TL:DR
Excel seamlessly leveraging a relational database does not make it a ‘Custom Application’, any more than Excel leveraging Power Query. Both are powerful built-in features of Excel.
I’ve often found myself in debates on social media with experienced Excel experts who assert limitations on what Excel can achieve. These debates usually unfold with others clinging to traditional mindsets about Excel’s capabilities and boundaries. After days of back-and-forth discussion, there’s often a turning point where, as we say, “the penny drops,” and they finally grasp my point:
Excel, when used to its fullest extent, has no boundaries.
This article addresses these common debates and critiques, featuring key exchanges I’ve had with respected figures in the field. The aim is to clarify why the status quo is often a misunderstanding of Excel’s potential and how to bridge that gap.
The Turning Point: Changing Perceptions, One Debate at a Time
I’ve encountered multiple scenarios where experts eventually realize their perspective was too narrow. A memorable instance was in July 2023, during a debate with Colin Wall, who argued that Excel was only capable of top-down budgeting. After three days of discussion, he conceded that tools like Anaplan were indeed targeting users who were unaware of Excel’s more advanced capabilities.
Similarly, Mark Proctor’s consistent response has been that the solutions I propose are too complex for everyday Excel users, suggesting that my approaches could leave organizations in the lurch if I’m not around to support them. This overlooks a fundamental point: the advanced techniques I use are built into Excel and have been available for decades. Indeed, to be certified as competent at Excel at an advanced level, one is required to have the skill to apply these powerful features of Excel when necessary.
The Power Query Debate
One of the more common critiques comes from Power Query advocates, such as Celia Alves, who shared a meme claiming that anyone not using Power Query to import data into Excel is outdated. I challenged this, in the context of importing data into Excel’s memory, as Power Query is essentially a repackaging of capabilities already built into Excel for years. When I presented alternative methods using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) to achieve the same result, the response often bordered on dismissal rather than open engagement. This “throwing the toys out of the pram” reaction illustrates an unwillingness to entertain techniques outside popular frameworks.
Extending Beyond Single Workbooks
An interesting discussion with Wyn Hopkins occurred when I demonstrated a method for creating dynamic, multi-level cascading drop-down lists using centralized cloud data, as opposed to the conventional approach of sourcing from a single workbook. Despite initially dismissing my technique as irrelevant, the penny eventually dropped. However, the response I received was not to embrace the new method but to continue favoring the status quo, citing time constraints and an overwhelming amount of information. This is disappointing if our aim is to expand the boundaries of knowledge, possibility, and opportunity.
This reminds me of a cartoon shown to me by Neil Foley in 1992, where a medieval army about to go to war dismisses a machine gun salesman, saying, “can’t you see there’s a war going on?” The resistance to embracing advanced Excel techniques feels much the same. People are too focused on immediate tasks to see the bigger picture.
Jordan Goldmeier’s Flawed Comparison
Jordan Goldmeier posted that “there is nothing Access can do that we can’t do with Excel better.” This is fundamentally flawed, as the two paradigms are complementary and designed to work in synergy, not in competition. Again, the debate went on for days. Did the penny drop?
The “Custom Application” Fallacy
A recurring argument in these debates is the notion that using Excel with external data connections or advanced features constitutes a “custom application” and therefore isn’t “real Excel.” For instance, Paul Barnhurst recently claimed that Excel leveraging cloud-based databases equates to building a custom application rather than using Excel as intended.
This argument is flawed. Excel’s architecture, especially from the introduction of ADO in Excel 97, has always been designed for client-server architecture and external data connectivity, driving ongoing business operations. Microsoft’s push towards a “digital nervous system,” as described in Bill Gates’ book Business at the Speed of Thought, was all about enabling seamless connectivity and integration across applications like Excel, Access, and even PowerPoint. This was the essence of Microsoft’s strategy for Office: to create an environment where applications could share data and functionality seamlessly.
Historical Context: The Client-Server Revolution
To fully appreciate Excel’s capabilities, one must understand the paradigm shift that occurred in the early 1990s. Before that, personal computers could only run one application at a time, and software was typically “siloed” with data locked inside individual applications. The advent of networked computers and the Windows operating system changed this by allowing multiple applications to run concurrently and enabling connectivity between machines.
This transformation gave rise to the client-server architecture, which separated data storage from processing and enabled centralized data management. In this architecture, Excel was designed from the ground up to work as a front-end client that could connect to centralized databases, driving ongoing business operations, making it an early adopter of what we now call enterprise resource planning (ERP).
Revisiting Excel’s Built-in Capabilities
The connectivity features in Excel, such as ADO, are not “add-ons” or “customizations”; they have been integral to Excel for over 30 years. Indeed, this capability in Excel was first introduced to the world in Microsoft DevCast of December 1993 by none other than a young Satya Nadella (with hair!), the present CEO. The resistance to embracing these features reflects a lack of awareness of Excel’s foundational design. Many popular techniques shown on social media focus on one-off tasks or single-user scenarios, which fail to scale for enterprise use. This is a significant limitation, as real-world business processes require scalability and adaptability that go beyond single-use solutions.
The Social Media Influence
Much of the confusion surrounding Excel’s capabilities stems from social media influencers who shape the narrative based on what generates engagement rather than what is most beneficial in a business context. Influencers often lack experience with enterprise-level spreadsheet management, leading to a bias in the content they produce. This, in turn, conditions users to think of Excel as a tool for ad-hoc tasks rather than as a powerful platform for ongoing, scalable solutions.
Challenging the Boundaries: Is Power Query Excel?
If Power Query, a built-in feature, is considered part of Excel, then why isn’t ADO? The two perform similar functions: they connect to external data sources, run queries, and import data. The difference lies not in capability but in perception. Techniques using ADO or other built-in data access technologies are dismissed as “custom applications” simply because they are not popularized in the same way. Yet, they achieve the same results, often with greater flexibility and fewer limitations.
Conclusion: Redefining the Debate
The ongoing debates often reveal a significant disconnect between the perception and reality of Excel’s capabilities. When experts like Paul Barnhurst and others draw boundaries around what Excel can or should do, they overlook the fact that these “boundaries” are self-imposed. Excel’s architecture and built-in features have no such limits. The resistance I encounter is not surprising, given the investment many have made in promoting a narrow view of Excel through courses, videos, and social media content.
The bottom line is this: Excel, when used to its full potential, truly has no boundaries. The sooner we can embrace this, the more we can unlock its capabilities to meet the needs of modern business. Let’s move beyond ad-hoc tasks and embrace Excel for what it was designed to be—a powerful, flexible tool that can adapt to any scenario.
In the future, we need to engage in these discussions with a mindset open to evolving practices, recognizing that not everything new is an “add-on” or “custom application,” but rather a rediscovery of features that have always been there, just waiting to be leveraged effectively.
This is a podcast by Hiran de Silva. Narrated by Charlie.
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