This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
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@aesthr Excel used to have a multiple document interface (MDI) When undo redo was rolled out, it was visually and logically associated with the single application and applied to all of the multiple documents open within the application. So visually, it was more logical back then that you would expect undo to be at the application level as all open docs were visually in the one app. There was some logic to supporting undo/redo at the application level, to be able to cleanly undo changes which imported or linked data across multiple docs. But visually, when they changed to an SDI it was very unobvious that that this is how undo would work and although they changed to the SDI with a menu per doc they left the single undo-redo stack implementation from the MDI. Arguments would’ve been backwards compatibility and being able to cleanly undo changes that spanned documents.
@MatthewPCooke @aesthr Excel is still plagued by the fact it was that stupid MDI interface when it started. It will make the illusion of multiple windows if you open multiple documents, but if you move one of those windows, all the others will move to the same location, so if you want two spreadsheets side by side you have to manually open two copies of Excel.
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
Agreed. My programming editor (I use vi, BTW!) also has global undo, but on a per-file basis. So if I keep hitting undo or ctrl-Z, then it will wind back changes to this file only. Thankfully!
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr what the... what th... what!!
*gives Microsoft an extremely dirty look*
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr what the
nO
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr in what world would you need this feature
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr
maybe we should "ctrl-Z" MicroSoft right
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@kayla I tried typst for scientific writing and it's just not there yet. My LaTeX boilerplate isn't complex at all but it felt like a monumental task to replicate the output of that in typst
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr What the actual f???
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr casual reminder, ms office is not a thing anymore. they've killed the brand. it's now "microsoft copilot" or some bullshit like that.
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr WHAT?!
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@MatthewPCooke @aesthr Excel is still plagued by the fact it was that stupid MDI interface when it started. It will make the illusion of multiple windows if you open multiple documents, but if you move one of those windows, all the others will move to the same location, so if you want two spreadsheets side by side you have to manually open two copies of Excel.
@Canageek @MatthewPCooke @aesthr All Office programs were MDI, but Excel was always special (the global Undo thing didn't apply to any other program, nor did a bunch of other things that Excel still does weirdly, especially when working with multiple documents).
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr that one has absolutely gotten me before. There's also a lot of weird things to know about selecting text or cells when alt+tabbing between excel instances. Sometimes you can alt+tab to another file, click on the cell you want to edit, and it will start typing in the file you just left. Excel has weird little problems none of the other office programs have, it's baffling. -
This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr 🤯
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr yes this is a mad thing. I nearly fell for it just yesterday!
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@Canageek @MatthewPCooke @aesthr All Office programs were MDI, but Excel was always special (the global Undo thing didn't apply to any other program, nor did a bunch of other things that Excel still does weirdly, especially when working with multiple documents).
@jernej__s @MatthewPCooke @aesthr Good point, I have no idea why they have not undone this ridiculous choice in the meantime.
I know Raymond Chen has been annoyed by it breaking the various Windows user interface guidelines
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr LibreOffice.
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This might be the funniest MS Office thing I have encountered yet:
Excel has global undo/redo, so if you work on multiple files and hit undo a few times. it may change things in a different file. Good luck reconstructing that, if you don't immediately notice.
An absurd design decision imo
@aesthr Yup, drives me crazy.
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@jernej__s @MatthewPCooke @aesthr Good point, I have no idea why they have not undone this ridiculous choice in the meantime.
I know Raymond Chen has been annoyed by it breaking the various Windows user interface guidelines
@Canageek @MatthewPCooke @aesthr It does looks like it was fixed at some point – I can't reproduce this with 365 any more.
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@kayla I tried typst for scientific writing and it's just not there yet. My LaTeX boilerplate isn't complex at all but it felt like a monumental task to replicate the output of that in typst
@aesthr @kayla my LaTeX days are long gone, unfortunately. Once I left uni in the early 2000s I went straight into writing certification documents and research reports for a very large manufacturer - which all had to be in Word, of course.
That client has since switched to Google, while my own company is soldiering on with all things Microsoft. Blecchh.
Needless to say I make all my own notes in text files with Notepad++...
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@Canageek @MatthewPCooke @aesthr It does looks like it was fixed at some point – I can't reproduce this with 365 any more.
@jernej__s @MatthewPCooke @aesthr incorrect, I just verified it on the version we use at work. you have to open one instance of excel, and then open a second document either by using open or by clicking the new document button.
If you open Excel twice then you don't have this problem.
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