotten better about making sure each updated version can transfer data from the older versions Its only an problem when the person using the older version needs data thats on the newer version.

As far as learning in Excel, there are so many books, tutorials and videos you can usually find what you need but there is also so many features in Excel I was only frustrated by wanting to know it all now rather than later.

Avantages

Any goal you have in mind for a spreadsheet, you can accomplish with Excel. It's a powerhouse and the industry standard for a reason. It makes tracking data efficient, and helps visualize plans for the future.

One of the most helpful features for me, as someone who isn't especially well-versed in the finer functions of the program, is the tips that pop up as you're typing a formula, and the detailed error messages when you inevitably botch one.

The ability to click and drag to select cells for formulas is also quite helpful and saves time for larger sheets.

Inconvénients

It has a bit of a learning curve. Its design and interface isn't especially user-friendly, so you can't expect an inexperienced team to be up and running with it on day 1 (but then again, what spreadsheet software is different?).

I also wish it was easier to interface Excel with Word in terms of transporting data.

And lastly, as someone who is primarily an artist, I wish I could customize my sheets even more to make them as visually pleasing as possible.