Excel Hell

​OK be honest. Do you love Excel? Or hate it?  Well, no matter your answer it’s a 100% certainty that you have seen or used Excel during your career.  For better or worse, Excel is a foundational part of the business world. Teams large and small use Excel for everything from poorly formatted phone lists to massively complex and interlinked tables with pivots, macros, and charts that can only be deciphered by Sue, who’s not in today. ​

Don’t get me wrong. I love Excel, and truth be told, Excel is undeniably great. More than great, it is jaw-droppingly impressive. However…. it is also more often than not the absolute wrong tool for the job. It’s just happens to be the one people know, and therefore no matter the need, they use Excel. Need a phone list? Use Excel. Managing projects? Use Excel. Tracking customer feedback? Use Excel. Analyzing sales data? Use Excel. Actually, that last one makes good sense. The other examples though, not so much.

So. If you’re wondering what else is out there, maybe you’d like to consider some Excel alternatives instead. Here’s the short list. You might wind up using just one of these, or who knows, all of them. You can thank me later.

Shared Lists

• Evernote
• Reminders
• Things

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Shared Spreadsheets

• Excel Online
• Google Sheets
• ​Numbers

Better Than Spreadsheets

• AirTable
• Smartsheet
• Spreadsheet.com

Low Code Databases

• Filemaker
• MS Access (Microsoft only)
• Zoho Creator

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Dirk Reynolds // ZWARM Intelligence // Tech Whisperer
Dirk is a founding Geeksharks member. For his day job he runs ZWARM Intelligence, a California based firm that provides its clients with custom Filemaker (Claris) solutions, websites, marketing/design campaigns, and comprehensive tech strategy tailored to small- and medium-sized businesses in Europe and the US