110 Free Microsoft Tools

[Bjorn Simonsen]

From Personal Computer World (a UK pc mag ):

<http://labs.pcw.co.uk/2005/03/110_free_micros.html>

quote:
110 Free Microsoft Tools
In our May 2005 issue, we've reviewed 110 of the best free tools
available from Microsoft. Click on the link below to download a
Zip file containing spreadsheets with clickable hotlinks to all
the utilities. These files are also included on the cover CD/DVD.
<http://labs.pcw.co.uk/files/110_microsoft_tools.zip>
/quote

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen

 

[Wald]

http://labs.pcw.co.uk/files/110_microsoft_tools.zip

It is *so* damn unbelievable that they provide this in Excel format XLS
files. Open standards, anyone?

Regards,
Wald

 

[Mel]

Open standards, anyone?

Right Click/Quick View?

 

[Gabriele Neukam]

On that special day, Wald, (arnout.standaert@n-o_s-p-a-
m.cit.kuleuven.ac.be) said...

It is *so* damn unbelievable that they provide this in Excel format XLS
files. Open standards, anyone?

This may help:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?
displaylang=de&FamilyID=c8378bf4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0 (one line)

or

http://www.openoffice.org/product/calc.html

if you don't mind to install a complete office suite.


Gabriele Neukam

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Bjorn Simonsen]

It is *so* damn unbelievable that they provide this in Excel format XLS
files. Open standards, anyone?

Agree of course.

(Fwiw: For those without Excel (me included): Open Office, and I am
sure many other spreadsheet apps, can read XLS...and there is also a
free Excel 2003 viewer by MS at:
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...F4-996C-4569-B547-75EDBD03AAF0&displaylang=en>

if the above long url wraps, try:
<http://makeashorterlink.com/?U29D63B4A>...

warning, the Excel 2003 viwer download is aprox 10mb. The former
viewer for Excel 97/2000 is smaller (but not small) 4mb, but MS no
longer host it AFAIK. Googling for it provides several 3.party d/l
links though, among them
<http://www.cmacademy.org/db/faculty/ExcelViewerStudents> )


All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen

 

[Wald]

Right Click/Quick View?

That's not the point. Read more at:

http://perens.com/OpenStandards/Definition.html
http://openstandards.org/

If you can read Dutch:
http://www.openstandaarden.be/

Regards,
Wald

 

[Fran]

What exactly is the open standard for spreadsheets?

 

[Rob Kelk]

What exactly is the open standard for spreadsheets?

XML (which is what OpenOffice uses).

 

[omziff]

Or even download Spread32 to view spreadsheet files:
http://www.byedesign.freeserve.co.uk/

 

[Bjorn Simonsen]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

Or even download Spread32 to view spreadsheet files:
http://www.byedesign.freeserve.co.uk/

Yes, but Spread32 is Sharware/Nagware.

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen

 

[Wald]

Or even download Spread32 to view spreadsheet files:
http://www.byedesign.freeserve.co.uk/

That's really really besides the point. XLS is a proprietary, closed
format that is only fully viewable with the proprietary commercial
product that Excel is.

Information in these file formats is inherently inaccessible, and we can
only view them because the developers of free tools (like OpenOffice,
....) have invested a lot of time *guessing* part of the file format
structure. Even if we currently have a reasonable way of viewing these
files, in principle they are to be avoided if we want the information to
be universally accessible, which after all it should be.

In this specific case, providing XLS files is even more bizarre since the
information can just as well, and even better, be presented in a simple
HTML file. HTML is an open standard and can be viewed by anyone with a
browser.

Some of you might think I'm making too big of a deal out of this, but
IMHO this is quite important (and I'm not alone). It's the same situation
that has made website development a real pain in the ass, simply because
of Internet Explorer's non-compliance to web standards.

Anyway, I hope I made some point

Regards,
Wald

 

[Wald]

What exactly is the open standard for spreadsheets?

*The* open standard is a bit of a strong word, but currently that would be
the OpenDocument format. OpenOffice will use this format by default in the
future, and it is already available in the current version 2 betas.

However, in this case, the information presented does not need a
spreadsheet format, it's just text and clickable links. These people should
have used simple HTML documents to store the information, resulting in
smaller file sizes and better accessibility.

Regards,
Wald

 

[Mel]

Anyway, I hope I made some point

Whining here does not good, if you really want to do some good complain
to the author of the documents.

 

[wald]

Whining here does not good,

I was hoping to make some people aware of the issues involved. But
OK, I'll stop whining for now.

if you really want to do some good
complain to the author of the documents.

That's obviously true, and I did send feedback to the PCW people.
Now let's wait and see if it actually does any good.

Regards,
Wald

 

[NoWhereMan]

*Wald* :

It is *so* damn unbelievable that they provide this in Excel
format XLS files. Open standards, anyone?

Regards,
Wald

They're MS's free tools... so the list is in MS's format

 

[bambam]

I was hoping to make some people aware of the issues involved. But
OK, I'll stop whining for now.

You are allowed a little whine every now and then Wald.
It is potentially a very important subject. Keep up the good work.

 

[Bjorn Simonsen]

You are allowed a little whine every now and then Wald.
It is potentially a very important subject. Keep up the good work.

Agree, important subject. Thanks to Wald for taking the time. May seem
like fighting windmills, but if at least one person learned something
new in this thread. And for we all we know that person may turn out
the next "open standards advocate" to make a big difference, or more
likely but no less important; will make more informed/better choices
in the future.

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen

 

[Egwig the Fit]

You are allowed a little whine every now and then Wald.
It is potentially a very important subject. Keep up the good work.

Well said, Bam.

Egwig

 

[Zo]

It is *so* damn unbelievable that they provide this in Excel format XLS
files. Open standards, anyone?

Regards,
Wald

Wald,
here's a free app that you can view the xls files with. It's small, just
781.6 kb, no installation required and is a standalone. I just tried and
it works.

XLS Read Write

XLS Read Write is two native Delphi components, TXLSRead and TXLSWrite
designed for accessing microsoft Excel XLS files. There is no need for any
other files to be installed, including Excel.

With XLS Read Write can you:

* Read Excel XLS 2.1, 3.0, 4.0 worksheet files and Excel XLS 5.0, 95,
97, 2000 workbook files.
* Access all sheets in workbook files.
* Receive all text, numbers, etc. you can write in a cell, including
formulas!
* Read cell formatting information (font, cell color, border, etc.).
* Seek function for fast access to single cells.
* Write Excel XLS 4.0 worksheet files and Excel XLS 5.0/ 95/ 97/ 2000
workbook files (with any number of sheets in it).
* Easy to write formulas, just as strings: "SUM(A1:A10) / B2 +
SIN(0.25)"
* Write cell formatting (font, cell color, border, etc.).
* FAST! Write more than 100,000 cells in less than two seconds!

Name of the files is axxlsrw.zip

http://delphi.icm.edu.pl/newl/d60/f003_001.htm

The following is from the "manual file":

XLSReadWrite is free to use for non-commercial use.
For commercial usage, XLSReadWrite costs US $30, including full source
code.

Zo

 

[John Corliss]

It is *so* damn unbelievable that they provide this in Excel format XLS
files. Open standards, anyone?

Probably a stupid question, but won't the free Microsoft Excel Viewer
2003 (I dont' have it installed, so I don't know) open it?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...f4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&DisplayLang=en

(link may wrap)

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls.
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.