Excel vs SharePoint Customized Lists
Daniel Antion of the blog SharePoint Stories has an interesting article on Excel vs Custom Lists. This is a subject that I cover extensively in my SharePoint Power User workshops. The concept of removing content from Excel sheet that have been worked on for years is a scarey proposition.
Here’s what Daniel has to say about it:
“… spreadsheets are the definitive killer app for personal computers and Excel is a great spreadsheet. It’s just that using Excel to keep a list is a bad idea. I’m not just saying Excel is bad for lists because I’m a fan of SharePoint; it’s always been a bad idea. As long as Excel has been around, Access has been on the same menu (oh, right, unless you had Office Standard), and lists belong in a database not a spreadsheet. Why? I’m glad you asked:” (Read the entire article)
If you are looking for another resource for understanding SharePoint without wading through a bunch of geek speak, I recommend adding Daniel’s blog, SharePoint Stories, to your resources list.
Thanks for the great link! Daniel shares some interesting insights into this problem. He’s also got a great blog! We’d love for you to share more at http://www.facebook.com/office
Cheers,
Andy
MSFT Office Outreach
Here’s some info also on wading through SharePoint Online from the cloud-hosted online services.
It has some great comparison info as well for SharePoint Server vs. SharePoint Online.
Dan has some interesting points, but his article is obviously one-sided.
For the record, I also made some comparisons a while ago:
http://pathtosharepoint.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/excel-vs-sharepoint-lists-1/
http://pathtosharepoint.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/excel-vs-sharepoint-lists-2/
(which btw reminds me that I never wrote part 3…)
I’m in favor of jamming Sharepoint full of information but there are some basic capabilities that I find extremely difficult to replicate i.e. A total column if the column is a calculated field. Excel chews that up and spits it out with no problem. I’m still struggling with the xpath to make that happen. I’ve posted several times and still haven’t got a bite on a solution. Sharepoint is great, but right now doesn’t kill of Excel. Simply because it can’t do what excel does.
From Matt: “Sharepoint is great, but right now doesn’t kill of Excel. Simply because it can’t do what excel does.”
In my workshops one of the things I stress is “Keep you data in SharePoint. Do you analysis in Excel.” They are two different things with two different purposes.
Mark