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Is the Best Free-Form Cell-Based Visual Board & Grid .... Excel ?!
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Posted by Luhmann
Aug 9, 2020 at 09:59 AM
Probably not what you want (I admit to not fully understanding the request), but wonder if you’ve looked at airtable?
Posted by washere
Aug 9, 2020 at 11:07 AM
Luhmann wrote:
Probably not what you want (I admit to not fully understanding the
>request), but wonder if you’ve looked at airtable?
>
>https://airtable.com/
Thanks for the suggestion, I’m not looking for any app. And Of course I’ve tried air airtable. Along with numerous similars, in fact I reckon I’ve tested well over a thousand wares over the last decade alone and probably over triple that over the decades.
There are many genres. Many types within genres too. Many apps within each type, some unique too.
As I said within stages other apps and tools and methods are used. For me, not airtable though.
It’s better than some other which have jazzy interfaces, shiny objects. Airtable isn’t that bad. Like a nice boat or e-corkboard. Curio is much better but still a nice boat. Less of task or schedule manager with critical path looks. Though I use a couple of those too.
I have a fave list of about fifty apps from the numerous I tested on various platforms. w/ Data imports/exports to all, written a manual of about 60 pages (I/o from/to any of those fifty apps), in some cases wrote scripts myself or multi app translators in between. About twenty of those apps are used very regularly. Airtable didn’t make it to the twenty or even fifty.
With Excel unlimited rows and columns, simplicity to move text cells around, plugin thousands (yes thousands) of other things into, templates (each like a new software in itself too), coding (like making your own custom apps) or even simple macros as was suggested, design my own, etc.
Then I’m not looking at a nice little e-board but similar to 3 huge blank walls Caro used to start with.
This way it’s not a nice little boat, it’s a huge aircraft carrier, with a flotilla of ships to plugin on beck and call or even lots of other apps or nice little boats to play within each sub-stage, so each genre and tool in its place.
My answer to any little jazzy app (some of which I use myself as said) or even my serious outliners (diff category, more serious) being suggested as a replacement is this:
Imagine Caro was sitting next to his huge walls of notes and you go say what about replacing these walls with this snazzy little interface?
He probably wouldn’t reply apart from a raised eyebrow but what you imagine he’s thinking would be my response.
Same with Excel, apart from the ease of use and numerous text cells layout, the huge potential of making it into whatever I need using code, plugins, templates, scripts, tweaks etc and still being the best virtual wall for the foreseeable future means nothing comes close. Specially with multi monitors. I just received a touchscreen portable monitor yesterday too, slightly bigger than my laptop and Chromebook and crazy thin. So from a tiny bag emerges three big screens. And that’s just one the go. Not Caro’s big walls, but also have bigger non-portable monitors. Obviously for laying out big projects, as I said several times, not little jobs.
I repeat for the nth time though, I use multiple other apps, each in their place and sub-stage. I’d think few here have tested thousands of apps or have written a sixty page manual of how to I/o data between fifty of their fave apps. That wasn’t the topic of this thread though: replacing or abandoning other tools or apps. Another clarification.
Takes some imagination though which is why I hesitated in posting, I wondered if anyone was using huge Excel sheets as virtual walls of text across multi monitors here which I doubted. Seems I was correct. So this topic here is basically closed for me now.
Posted by washere
Aug 9, 2020 at 11:20 AM
Gboard typo:
>> And that’s just one the go
And that’s just on the go
Posted by Dr Andus
Aug 9, 2020 at 02:01 PM
washere wrote:
>Then I’m not looking at a nice little e-board but similar to 3 huge
>blank walls Caro used to start with.
If you don’t actually need calculations, https://www.plectica.com/ may also fit the bill.
It does operate on the basis of cards (‘cells’), and it’s infinite.
You can also have ‘semantic zoom’, which effectively simulates Caro walking back from his wall and only seeing the headings in larger font.
So you could open 3 different Plectica maps, or look at 3 different areas of the same map on 3 monitors.
Posted by washere
Aug 9, 2020 at 02:34 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
>If you don’t actually need calculations….
Thanks very much. That’s correct, I actually don’t need calculations. There are a few points I bear in mind with this new approach:
Wasted space: which I referred to in mindmaps vs. spreadsheets. Or as I said continuous vs discrete: pixel by pixel positioning vs grids of cells.
The benefit is not just reducing wasted (white background) space.
Also ease of use, you don’t have to worry about accurate positioning & repositioning etc. Just drop text into the right cell. Which is what some graphics app like Photoshop illustrator etc have as snap to grid, as do some mindmaps. But nothing comes close to the ease of rows & columns in a spreadsheet.
Yet another, easy reordering of large groups by various selections.
Another, save time.
And more….
What resources, links codes plugins templates etc, I have been gathering over the last fortnight or so is already piling up. And they’re are related to Excel. Because that’s the elephant in the room. So I’ve discounted even Calc (LibreOffice/open office). As most of this industry based on Excel, works hundred percent with Excel. So just Excel related tools, design stuff, wares, tricks, etc.
Another aspect is that of course in this huge area, flotilla of Excel convoy ships I call them, link into other MS products like Access, Word, PP… And also MS Project, VB, .... And of course multi platform too with Macs and Chromebooks (Android).
These are strategic horizons that I can’t ignore as I build. The resources links I’ve kept related to Excel already is over a hundred. Much more will be added. Then I’ll sort them into genres: plugins, templates, codes, third party apps, ... Then whittle them down to a few best.
And keep an eye out for new Excel related “stuff”. But basically I’m doing KISS (Keep it simple stupid), the main thing is Excel itself and the rest of the stuff are bonuses. I don’t intend to waste much time on those unless looks useful vis-á-vis the walls of text purpose, ie: mainly visually text-wise or functionally useful eboard-wise. Well that’s the plan for now, fingers crossed.
Thanks again.