Ask HN: At work, do you you use Git for your Excel workbooks?

fludlight 7 years ago |

A few years ago, when I was in an Excel-heavy role we used Sharepoint, which was ok. It was a big improvement over "pro forma $user v4 final final.xslx", but it left a lot to be desired.

samstave 7 years ago |

I'm having a hard time understanding what you mean. Can you describe how you use git for excel?

bjoerns 7 years ago | |

Commit your Excel workbook to a Git repository. I know it's a binary file so you can't diff or merge out of the box, but at least you get the commit history. Does that make more sense?

samstave 7 years ago | | |

Sure, I was just trying to understand why...

If you want version control, then sure use that. Or stor in dropbox/drive which have version control...

I am sure many people use many different tools for this. Most large enterprise companies, such as biotechs and legal, use document management platforms for this purpose.

bjoerns 7 years ago | | |

Ok, here's he full story: We have a product (https://www.xltrail.com) that makes git diff and all that work with Excel workbooks. So you get a lot more out of it than dropbox/drive/sharepoint etc as you get to inspect content changes.

90% of our clients/prospects are in financial services (heavy workbooks with VBA, think applications, not spreadsheets) but today I spoke to a prospect from a different industry which made me think that there might be people outside banks, hedge funds going down the same path.

LiamPa 7 years ago |

The issue we find is that if a user is using excel (a lot) there is a very slim chance that they know what git is and/or how to use it correctly.

bjoerns 7 years ago | |

In general, yes. However, from my own experience, there is a (small and industry-specific) subset of "Excel developers", especially in investment banks, hedge funds etc that know both.