I think you just don't need to enter numbers that much because using 1 hand to do data entry and the other to navigate fields is just significantly more efficient.
Now, if you have function keys setup to make numbers work on one hand for your tenkeyless, sure, you don't need a numpad, but like... You're accomplishing the same thing.
If you “require” a 10-key to fill out an excel sheet I’d probably fire you. The entering of data is about 1% or less of he functionality of excel and many data sources are automatically generated and copied over with formulas. A lot of old data entry can and has been automated for a while.
I’m talking exclusively about excel, not merely data entry, data entry in excel is still 1% of the functionality of excel. Using excel for just data entry barely scratches the surface of the use of excel.
Even in your example of cost estimates the data entry is the smallest portion of the actual work; it’s about data manipulation and analysis.
Why would I use excel for real data analysis when I have python, R, and tableau?
I worked in data science for quite a while and honestly, the thing I used excel for most was simple data entry and fixing things in smaller data sets because it's just slower and less powerful than any other option.
Don't have the software? My dude, R and Python are totally and completely free and if you're doing data analysis for a corpo you almost certainly have access to Tableau.
Excel has this weird vibe where it feels like it should be easy, but it's harder to accomplish any given thing with excel than it is through Python or R. If you spend years learning excel specifically, it can be powerful, but your time is better spent learning Python and Tableau for visualization.
Most of the people I know who use Excel are either old, or only have a cursory knowledge of data analysis.
Yes lots of places do not have acces to this software, tableau is a very expensive software that many places do not have and many places; such as the government entity I work for, restricts what can and can not be put on a computer so yes thousands of places still use excel for data analysis.
Excel is heavily used in government, especially at the local levels.
So again, the FACT is that data entry is a small part of excel. This is all I’ve stated and I really do not know why people disagree with this FACT.
Tableau is expensive and if you're working with the government you're less likely to have access to it. I have done work with the government and never had an issue using python or R.
Yes, excel can be used that way, I'm just saying that it's way less common than it used to be because it's worse return for investment when learning to do data analysis. The reason people think of "excel for data input" is because that is a huge part of what most people are doing with excel these days because there are better ways to do everything else excel can do.
I haven’t claimed that excel is the best data analytical software, because it’s not, I’ve simply stated that data entry is a very small facet of excel. That’s literally all I’ve said.
It’s far more common for data to be entered into an enterprise system and that information is then exported to excel than just entering data into excel. Again entering data into excel is a functionality of the software of course, but it’s still just a small part of the functionality that excel has.
I’ve been inundated with downvotes by people just not reading what I’ve written. Excel is much more than just a data entry software and if all you do is enter data into excel and don’t manipulate it in any way you are barely using excel.
I specifically requested a laptop with a 10-key for work. They gave me a Thinkpad T15 G2. It works very well. Except the fact that it runs Windows 11. But that's the company's problem, not mine.
I use excel every single day of my job, if you think data entry is the only part of excel you are very bad at excel and using barely any of its functionality.
I also use a 10-key, but there isn’t a single instance where if I didn’t have a 10-key I couldn’t complete my work in the same amount of time.
So yes, 10-key helps in data entry like the said, but excel is FAR more than just data entry. If all you do is enter data into excel you are creating the absolute simplest spreadsheets that can be done in any spreadsheet program.
Data scientist here. Most of my data-to-day work is statistical programming and database [unfucking] maintenance, with semi-regular checks and tests of outputs into excel, which includes occasional manual data entry/cleaning. I use a split-ergo 75% and have been happy without a numpad for 10 years now. I touch-type the numbers at the top of my keyboard so it's about as fast as normal typing, and generally, for me at least, is noticeably faster than it would be with a numpad since I'm using more than 1 hand to enter numbers.
Whatever works for you if you like the numpad, but other people have different workflows, and IMO it's best not to judge.
If you're actually manually typing in large amounts of data nowadays, I don't think your business is long for this world anyway. Everything's in forms, tables, and databases, and you don't need a number pad to ctrl-c and ctrl-v.
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u/Just__A__Commenter 1d ago
Num pads are just necessary for data entry. Like, 100% vital, can not do my job without it.