Microsoft Software's Inconsistency

(7/22/2014) Anyone who has taught Microsoft's Excel in class feels the same pain that I feel. Excel has so many different versions over the years, and the Windows version and Mac version also have different interfaces. Although I know Excel is very important to business students and I would really want to teach, but, as a teacher, I don't really know how to teaching in class. Why? Students have so many different versions of Excel on their computers. As Mac becomes more popular among college students, teaching Excel without a lab (in a uniform OS and Excel version) is mission impossible.

Here is an example that I just found today. I want to find the command that can help me to convert a "text" to a "number" in Excel. When I search online, this is the official instruction from Microsoft's website. Are the software developers in Microsoft so blind that they don't see the problem that we are experiencing everyday?

Below is copied and pasted from this page. The major problem is in "Method 3" below. Yes, we know there are many different ways of converting a "text" to a "number." But different versions of Excel should be consistent. I am technology savvy enough to find answers on my own when Excel's new version CHANGES the command again. But those inexperience students CANNOT. In a classroom that has 4 or 5 different versions of Excel among students, tell me, how am I going to teach students?

Wake up! Microsoft, you sleeping lion.

This step-by-step article describes how to convert cells that contain text to cells that contain numbers. 

When you import a file that was created in another program (such as dBASE or Lotus 1-2-3) or was downloaded from a mainframe, Microsoft Excel may recognize some numbers as text.  

This causes functions such as SUM and AVERAGE to ignore the values in these cells. These text strings may contain actual text in addition to the numbers that you want to convert.

Converting Text to Numbers

To convert text to numbers in a worksheet, use any of the methods described later in this article (methods 1 through 7).

Note Each of these methods assumes that you have already changed any cell number formatting in the cells to General. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In Excel 2003, on the Format menu, click Cells. In Excel 2007 or later, click the arrow to the bottom right of the Fontsection on the ribbon to call up the Format Cells dialog box.
2. On the Number tab, click General under Category, and then click OK.

Method 1: Use the Error Button

If the cells in which numbers are displayed as text contain an error indicator in the upper-left corner, follow these steps:

1. Click the cell that contains the error indicator.
2. Click the error button next to the cell, and then click Convert to Number on the shortcut menu.

Method 2: Retype the Values in the Cells

To retype the values in the cells, follow these steps:

1. On the Format menu, click Cells, and then click the Number tab to change the number format of the cells.
2. Retype the numbers.

Method 3: Edit Directly in the Cell

To edit directly in the cells, follow these steps: 

Excel 2003

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Edit tab, verify that the Edit directly in cell check box is selected. Click OK.
3. Double-click the cell you want to format, and then press ENTER.
4. Click the error button next to the cell, and then click Convert to Number on the shortcut menu

Excel 2007

1. Click the Office Button, Click Excel Options, Click Advanced.
2. In the Editing Options, verify that the AllowEditing directly in cells check box is selected. Click OK.
3. Double-click the cell you want to format, and then press ENTER.
4. Click the error button next to the cell, and then click Convert to Number on the shortcut menu

Excel 2010

1. Click the File tab, Click Excel Options, Click Advanced.
2. In the Editing Options, verify that the AllowEditing directly in cells check box is selected. Click OK.
3. Double-click the cell you want to format, and then press ENTER.
4. Click the error button next to the cell, and then click Convert to Number on the shortcut menu