Slate

Dev tools

spreadsheet analysis add-in

SHOW HN2014

192points
43comments
#108of 2,272 in 2014
Top 5%of 2014 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

3 positive, 3 neutral or asking, 6 mixed, 6 critical, out of 18 comments about the project. Thread score -0.06.

Idea: 1 for, 2 againstDesign: 1 for, 1 againstExecution: 0 for, 2 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Novel concept

    From 2 comments
    • IMHO, the concept is novel. Having worked in BI/data analysis fields, I have seen a fair share of large xls files with complex calculations. Can't really try now since blocked at…
      sean_the_geek on HN
    • Fantastic!!
      eddielee6 on HN
  • Useful for documenting spreadsheets

    From 1 comment
    • Some feedback: - Getting the license key was a bit slow, I went through the process of getting a reminder before the original turned up (I guess I'm impatient - but it's annoying…
      arethuza on HN

Objections

  • Installer is heavy at 125MB and installation is cumbersome

    From 3 comments
    • Preliminary bitching while it's downloading: 125mb for an Excel plugin? WTF?
      roel_v on HN
    • OK here is my feedback. First some superficial stuff: Installshield is not going to fly with the market you want to make real money off, i.e. big organisations who want to deploy…
      roel_v on HN
    • seems like a really interesting concept, although I do think you might struggle getting that into the enterprise (or even medium/large business space) given the heavy…
      heymishy on HN
  • Too different from Excel and hard to read at scale

    From 2 comments
    • Some feedback: - Getting the license key was a bit slow, I went through the process of getting a reminder before the original turned up (I guess I'm impatient - but it's annoying…
      arethuza on HN
    • OK here is my feedback. First some superficial stuff: Installshield is not going to fly with the market you want to make real money off, i.e. big organisations who want to deploy…
      roel_v on HN
  • Corporate security concerns with cloud or install

    From 2 comments
    • Good point. We have had some issues with corporate security, especially in larger organisations, and are looking at alternatives. Moving to cloud software could be an option, but…
      f292 on HN
    • Im currently in consultancy for financial services and getting anything either in as cloud-based SaaS or even a well-established vendor is a nightmare of risk assessments and red…
      heymishy on HN
  • Pricing too high

    From 1 comment
    • OK here is my feedback. First some superficial stuff: Installshield is not going to fly with the market you want to make real money off, i.e. big organisations who want to deploy…
      roel_v on HN
  • Only works with Excel, not Linux or LibreOffice

    From 1 comment
    • Looks nice, sadly it's not only for Excel and I'm on Linux, having only LibreOffice or Gnumeric.
      jglauche on HN

Requests

  • Allow annotation and grouping of nodes

    From 2 comments
    • OK here is my feedback. First some superficial stuff: Installshield is not going to fly with the market you want to make real money off, i.e. big organisations who want to deploy…
      roel_v on HN
    • Hi, then if you are building this you should put a real database in the middle and work on hierarchies, structures, mappings, comparisons and drill downs. You should allow…
      kfk on HN
  • Better display of 2D ranges

    From 2 comments
    • OK here is my feedback. First some superficial stuff: Installshield is not going to fly with the market you want to make real money off, i.e. big organisations who want to deploy…
      roel_v on HN
    • Thanks for your comments - really useful. Sorry you did not find it helpful for the sheet you tried it on. We have not yet implemented a way of showing 2D nodes in an intuitive…
      f292 on HN
  • Fix fixed header on website

    From 1 comment
    • The first thing I noticed about your site is how obnoxious the fixed header is. Please kill it! Not everyone has high vertical pixel density.
      babby on HN
  • Ability to return to the Excel cell

    From 2 comments
    • OK here is my feedback. First some superficial stuff: Installshield is not going to fly with the market you want to make real money off, i.e. big organisations who want to deploy…
      roel_v on HN
    • Thanks for your comments - really useful. Sorry you did not find it helpful for the sheet you tried it on. We have not yet implemented a way of showing 2D nodes in an intuitive…
      f292 on HN

Questions

  • Who is the target customer

    From 2 comments
    • "So I think I'm exactly your target customer." From what you've said, I would argue that you're /not/ their target customer. I used to work with medium- to high-complexity Excel…
      christudor on HN
    • Finance here. Just gave it a try, it won’t fly. There are 2 types of finance: those that take a spreadsheet as it is and just “use” it; those that read formulas. Neither of the 2…
      kfk on HN
  • Why a license key is needed for a demo

    From 1 comment
    • Some feedback: - Getting the license key was a bit slow, I went through the process of getting a reminder before the original turned up (I guess I'm impatient - but it's annoying…
      arethuza on HN

Alternatives named

  • Excel Trace Precedents and F2 highlighting

    From 2 comments
    • Some feedback: - Getting the license key was a bit slow, I went through the process of getting a reminder before the original turned up (I guess I'm impatient - but it's annoying…
      arethuza on HN
    • "So I think I'm exactly your target customer." From what you've said, I would argue that you're /not/ their target customer. I used to work with medium- to high-complexity Excel…
      christudor on HN
  • HFM and BPC

    From 1 comment
    • Hi, then if you are building this you should put a real database in the middle and work on hierarchies, structures, mappings, comparisons and drill downs. You should allow…
      kfk on HN
  • excel2flow

    From 1 comment
    • I had some trouble reading nested IF functions, so I wrote a piece of code which translates them into flowcharts: http://excel2flow.asp2.cz/ (weekend project)
      excel2flow on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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