Re: export org table to other formats (gnumeric or scalc or xlsx)

[Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com>]

Uwe Brauer <oub@mat.ucm.es> writes:

> [[S/MIME Signed Part:Undecided]]
>
>> Uwe Brauer <oub@mat.ucm.es> writes:
>
>
>> The big problem here is that there is no single format understood by all
>> these different programs which you can use. While CSV works OK for data,
>> it does not support formulas and other meta data. In particular,
>> translating formulas is a real challenge.
>
>> I went down this rabbit hole some years back i.e. having a workflow
>> which allowed me to interact with others who used Excel and allowing me
>> to use org mode.
>
>> It took hours and hours of additional work and never worked reliably
>> because
>
>> - I never found a way of 'exporting' to a format which could be imported
>>   by Excel and included formulas
>
>> - None of the Excel export formats support full export of Excel -
>>   especially at the meta data level i.e. Visual Basic macros and other
>>   'objects'. Workbooks were a real pain.
>
> So if I understand you correctly you exported/imported formulas
> *manually*.

Yes, that was the big stumbling block. (plus anything which was based on
Visual Basic extensions is not exported by any of the Excel export
formats).

When collaborating with others, this becomes a real issue because there
is no easy way to detect a formula has been updated/changed/added. I
ended up spending more time working on improt/export than actually
working on the data in the spreadsheets themselves. 

>
> One of the problems I face is the fact that org-table formulas are
> column based and show as such, while excel and friends only reveal the
> formula for a cell and so one is forced to take care of this difference,
> manually.

Exactly and there is way too much scope for human error!


-- 
Tim Cross