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Atlantis Word Processor
"Ken Springer" wrote in message ... On 2/5/14 2:47 PM, BillW50 wrote: "VanguardLH" wrote in message ... BillW50 wrote: snip Why are people creating tables on a word processor? Why not use a spreadsheet? It depends on what your goal is with the table. I think people tend to lose sight of the purpose of a spreadsheet. It's for the purpose manipulating numbers, doing math operations of some type. It's not for manipulating text. You're right, but on the other hand, I think some lost sight what tables are for. And while spreadsheets are manipulating numbers, databases are for manipulating text and/or numbers. If say you are running a computer review for example, why are they using tables to just control the left and right margins of the paragraphs? In your preferred spreadsheet, can you insert a graphic/image into a cell? In a Libre Office spreadsheet, you can insert a graphic/image, but it's free floating, it's not inserted into the cell itself. Which you might want if you were using LO Writer to create a table for a basic HTML page. In Writer and Word, the image is inserted into the table cell. Change the size, shape, location of the table and/or cell, and the image moves with it. Doing the same in an LO spreadsheet, the image stays put. You have to manually reposition that image. I'm sure there are other differences, but this one comes to mind. And doing something like this that doesn't require a math component is simply extra steps you have to do to get that table into the text document, plus the extra time to edit that table info. You know, some word processors has features of basic spreadsheet and database use. Even though these features might be there, I wouldn't call them very useful except for the lightest of uses. You know I save lots of computers articles over the years. My most used format is in plain text. As it is the most transportable format of all. But when it just isn't practical, I'll use RTF, DOC, HTML, or even MHTML. And most of the time I see tables used in docs, it was totally unnecessary. -- Bill Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Windows Live Mail 2009 v14 Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 7 Home SP1 |
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Atlantis Word Processor
On 2/6/14 7:06 AM, BillW50 wrote:
"Ken Springer" wrote in message ... On 2/5/14 2:47 PM, BillW50 wrote: "VanguardLH" wrote in message ... BillW50 wrote: snip Why are people creating tables on a word processor? Why not use a spreadsheet? It depends on what your goal is with the table. I think people tend to lose sight of the purpose of a spreadsheet. It's for the purpose manipulating numbers, doing math operations of some type. It's not for manipulating text. You're right, but on the other hand, I think some lost sight what tables are for. And while spreadsheets are manipulating numbers, databases are for manipulating text and/or numbers. "manipulating text and/or numbers"... You've lost me there with that phrase. How do you "manipulate" text? I can sort of see it with numbers. If say you are running a computer review for example, why are they using tables to just control the left and right margins of the paragraphs? Assuming your review is simply a text article, I wouldn't use a table at all. Possibly for a pull quote, but I'd more than likely use a text box there. My uses of tables would be more for presenting information in a... At a loss for a descriptor here. LOL For instance, I have document listing different types of scholarships (music, engineering, scientific) in one column of the table, where to apply for it in the second column, and the web page hyperlink in the third column. But the formatting does look like a spreadsheet layout. It's constantly changing, or was as the project is in languish mode, and is small enough that using spreadsheet to do the ever changing updates would take more time than just doing it in Word/Libre Office/???????? tables. And, I can sort the data as I wish. There is one case where I would use a spreadsheet, although I've never had the reason to do so. I have to prepare a report to somebody about the financial portion of some project. But, as I do the report, all the numbers needed for the report are not available. In the spreadsheet, I'd put the relevant data where calculations can be done as the data comes in, with the results being dynamic in this case. The "bottom line" of all these calculation goes into the report. I'd create the "bottom line" part of the spreadsheet as a linked object into the text document so that as new information comes in and is entered into the spreadsheet, the changes to the "bottom line" are automatically updated in the text document. In your preferred spreadsheet, can you insert a graphic/image into a cell? In a Libre Office spreadsheet, you can insert a graphic/image, but it's free floating, it's not inserted into the cell itself. Which you might want if you were using LO Writer to create a table for a basic HTML page. In Writer and Word, the image is inserted into the table cell. Change the size, shape, location of the table and/or cell, and the image moves with it. Doing the same in an LO spreadsheet, the image stays put. You have to manually reposition that image. I'm sure there are other differences, but this one comes to mind. And doing something like this that doesn't require a math component is simply extra steps you have to do to get that table into the text document, plus the extra time to edit that table info. You know, some word processors has features of basic spreadsheet and database use. Even though these features might be there, I wouldn't call them very useful except for the lightest of uses. Years ago, I experimented with the spreadsheet function of a table in Word. Can't remember which version, but 2003 or previous. The cell names were the antiquated R1C1 for the upper left cell, not A1 as we are used to these days. Never played with a database feature of a word processor. Or, at least, not knowingly! LOL You know I save lots of computers articles over the years. My most used format is in plain text. As it is the most transportable format of all. But when it just isn't practical, I'll use RTF, DOC, HTML, or even MHTML. And most of the time I see tables used in docs, it was totally unnecessary. For the copies I'm going to share, I use PDF. And save the original in native format for the program. -- Ken Mac OS X 10.8.5 Firefox 24.0 Thunderbird 24.0 |
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