Skip to main content

SoftMaker's PlanMaker: cannot handle linked workbooks with SUMIF and Google Drive reckons the files are ZIP files.

I have tested PlanMaker with my now-standard test suite of two linked workbooks.

PlanMaker looks and feels highly compatible with Excel.  It has comparable menu structures, a choice of Excel 2003-like or Excel 2007-like interfaces.  It feels tight and secure, i.e. no risk of data being lost.

So it should have been an ideal candidate to solve the problems unsolved by LibreOffice and OpenOffice.

Sadly, no.  It seems that PlanMaker's deployment of XLSX does not extend to linked workbooks in functions SUMIF and SUMIFS.  PlanMaker thus cannot pass this most basic of hygiene factors.

Naturally, I put in a comment in PlanMaker's forum for PlanMaker Freeware in Sep2018 and received no useful replies.

And now I receive spam from PlanMaker.

One other thing that PlanMaker annoyingly does.  When it saves XLSX, it does something that makes Google Drive think it is a ZIP file.  Google Drive preview thus cannot open the file for preview ("Oops!  Something's gone wrong!  You can download the file instead...").  Given that PlanMaker doesn't intend to take ownership of the SUMIF issue, I decided there was no point in telling them about another elementary mistake that smells an awful lot like non-compliance with Microsoft's XLSX standards.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Downgrading of the project: Calc has a fatal bug - it cannot reliably link workbooks

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to on-going work to make LibreOffice Calc workable. Unfortunately, it turns out that LibreOffice isn't fit for purpose.  Specifically, it cannot reliably link workbooks, even in its own native workbooks. As a consequence, the project is now downgraded.  My time is now better spent doing other, more productive things, with a greater chance of success. Background On 29Jul2018, I complied a detailed test using fresh, sample data created specifically for the purpose, in Excel on Windows 10, then had a virtual machine running LibreCalc on Linux Mint to import it. The basic spreadsheet functionality of linked workbooks failed haphazardly. I logged the test results on 29Jul2018 on AskLibreOffice  and, to date, have yet to see any evidence of anybody taking ownership of recognising the issue and thus fixing it. The s...

WPS Office Spreadsheet v Excel: at last, one that works!

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to finding a spreadsheet package that handles existing data - over 10 years-worth of data - to migrate from Windows to Linux.  LibreOffice failed to meet the required functionality , resulting in the project being downgraded.  Time became available to test WPS Office, the result of which is that the project may continue. Environment & required functionality Excel-like functionality - in particular the use of linked workbook references in formulae such as SUMIF() - needs to be used on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; A Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 virtual machine " Gimli "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". The synchronisation agent is Google Drive in Windows 10, and either grive2 or google-drive-ocamlfuse in Linux Mint. This test focussed on spreadsheets, with n...

Networking using OpenSSH

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine.  This stage relates to networking the Windows 10 machine to the Linux Mint machine. Environment & required functionality The network should be a local network - to share files and folders - between the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". The network is a local area network from a domestic router, the usual 192.168.x.x thing. This is the second attempt to share files and folders between Windows and Linux Mint. Thankfully, this attempt met the core objectives. Alternatives As with the first (failed) attempt , peer-to-peer networking (file sharing, simple two-way server-and-client relationship) is the most efficient way for bulk data transfers, so if the network doesn’t work, then the test has failed. Software selection Both machines needed to have ne...