You Only Need What We Tell You You Need
Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 11:28 pm
One of the latest technotes from IBM:
Open mouthed stare, re-reads...
Shakes head, blinks again...
You. What?
That's so freaking ridiculous that I can't even bring myself to rant about it. But wait, it gets worse.
Ahem. Let me point out a couple of relevant points.
First, one of the things that mildly p*sses me off about the post-2003 versions of Excel is that the Developer tab is not switched on by default. It majorly p*ssed me off the first time I came across Excel 2007 and couldn't find where any of the VBA functionality was (even though I usually access most of the standard ones by keyboard, such as [Alt]+[F11] for the VBE), only to find that it was on the not-visible-by-default Developers tab. It has since become only a mild irritation in that I need to remember to turn it on every time I come across a new 2007+ installation.
So tell me, IBM, do you think, maybe, that in the majority of cases the only people who will have turned that tab on in the first place are the ones who do use the Developer option in Excel, hmm?
Secondly, given your stated inability to reproduce this in house, how exactly have you arrived at the conclusion that the Developer tab has the first flying connection to the problem? For you have offered no evidence, or even the reason for a wild guess, at a causal link.
Thirdly, have you considered that the possibility that this has less to do with Developer tabs and more to do with your borderline corporate OCD need to constantly redraw the TM1 ribbon tab to make it context sensitive, processing overhead bedamned, as discussed in this thread? Oh and incidentally, the first screenshot in that thread? Note the absence of a Developer tab in that Excel TM1 session that has no labels in it.
So maybe, wild, out of left field idea here, maaaaybe if you get your hand off it and leave it alone, draw the tab once and just throw error messages if someone selects an invalid item... maybe the labels won't be prone to disappear from time to time when something belches within the VBA environment while the tab is being redrawn?
Certainly beats telling people who have actively and consciously activated a ribbon tab that they don't really need it anyway.
OK, fair enough. MS has "oversecured" the Excel environment in recent releases making it frequently a pain in the @$$ to work with, but on the other hand the Trusted Locations thing was a good idea on MS's part and often works. On balance, no issue there.IBM wrote:Perspectives - labels missing on TM1 icons in Excel
Technote (troubleshooting)
Problem(Abstract)
Launching of Perspectives shows the TM1 icons in the Excel ribbon, but the labels for them are missing.
Symptom
User may also see the warning that the digital signature has expired on the Enable Macros window and/or the Please insert a Smart Card message.
Environment
Windows 7 and Excel 2010
Resolving the problem
Solution is to trust the tm1p.xla location (the TM1 x86 bin folder) in Excel. To do that in MS Excel 2010 go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Trusted Locations and add new location
{Blink}IBM wrote:It may also be necessary to disable the Developer tab by going to Customize the Ribbon (right-click on ribbon) and unchecking the Developer option.
Open mouthed stare, re-reads...
Shakes head, blinks again...
You. What?
That's so freaking ridiculous that I can't even bring myself to rant about it. But wait, it gets worse.
(My emphasis.)IBM wrote:For Excel 2007:
Click the Microsoft Office ButtonButton image, and then click Excel Options.
Click Popular, and then de-select the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon check box.
Note: If the TM1 ribbon is set to auto=load when launching Excel, setting it not to do that may also be a contributory factor in this issue. Logically, it should be possible to utilize the Developer tab when launching Excel without TM1. Then when TM1 is needed, simply launch TM1 directly from the tm1p.xla file or from Start > All Programs > IBM Cognos TM1.
The majority of users will not be developing and will not need the Developer option in Excel anyway.
IBM is, so far, unable to reproduce this issue in-house, so we have been unable to log a defect.
Ahem. Let me point out a couple of relevant points.
First, one of the things that mildly p*sses me off about the post-2003 versions of Excel is that the Developer tab is not switched on by default. It majorly p*ssed me off the first time I came across Excel 2007 and couldn't find where any of the VBA functionality was (even though I usually access most of the standard ones by keyboard, such as [Alt]+[F11] for the VBE), only to find that it was on the not-visible-by-default Developers tab. It has since become only a mild irritation in that I need to remember to turn it on every time I come across a new 2007+ installation.
So tell me, IBM, do you think, maybe, that in the majority of cases the only people who will have turned that tab on in the first place are the ones who do use the Developer option in Excel, hmm?
Secondly, given your stated inability to reproduce this in house, how exactly have you arrived at the conclusion that the Developer tab has the first flying connection to the problem? For you have offered no evidence, or even the reason for a wild guess, at a causal link.
Thirdly, have you considered that the possibility that this has less to do with Developer tabs and more to do with your borderline corporate OCD need to constantly redraw the TM1 ribbon tab to make it context sensitive, processing overhead bedamned, as discussed in this thread? Oh and incidentally, the first screenshot in that thread? Note the absence of a Developer tab in that Excel TM1 session that has no labels in it.
So maybe, wild, out of left field idea here, maaaaybe if you get your hand off it and leave it alone, draw the tab once and just throw error messages if someone selects an invalid item... maybe the labels won't be prone to disappear from time to time when something belches within the VBA environment while the tab is being redrawn?
Certainly beats telling people who have actively and consciously activated a ribbon tab that they don't really need it anyway.