Spreadsheet alternatives

[Malak]

We work with large spreadsheets packed full of macros and whatnot, and we need more speed. Microsoft Excel is what we use now, OpenOffice is definitely out of the question, any suggestions? I'm not sure anything is faster, but we are looking into TurboExcel right now.

 

[Schadenfroh]

How about lotus 123? I tried it 10 years ago and it was pretty good.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
How about lotus 123? I tried it 10 years ago and it was pretty good.

You need to add a smiley, so everyone else knows you are joking.

 

[Megatomic]

What's Corel's alternative? Quattro or something like that? Have you looked in that direction?

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
What's Corel's alternative? Quattro or something like that? Have you looked in that direction?

Saw mention of it on a alternative listing, but I don't want names, I want numbers. I need to know what's fast, not what's available. Looking for people who have actually tries these(recently) and know how good it is. The only benchmarks I could find were for the new OpenOffice2 which were very disappointing.

Turboexcel looks like it could be a winner, it says it can do our spreadsheet 300 times faster... We are waiting for a response from them.

 

[Megatomic]

Well, good luck to you. I've never seen speed comparisons between Excel and other spreadsheets...

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Well, good luck to you. I've never seen speed comparisons between Excel and other spreadsheets...

Yeah neither have I, that's why I posted here to see if anyone uses an alternative that works faster.

 

[TSDible]

So why is open office out of the question?

I haven't done any speed comparisons.

You really aren't going to find anything that compares in depth to Excel. And if you have used macros, forget it. They won't be compatible with any other spreadsheet program.

If it is that complex, perhaps you are using the wrong type of application. Maybe you should go with a custom solution...

what does the sheet do anyway?

 

[jwcooper]

If you are using a ton of macros, I'm guessing it is going to be a huge pain in the ass to move away from Excel.

I've heard that Open Office's macro system in their spreadsheet is not very thoroughly fleshed out yet.

I could be wrong. I'm a newb.

I say throw some more processing power at it. That could always help.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: TSDible
So why is open office out of the question?

OO takes 3 minutes to open the spreadsheet. Excel takes 3 seconds. That's why. It's ridiculous how slow OO is, which has always been their problem. The only thing that's nice is that it's free. I'd rather drop $3000 on software that can pump out these spreadsheets fast than use something that's free and takes 15 minutes to recalculate the fields.

 

[MrColin]

Perhaps an actual database would suit your needs better/faster?

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: MrColin
Perhaps an actual database would suit your needs better/faster?

That's what I'm thinking. It seems like your needs have exceeded the capabilities of a spreadsheet. An Access database maybe more appropriate in this situation.

 

[sourceninja]

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: TSDible
So why is open office out of the question?

OO takes 3 minutes to open the spreadsheet. Excel takes 3 seconds. That's why. It's ridiculous how slow OO is, which has always been their problem. The only thing that's nice is that it's free. I'd rather drop $3000 on software that can pump out these spreadsheets fast than use something that's free and takes 15 minutes to recalculate the fields.

Actually, its the advantage of microsoft pre-loading office so that it opens faster. Plus open office converting the format. If you use native oo format you will find it much faster after the program is already open. But the oo spreadsheet program does need a lot of work still.

Personally I use abiword and gnumeric (which now has windows builds). I personally find gnumeric way better then anything out there. However excel is the standard.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: MrColin
Perhaps an actual database would suit your needs better/faster?

That's what I'm thinking. It seems like your needs have exceeded the capabilities of a spreadsheet. An Access database maybe more appropriate in this situation.

The spreadsheet does use an access database, but really access is slow too.

Truthfully if I were doing the project, I'd be making an actual application. The only thing this guy knows is excel though, and he's very good at what he does with it. TurboExcel looks like it'll help, but it's $3000 so it's iffy on whether we'll get it. We'll see..

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: MrColin
Perhaps an actual database would suit your needs better/faster?

That's what I'm thinking. It seems like your needs have exceeded the capabilities of a spreadsheet. An Access database maybe more appropriate in this situation.

The spreadsheet does use an access database, but really access is slow too.

Truthfully if I were doing the project, I'd be making an actual application. The only thing this guy knows is excel though, and he's very good at what he does with it. TurboExcel looks like it'll help, but it's $3000 so it's iffy on whether we'll get it. We'll see..

How big is the underlying Access database? Is it accessed by multiple users or just a single user?

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: MrChad
How big is the underlying Access database? Is it accessed by multiple users or just a single user?

I'm not really sure of the specifics.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: MrChad
How big is the underlying Access database? Is it accessed by multiple users or just a single user?

I'm not really sure of the specifics.

Are you certain that the slow performance is the result of Excel or the Access database it's using? Access can be extremely slow if it gets too big or is accessed by multiple concurrent users.

 

[Malak]

At the moment it's in development, so it's only being accessed by one user. What is taking so long is the recalculating of all the cells, there are thousands of them.

 

[MrColin]

Originally posted by: Malak
At the moment it's in development, so it's only being accessed by one user. What is taking so long is the recalculating of all the cells, there are thousands of them.

You could try shifting some of those calculations to the underlying db query instead of excell, It might be faster. You might want to check that the formulas are written eficiently as well. turboExcel (based on a quick glance at the company's site) looks like it will let you write and compile C++ dll's from excell, not a faster version of excel.

Also, instead of reclculating all of the cells at once, maybe it could be broken into smaller parts, you can't look at 1000 cells at the same time anyway. Also, it might be easier for the user to navigate between smaller sheets than scrolling on one big one.

 

[Malak]

TurboExcel has the side effect of making spreadsheets run faster as well, supposedly up to 300 times faster. It's useful for people who just use excel, not just for C++ developers.

It's not one big sheet, it's 26 sheets IIRC. It's a very large workbook.