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...

The Big Bang: Microsoft Windows goes for good, positive adaptations required

On 27Mar2021, Linux Mint ate Microsoft Windows 10 on Legolas. Three months on, I conclude beyond any doubt that wiping out Windows was the best decision I ever made. The second best decision I ever made was to test Linux Mint in Virtual Box five years ago. The third best decision I ever made was to take ownership of the learning curve that migrating in Windows really entails. A quick reminder: what’s Microsoft Windows like nowadays? I still need to use Windows at work. I cannot easily describe how painful it now is to use Windows. So I’ll try to describe it difficultly. My work machine is a powerful beast, but it exhibits constant latency. For a keyboard-orientated power user, this means that some keystrokes go walkabouts when other services on the Windows machine go to nuclear war with each other, scrambling to feed their narcissistic self-importance for besieged system resources wholly at the user’s expense. Something on Windows tends to clear the keyboard buffer randomly, resulting ...

Deployment of Wine

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. Having established that there is no way to migrate fully from Windows to Linux , the project now needs to consider running Windows apps in Linux.   This is a big change to the strategy of the project.   This is a big change to the deployment of a Linux workstation, a crushing admission of failure, and the opening of a whole new world of risks to an otherwise secure operating system. Environment & required functionality For this blog post, Wine was tested on: The Linux Mint Xfce 19 virtual machine " Bilbo ", on host Windows 10 laptop " Saruman " The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 virtual machine " Gimli ", on host Windows 10 host " Legolas ". Alternatives There are alternatives to Wine/PlayOnLinux, notably the paid software Crossover. Software selection Wine and PlayOnLinux are present in L...