A viral post recently accused Microsoft Excel of bias for labeling the shekel as “Hebrew” instead of “Israel.” However, there’s no conspiracy—Excel lists currencies by language, not country, using the same format for all entries.
Thanks to Office Watcher, Gary B. from Portland for alerting us to this bit of ragebait on social media.
It asks “Why does Microsoft Excel call the shekel the currency of “Hebrew” and not of “Israel”?”
The Shekel symbol does have the word Hebrew, that much is correct BUT that’s the same format as every other currency on the long list.
All the poster or many of the replies had to do was check with a copy of Excel to see there’s no conspiracy going on. Even if they don’t have Excel software, the browser based version of Excel is available to show what the software does.
Check the rest of the currency list in Excel which is always a currency symbol then Language e.g
- “$ English” for many dialects
- € (Euro) with many language choices
- ¥ (Yen) Japanese (not Japan)
Sorry to disappoint the haters but ….
Excel does NOT show a country against a symbol for any currency.
It’s not hard to find examples of currency symbol plus language. Just find “₪ Hebrew” on the long currency list and look at the entries immediately above “₴ Ukrainian” or below “₫ Vietnamese” – not Ukraine or Vietnam.
But don’t let facts get in the way of a little social media clickbait or, sadly, outright anti-Semtism. Sigh.
If people need something to complain about on the Excel currency list … why not ask Microsoft about making it easier to navigate that long, long list. A problem not just in the currency list but many other pull-down menus in Office.
