Business Tools Blog

A few years ago, a certain 6′7″ CFO (aka “The Tall One”) and I were collaborating on a forecast.

One day, he came to my office and grouched, “Why are you ignoring me?”  (The Tall One has many virtues, and patience is not one of them.)

Puzzled, I said, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

The Tall One looked perplexed and said,  “I keep hitting Notify button and you aren’t getting out of the file.”

I laughed and then explained that Excel’s File in Use Notify feature doesn’t notify the person who currently has the file open.  Instead, the Notify button lets the user know when the file is available.  The Tall One didn’t like my explanation, and told me to get out of the file.   He grumbled as he walked away that Microsoft had it backwards.  The Notify button should not only tell the person to get out of the file; it should also shock them if they didn’t.