The upgrade from Microsoft Excel 2003 to Excel 2007 is probably one of the most significant changes for users yet. There are many new functions, most of which are an improvement to Excel 2003 but they do take some getting used to!
To get a feel for the interface, view the short demonstration from Microsoft illustrating the major changes in Excel 2007.
The biggest change is the new “ribbon” format replacing the toolbars. It is now more task-orientated and things are easier to find so you’ll probably find many features you never knew existed! It will take some time get up to speed, however, and you will probably lose some productivity at first.
Until everyone has upgraded to the new version, compatibility will remain the biggest challenge for Excel 2007 users, especially if others need to open the model in 2003. There are a number of new functions in 2007 which are not available in 2003. If you are the only person using 2007 and everyone in your office or your clients are still on 2003, you will have to make sure you do not use the new functions otherwise you will have compatibility issues. Note that all the great graphics and colours still look fine when you open the model in 2003, as long as you do not use a formula not supported in 2003.
A compatibility checker tells you if your workbook contains features that previous versions of Excel will not support. But be careful – you will need to remember to save a document in Excel 2003 format to maintain compatibility with other users until the new 2007 file format becomes the standard. While Microsoft has released a converter to read 2007 files in earlier versions, do not rely on your colleagues to have it installed.
If you use new functions not available in 2003, the compatibility checker will keep advising you to save a copy in 2003 – which gets rather annoying after a while.
Submitted by danielle on Thu, 20/08/2009 - 16:43.
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