My planning spreadsheet is used by teachers across the country and has been downloaded more than 7700 times. Unfortunately, the latest version has a bug that I hadn’t noticed and only appeared this month. A few users contacted me to let me know. Well, I’ve fixed it now, but at the cost of some backwards compatibility.
The formulas look absolutely bonkers, and they are, but using bonkers formulas meant the spreadsheet was still compatible with Excel 97. Now that is not the case, so users using Excel 97 will no longer be able to use my planner.
I like to try to maintain backwards compatibility as much as possible. With each new version of Excel comes new formulas that make life easier, but these new formulas don’t work with older versions of Excel. Many also do not work with other spreadsheet programs.
If I wanted to make the Planner easily, I would not be using Excel. Even with Excel, I could have used VBA to simplify things. My first version of the Planner used VBA; however, I moved away from that because I wanted to be able to open the Planner on my phone.
It’s a powerful planning tool, but it was also good fun to create. Can making spreadsheets be considered a hobby? Regardless, I enjoyed making it, and it was even more fun because of my self-imposed restriction of the spreadsheet having to be compatible with Excel 97. But, ah, I failed in the end.
Maybe I’ll go back and fix the monster formula properly, but in the meantime, at least it’s still compatible with Excel 2003.
Physics with Keith 