Poll

Which program do you use for the majority of your paperwork?

Word
14 (36.8%)
Excel
6 (15.8%)
Both equally
18 (47.4%)
Neither
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 37

Voting closed: Apr 29, 2007, 11:46 pm

Author Topic: Do you prefer Word or Excel?  (Read 16599 times)

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gelo141

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #15 on: Feb 18, 2010, 08:38 am »
I have to agree with others on this, I love/hate both equally.  I find that combining them, using mail merge, is also helpful and allows the actors to think that I have personalized things for them, when I haven't.  I have also recently started using Publisher, which allows me to more completely manipulate what I put on a page that I need to print out.
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Cedes

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #16 on: Feb 20, 2010, 09:58 pm »
I find myself using excel a lot these days.

cprted

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #17 on: Feb 20, 2010, 10:19 pm »
I use Excel more than Word, but I do spend a lot of time with both.  I think I'm going to be investing in FileMaker Pro in fairly short order.

Rhynn

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #18 on: Nov 04, 2012, 01:11 am »
Neither--I prefer Access.  I do my Actor Plot in Excel and a few things still in Word that are easier in Word than either Excel or Access, but for data manipulation, Access is best!
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Scott (formerly Digga)

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #19 on: Nov 07, 2012, 06:57 pm »
Like so many others have mentioned you can't really compare them.  For tracking, spreadsheets, contact sheets and calendars, I use Excel.  For my rehearsal and performance reports, I use Word and then save them as PDFs.

MatthewShiner

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #20 on: Nov 07, 2012, 09:50 pm »
The issue with Access, and other more specialized programs, is that, not every SM knows how to use them - I don't want to be the only SM on the team that can update paperwork.

Most everything I do I do in Word . . . but most of the time I let the team member doing the paperwork chose the program they want to use.
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Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.

KMC

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #21 on: Nov 08, 2012, 08:10 am »
Matthew - in addition to your points, Access is also a lot more labor intensive.  If you need to manage 15,000 database records - absolutely Access is the right choice.  For all paperwork I can think of SM-related, Excel and/or Word would be much more effective than Access.  Of course it boils down to personal preference, but why spend more time than is necessary on paperwork? 
Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action. -T. Roosevelt

MatthewShiner

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #22 on: Nov 08, 2012, 12:01 pm »
There are SM's out there that have great FileMaker templates, and use that - but they are EXTREMELY protective of them - and I think they are for a particular kind of project.

But again, the time to set up and maintain, teach, instruct and follow up - seems a bit excessive for 95% of what we do.

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Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.

BayAreaSM

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #23 on: Nov 09, 2012, 04:55 am »
I used to use Access when I was on my old Windows machine, however I had to stop because the printer available at the theater couldn't print my Access files. I switched to Mac shortly thereafter and have always been an Excel person. I seem to have a harder time getting formatting right in a Word document. Just a few column adjustments and I have perfect formatting every time with Excel. And I'm always learning little tricks to make my Excel life easier, so it makes sense to stick with it. From Deck Sheets to Spot Cue Sheets to Calling Scripts, Contact Sheets, Resumes and even Cover Letters - I'm all about Excel.

EFMcMullen

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #24 on: Nov 09, 2012, 10:06 am »
How do you do your calling scripts in Excel?

John Zachary Wells

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #25 on: Nov 15, 2012, 09:31 pm »
Both are good. It depends on the job you need done.
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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #26 on: Nov 16, 2012, 02:06 am »
How do you do your calling scripts in Excel?

For Ballet I write up my Calling Scripts in Excel.

First column: time stamp
Second column: cue number
Third column: choreography related to cue/cue motivation
Fourth column: Notes related to the cue [What rail is moving, what activities are part of the deck shift cue, what the LX is doing]


EFMcMullen

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #27 on: Nov 16, 2012, 08:37 am »
That makes sense.  I was having a heard time wrapping my brain around putting a script into Excel.

Jessie_K

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #28 on: Nov 18, 2012, 08:48 am »
How do you do your calling scripts in Excel?

For Ballet I write up my Calling Scripts in Excel.

First column: time stamp
Second column: cue number
Third column: choreography related to cue/cue motivation
Fourth column: Notes related to the cue [What rail is moving, what activities are part of the deck shift cue, what the LX is doing]

I do a very similar thing but using tables in Word.  Just goes to show... :)

Maribeth

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Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?
« Reply #29 on: Nov 18, 2012, 12:30 pm »
How do you do your calling scripts in Excel?

For Ballet I write up my Calling Scripts in Excel.

First column: time stamp
Second column: cue number
Third column: choreography related to cue/cue motivation
Fourth column: Notes related to the cue [What rail is moving, what activities are part of the deck shift cue, what the LX is doing]

I do something very similar when I work in dance. My blocking/calling script is done in Excel- I find tables easy to manipulate and without a lot of text to tie the blocking to (usually), I find it very easy to type the choreography.