Excel 2003 versus Excel 2007 from
www.add-ins.com
There are many differences between Excel 2003 and Excel 2007. Some of the
changes in Excel 2007 are improvements. Some are a major step backward.
We'll leave it up to you to decide which is which. The following are some of
our major findings when we compared Excel 2003 to Excel 2007.
We do recommend that if you have Excel 2003, that you do a custom install of
Excel 2007 and tell it to keep all prior versions. This will allow you to
use your prior version if you need it. The default installation of Excel
2007 automatically removes all prior versions. We think having the prior
versions around is a good thing.
Probably the best approach is not to upgrade to 2007 until forced to do so.
And hope that Microsoft will release a decent upgrade soon and the first time
(versus waiting for an SP2 version, which would patch the patches)
Excel 2003 Excel 2007 Comments
Number of rows Limited to 65,536 Over 1,000,000 Very few users need large
numbers of rows.
Number of Columns 256 16,384 Very few users need large number of columns.
Calculate speed FAST VERY SLOW We did a test of 10,000 calculations of a
small workbook and recorded key values. Excel 2003 did the task in 5
minutes. Excel 2007 took almost two hours. Excel 2007 was 20X slower. If
calculation speed is important, stay with Excel 2003 unless you have a super
computer with multiple processors.
Charting Speed FAST VERY SLOW Excel 2003 created 100 charts in 8 seconds.
Excel 2007 took almost four minutes to do the same task.
Chart Refresh Extremely fast, almost instantly Extrmely slow. Almost like
watching grass grow. Multiple reports of Excel 2007 being beyond slow when
one changes chart data. Even reports of worksheets containing multiple
graphs taking several minutes to refresh when selected.
Opening and closing files Fast Slow Excel 2003 opened, copy some data (via
a macro) and closed 100 tiny workbooks in less than 30 seconds. Excel 2007
took a minute and half to do the same task.
Conditional Formatting Limited to 3 tests Many tests are allowed The
improvement is very useful if you need conditional formatting that changes
dynamically. However, posts on user forums indicate that using this feature
greatly slows down Excel 2007. The alternative is static formatting (I.E.,
format when you need to) using the Conditional Format Assistant.
Customizing toolbars Very customizable Limited customization With Excel
2003 you can remove commands you don't want from the toolbars and add
commands you want. And you can create your own buttons for your custom
macros. With Excel 2007 you can not modify the ribbons. You can add buttons
to the quick access toolbar.
Color Palette Limited colors Essentially unlimited colors Excel 2003 is
easier to use and get different colors quickly. Excel 2007 gives more
choices. We call it a toss up as to the benefit.
Patterns in formatting charts and cells Many choices Patterns are no
longer available for selection Microsoft removed a feature that was very
useful for those of us who fax or want to print copies from a laser (non
color) printer.
Interface Menus and buttons Ribbons with buttons and text drop downs Some
will love the 2007 interface, some will hate it. Figure one to two weeks to
relearn Excel basics. It most likely will take over a year before you match
your past productivity.
Macro recording Fair Poor For some reason, Microsoft has made macro
recording worse in 2007, and often does not record actions with charts. Or,
the action that is recorded often doesn't work. At least in Excel 2003 one
got a starting point versus an empty recorded macro.
Macros VBA used VBA used Macros you wrote in 2003 or earlier versions,
especially chart macros, will likely not work and need modifications to work
in Excel 2007. Recording many not give you the clues on how to fix.
Macros and workbook protection No problems Major problems In Excel 2007,
if you password protect your workbooks and they contain macros, there is no
way to enable macros.
Charting - adjusting point values Easy to do by Impossible Microsoft
removed the feature that allows one to change the value of data points by
dragging the point on a chart.
Customizing Macro buttons Standard feature Feature removed One wonders
why Microsoft removed. Or did they just forget to leave in?
Stability Very few reports of crashes, fail to save Frequent user group
reports of crashes and not being able to save files Looks like Microsoft
rushed a product to market that wasn't ready for prime time.
File opening time No problems Many reports of problems of files not opening
or very slow to open Files will not appear in Excel 2007 when double clicked
and Excel is closed. Primary workaround is to not close Excel or to first
open Excel and then open the file.
Export/save as DBF file Standard feature Not available Microsoft removed
the export/save as DBF option from Excel 2007.
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