Graham,
One of my colleagues here at the Museum tells me that we use the following:
"We use Stratify which is free from: http://www.stratify.org/
He isn't on the MCG list but I will happily put you in touch with him should you want to discuss further.
Regards,
Stuart
Stuart Mann - User Services Manager
Information Systems - The British Museum
London WC1B 3DG
Telephone: 020 7323 8565
IS Helpdesk: 020 7323 8963
Mobile: 07866 697751
Email: [log in to unmask]
Visit: www.britishmuseum.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Graham Sherwood
Sent: 10 March 2010 09:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: What do you use to draw your Harris Matrices?
Hi,
This is a question to other commercial Archaeology units or any
organisations whom create Harris Matrices.
What software do you use to draw your Harris Matrices?
Traditionally we have used Excel 2000 to draw a Harris Matrix. The grid
squares and drawing tools are ideal for this purpose. The main difficulty is
the limit to the size of the worksheet, means very large matrices have to be
divided up into separate sheets. There are other problems like the process
is very labour intensive.
The last few years we have upgraded to Excel 2007 and hoped to use the
larger spreadsheets (on the width) to create even bigger matrices.
The problem we found was the drawing shapes and lines added, the matrix
became unwieldy and sluggish, even on quite high-spec computers.
Recently we have found random *.xlsx files corrupting for no apparent reason
and subsequently losing their drawing shapes, hence connecting lines
(stratigraphic relationships). In a small matrix is this not too much of a
problem but imagine a site with 12,000 contexts its terrifying! Rewriting
them is not possible. I have found ways around it such as opening the
corrupted file in Open Office and converting it back to Excel 2000 version.
That repairs some of the damage. The solution I can give to users is to save
in Excel 97-2003 format not the new 2007, or just use the old Excel 2000
application. Luckily the problem hasn't surfaced for this solution, so it
appears to be a XLSX problem.
Excel isn't ideal. What alternatives are there that you have used and found
to work well?
We have tried some of the software variants out there e.g. proleg but found
them cumbersome, especially when they insist on the matrix being correct at
all times, or insisting stratigraphic relationships be corrected before the
user can move on.
Thanks, Graham
Graham Sherwood
IT Manager/Website Manager
Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
Unit 54, Brockley Cross Business Centre, 96 Endwell Road, London SE4 2PD
tel: 020 7639 9091
fax: 020 7639 9588
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
<http://www.pre-construct.com/> www.pre-construct.com
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