Excel 2003 vs Excel 2007

[Abbey]

I am hoping someone can help me. I am not very savvy with computers. I have
Excel 2003 at work and want to be able to work on things at home. If I buy
Excel 2007 can I email myself spreadsheets at home and work on them and then
send them back to myself at work and continue working on them?

Thank you!

 

[Don Guillett]

For the sake of consistency you may be better off with 2003. Look at ebay
for LEGAL copy.

 

[David Biddulph]

Yes, but you'd need to download and install the Compatibility Pack [if
you're allowed to do that at work] to allow Office 2003 to read Office 2007
documents, and of course some features of 2007 aren't availability in 2003
(and many people prefer Excel 2003 to 2007).

 

[Abbey]

Would Staples or somewhere like that carry it? I don't really have time to
wait for it to be shipped by Ebay. I need to work on a report this weekend
and don't really want to go in the office!
Thank you.

 

[Chip Pearson]

Excel 2007 can very easily work with files created in Excel 2003 and
earlier. Therefore, you can take files from your work copy of Excel 2003 and
work on them from home using Excel 2007. The reverse is not automatically
true. The internal file format was changed in Excel 2007, and Excel 2003
cannot read 2007 files (there is a compatibility package to allow this). If
you create a file in Excel 2007, you will need to save the file in the 2003
format if you want to work on it from 2003 at work. When you use Excel 2007
in 2003 compatibility mode, the newly added features of Excel 2007 will not
be available.

Unless you really need Excel 2007, you might find it considerably less
expensive to purchase a valid copy of Excel/Office 2003.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
Excel Product Group, 1998 - 2008
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)

 

[T. Valko]

Yes.

But...

There are some new features that are *exclusive* to Excel 2007. Some of
these features will not work on Excel 2003 so, when you're done working on
your file in Excel 2007 you need to save it in *.xls format so that you can
continue to use it on Excel versions prior to Excel 2007.

The user interface in Excel 2007 is *dramatically* different from the one in
Excel 2003. If you haven't seen it yet you'll be lost for a while. Maybe you
should consider getting another copy of Excel 2003 for home use then you
won't have to deal with compatability issues. You can probably get Excel
2003 for "dirt cheap".

 

[RobN]

Yes you can. A feature of Vs2007 is that you can save as Vs 97-2003. You
may lose some differences such as formatting, but if you do similar things
and, use formulas consistent with the Vs you have at work you shouldn't run
into any problems.

Rob

 

[RobN]

David,

You don't need to download and install the Compatibility Pack if you save as
the previous version.
But I do agree, that Vs 2007 can make you pull your hair out at times.

Rob.

Yes, but you'd need to download and install the Compatibility Pack [if
you're allowed to do that at work] to allow Office 2003 to read Office
2007 documents, and of course some features of 2007 aren't availability in
2003 (and many people prefer Excel 2003 to 2007).
--
David Biddulph

I am hoping someone can help me. I am not very savvy with computers. I
have
Excel 2003 at work and want to be able to work on things at home. If I
buy
Excel 2007 can I email myself spreadsheets at home and work on them and
then
send them back to myself at work and continue working on them?

Thank you!

 

[Abbey]

Thank you all for your quick responses! This is driving me crazy! I have
looked on EBay and other places for the 2003 version and it is not available
at this time. I found one for $200 and there were others that had the whole
office package but I already have word and outlook. When I bought my computer
I didn't have it added because I had never used it and since I am 42, I never
thought I would. Big mistake! Any suggestions of where else to buy it?

Thank you.

 

[Don Guillett]

You may find that the entire package is as cheap as just Excel.
Also try Craigslist for your area

 

[Tyro]

Register for a one semester evening class in basket weaving at a local
college. Then buy the academic versions of the software you want at the
college bookstore. The academic versions are the same functionally as the
regular versions. They are just priced for students. I once needed 3
software packages that retailed for $1,700 total. I bought the 3 academic
versions at the college bookstore for about $400 total. I bought Office
Ultimate 2007 for $250 at the college bookstore last year. I've seen that at
retail prices in the $450-$600 range.

Tyro

 

[Dave Peterson]

Just to muddy the waters...

Depending on what you're doing, you may find that you can do your work using a
different program.

Maybe a free spreadsheet program would work:
http://www.openoffice.org, a 60-65 meg download or a CD

or...

Google Docs offers a free online spreadsheet program (and a word processing
program and a presentation program, too) that may work for you:
http://docs.google.com

If you have a valid email address (college/university), you can get office 2007
pretty cheaply (60USD):
http://www.theultimatesteal.com/home.asp

This describes what's in it:
http://www.microsoft.com/education/ultimatesteal.mspx

IIRC, this offer expires April 30, 2008.