Hi Harlan,

Thanks for the reply. I cant argue with you on VBA because LOTUS Script
leaves a lot to be desired. In fact I only tried to write a script once, and
quickly abandoned it. And as for the character mode interface, that too has
been a thorn in my side, but Ive patiently worked around it.

Im sure that youre more knowledgeable than I am on when LOTUS introduced
3D, but I did Corporate Financial Spreadsheets for McDonnell Douglas and EDS
from the early 80s through the mid 90s, and I dont remember when it wasnt
there. At any rate, Named Ranges of all natures are very useful and powerful
tools. They save more programming time than anything I can think of.

As we both know, you can create the Named Range, its just that it doesnt
appear in the Named Range List. You mentioned several functions that itll
work with, and Ive seen a similar list in some of the other Forums, but,
since you cant select it from the Worksheet, then I guess that its only
available via VBA. Or, will the function address it as well?

I agree that you dont see LOTUS in your local Computer Store, anymore, but
I think theres a logical reason for that. First of all, it doesnt come
packaged with a suite of products, like Office, which is often already on you
new computer. Secondly, its very expensive, because its so powerful and
robust, and therefore, its really more suitable for businesses. EXCEL
provides more than ample functionality for the typical small business or home
use.

Interestingly enough, there was a mention on CNBC, a few months ago, about
how there was a renewed interest in LOTUS. True or not, it looks like Im
stuck with a relic that works for me.

Thanks again for your help and information and Ill be waiting for the
notice from MS, that their 3D function works!

TomD




"Harlan Grove" wrote:

TomD wrote...
Then, do you know why in their documentation that explain how to
create a 3d named range, and even go so far as to say that if you
insert sheets between the first and last sheets that it will
automatically be included in the range?

They provide the feature because it could be useful on the FEW
occasions it could be used. They can be used in the aggregation
functions - COUNT[A], SUM, AVERAGE[A], MIN[A], MAX[A], VAR[PA],
STDEV[PA], and (most interestingly) NPV, but that's all.

How can they hope to sell something that's so inferior to their
competition?

What competition? When's the last time you saw Lotus SmartSuite in a
computer store? While you may see WordPerfect Office, Quattro Pro is
now somewhat unstable. As for OpenOffice/StarOffice, they follow
Excel's lead for the most part in terms of minimal 3D functionality.

Lotus has been doing this for 30 years. Amazing!

Wrong. Lotus added the 3rd dimension to 123 in 1989 with Release 3.0,
so not even 20 years yet.

The market (distorted at every opportunity Microsoft could get away
with) has spoken. And realize that Lotus never lost an opportunity to
shoot itself in the foot. They fought the Look & Feel lawsuits to
protect a doomed character mode interface, willfully misjudged the
impact of Windows, embarrassed themselves with 123 For Windows Release
1 (far & away the worst 123 release, and proof that Lotus in 1991 just
didn't understand Windows program design), and it took Lotus 4 years
from Excel 5 with VBA to produce 123 97 Edition with LotusScript, and
LotusScript is garbage compared to VBA.

But I agree that 123 did a much better job with functions and 3D range
references.