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Mark in NEMO

Posted 7/28/2024 21:50 (#10830363)
Subject: Using Excel on a phone or tablet

Northeast Missouri

Weeks ago I posted about an Excel sheet I built for calculating amounts of product (chemicals, adjuvants, AMS, etc.) to use in sprayer or hot load chemical batches, and for pesticide recordkeeping. That message thread, including screenshots, is here:
https://newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1166114&mid=1080409...

I've updated it with minor fixes, better formatting and instructions, notes on using it with LibreOffice Calc and other non-Windows versions of Excel (i.e., for Android and iOS), included examples of using it to calculatie units of seed corn and soybeans needed based on planted populations, cost per acre and per field for each product, and so on.

I've released two different versions this time: one for Excel on a PC (desktop, laptop, etc.), and another for Excel on smartphones and tablets which makes better use of their limited screen size. You can download either version here:
https://www.mcreekag.com/downloads.html ...it's free to use and modify as you want.

I had never messed around with using Excel on a phone or tablet--just didn't have the need until now. The main reason I'm posting at the moment is to show what I found out about using a spreadsheet on a small screen.

My biggest surprise was that editing/entering data in Excel on a smartphone or tablet is much better than I expected. Microsoft has done a good job of configuring Excel for use on a touchscreen. When editing a cell, for instance, the formula bar pops up at the bottom of the worksheet--more prominent than in Excel for Windows. Basically, things are easier than I figured they would be.

A small screen still isn't great for editing a 12-month cash flow budget, but it's useful enough that I can (I have!) used the phone version of the spreadsheet to do a quick calculation of herbicides, AMS, etc., to add to a spray tank. (I know there are apps for that, but spreadsheets are more customizable/flexible, and comfortable for me...heck, I cut my teeth on VisiCalc.<g>)

For "real world" use of the spreadsheet--something to keep in the tractor or sprayer--I've settled on a 9-inch Lenovo Tab M9 Android tablet. Plenty of screen size to see what I want. (Bought new on EBay for $94 delivered, sold directly by Lenovo--maybe they're dumping them because they're about 2 years old now?)

I've include both portrait and landscape mode screenshots of the spreadsheet running on a phone and the tablet, so anyone who's not tried using a spreadsheet on a phone or tablet can get an idea of the relative size of things.

EDIT: One more thing... For now, Excel for Android is free for personal use but Excel for iOS (Apple stuff) is not....which tells me that Excel for Android will likely be a $$ option someday. LibreOffice Calc is of course free and likely to always be free...which softens some of the higher cost of a Windows tablet if you run LibreOffice Calc instead of Excel for Windows.

Edited by Mark in NEMO 7/29/2024 09:56