Differences between Excel 2003 & 2007?

[Arcadian]

I'm taking a course in spreadsheets application. The class uses a
textbook on Excel 2003 & all the college computers also use that
version. So I ordered the software for Excel 2003 over the internet
but instead received the 2007, with the explanation that the 2003 is
out of stock. I'm not sure what differences to expect. I'm looking
for any info on this.

 

[T. Valko]

If you're used to Excel 2003 you're in for a *BIG* surprise!

The 2 versions are completely different appearance-wise. The menu system
you're used to in Excel 2003 has been *completely* redesigned and doesn't
even remotely resemble the menu system you're used to. Good luck! I predict
that you'll be totally lost!

I would not let the company just substitute versions like that. If they
don't have Excel 2003 I'm sure you can get it somewhere else.

Try going to the MS Office web site and looking for demos of the new Office
version. I don't have any specific links to offer but it shouldn't be hard
to find.

Biff

 

[Nick Danger]

I'm taking a course in spreadsheets application. The class uses a
textbook on Excel 2003 & all the college computers also use that
version. So I ordered the software for Excel 2003 over the internet
but instead received the 2007, with the explanation that the 2003 is
out of stock. I'm not sure what differences to expect. I'm looking
for any info on this.

If you're a complete novice at Excel, you're going to be totally lost for a
while. If you have some experience with Excel, you'll figure out the basic
functions pretty quickly. Other functions will be harder to find, but with
the Help facility, some googling, and this newsgroup, you'll do OK. A lot of
times, people discover a "new" function in Excel 2007 that was actually
there in older releases but much harder to find. IMHO, you were better off
getting Excel 2007. You might be a little bit out of step with the rest of
the world at the moment, but the world will catch up eventually and you
won't need to upgrade at that time. If you're completely new to Excel, I'd
recommend using the school computers when trying out things in the textbok,
and when you have things working there, then work on porting the same
functions to your Excel 2007. If you need to send spreadsheets to your prof
for homework assignments, just remember to "Save As Excel 97-2003 Workbook."
If you really feel you MUST have Excel 2003, hang a notice on the bulletin
board that you have a copy of Excel 2007 that you want to trade for Excel
2003. You'll have no problem finding a taker.

 

[Arcadian]

I have some experience with Excel but in data entry--using worksheets
already created. In this course, I'm learning to build spreadsheets,
so I am pretty much a novice. My instructor had emailed me, saying
that to submit homework, from my PC to the college site, I'd "have to
change the Save As Type to Excel 03 or higher", or she won't be able
to open it. I'm not sure what that means, but I'll poke around in
Excel 2007 to see what options are available.

And this course is over in June, so having the 2007 version is better
in the long run. It'll come in handy when I get a job & need to do
some work at home.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Nick Danger]

Ribbonized Office 2007 applications (which includes Excel) have a big circle
with an Office logo in the upper left hand corner of the window. If you
click it, you get a kind of glorified pulldown menu with pretty much the
same functions you used to get by clicking File in earlier versions - "New",
"Open", "Save", "Save as", etc. If you hover your mouse over "Save As", you
get a secondary list of choices of how you want to save your document. One
of those choices is "Excel 97-2003 Workbook." This is the one you need to
use to create a document that is compatible with earlier versions. This will
create a .xls file. If you use the default "Excel Workbook", it will create
a .xlsx file - which usually will be considerably smaller than the .xls
file. If you open a .xls file and then do a simple save (Ctrl-S), it will
automatically save it as a .xls file.

You could also tell your prof to go to
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100444731033.aspx and download the
Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system, which will let previous
versions of Office (as long as they're not too previous) open Office 2007
documents. However, this feature is intended only for looking at these
documents. A lot of the content becomes hard-coded when documents are opened
this way.

 

[ilia]

Once you get used to the new layout, you'll find many more convenience
features in XL'07. Where interface is concerned, the premise behind
ribbonized interface is to "put all advanced features at all users'
fingertips" as opposed to just advanced features for advanced users.

Filtering for data sheets and pivot tables is vastly improved. Tables
now provide "structured references" whereby you can refer to cells as
[Table1][Column Name] instead of $A5. It will also propagate formulas
for entire columns, etc.

Conditional formatting and named ranges have been redesigned. You'll
be confused at first (I know I was), but eventually you'll find how to
do things "the old way" and on top of that new features that were not
possible with previous versions.

Worksheet functions now have intellisense similar to what VBA offers.
It makes it easier to find the function you're looking for.

In short, everything is still the same under the hood; your main
concern will be finding where stuff is (microsoft has an online thing
to help you
http://office.microsoft.com/assista...t=788&type=flash&CTT=11&Origin=HA101491511033
)