The Reddit user's experience is a small tragedy of modern productivity. A user watches a tutorial, follows every instruction, and still cannot find the "+" button that supposedly unlocks error bars. The button is not missing. The tutorial is not wrong. The problem is that the software hides its own features behind a visual interface designed for casual use, not for actual work. Our take is straightforward: if you have to search for a button, the tool has already failed you.
This is not a failure of the user. It is a failure of design. Spreadsheet software has accumulated decades of features, and the result is a cluttered interface where essential functions are buried. Error bars are not an obscure feature. They are a standard tool for anyone presenting data with uncertainty, scientists, analysts, engineers, students. Yet finding them requires either memorizing a hidden menu path or watching a third-party video that shows a button that may not exist in your version. The "+" button in those tutorials is a chart element shortcut, but it only appears after you select the chart in a specific way, and its availability depends on your operating system, your software version, and whether you have installed updates. The user is not incompetent. The software is inconsistent.
What this means for you is simple: the tool you are using was not built for the task you are trying to do. It was built for maximum compatibility with legacy workflows, and the result is a maze of nested menus, conditional visibility, and undocumented behaviors. You are spending time searching for buttons instead of analyzing data. That time is not your fault, but it is your loss. The practical solution is not to learn every hidden path in your current software. The practical solution is to use a tool that treats data visualization as a first-class feature, not an afterthought. AI-native spreadsheets, for example, can interpret your intent and generate error bars automatically, because they understand what error bars are and why you want them.
The lesson here is not about error bars. It is about how much time we waste adapting to tools that should adapt to us. The Reddit user's frustration is shared by millions who have stared at a graph, clicked every possible element, and still not found the function they need. The answer is not to memorize another tutorial. The answer is to stop searching for buttons entirely.