my impressions of Excel 2007

[T. Valko]

I finally broke down and installed Excel 2007...

The ribbon isn't horrible but it'll take some getting used to. Kind of
reminds me of a video game.

I've been looking around for about a half hour and I still haven't found
conditional formatting

On my 17" CRT monitor @ 100% zoom I get a whopping 18 rows by 11.6 columns
work area!

I've already turned off formula autocomplete!

Some folks have complained about the contrast of selected cells - yeah, I
can see their point

I like the expandable formula bar - nice for those monster formulas

Here's something I don't understand...

If I want to close Excel I have to click the "X" twice? What's that all
about?

I can't wait to do some testing on calc times with formulas that use entire
columns as ranges!

I'm wondering if IFERROR makes a real difference with real long complex
formulas. My guess is that it isn't any better than a "crafted error trap"
although it would shorten some formulas considerably.

 

[Tyro]

1) Home/Styles/Conditonal Formatting
2) Pressing X on the Excel title bar closes workbooks one by one and then
when all workbooks are closed, closes Excel.
3) Suggest you get the cross reference from MS that shows you how to locate
Excel 2003 things in Excel 2007 - Also available for Word, PowerPoint,
Outlook.
Try searching for "office command reference" at MS

Tyro

 

[Tyro]

On my 19" monitor I use 1152 x 864 resolution and get 29 rows and 17 columns
at 100% zoom.

Tyro

 

[T. Valko]

I forgot to mention that I'm almost blind (not really, but it seems like
it!) and my res is set to 800 x 600 (as low as it'll go!).

By comparison, in Excel 2002 I get 25 rows by 11.6 columns with only the
standard and formatting toolbars displayed.

 

[Tyro]

You can always hide the ribbon, Ctrl+F1 and bring it back the same way. Or
double click on a ribbon tab. Then click on the tab you want to see
temporarily then click on the tab to hide the ribbon again. Just double
click on a tab to bring the ribbon back.

Tyro

 

[ryanb.]

Double click the ribbon and it will go into hide mode and only be visible
when you focus the mouse on it. Will add quite a bit of extra workspace for
you. There are commands that are no where in the ribbon, but you can add
them to the quick access toolbar which is not so bad. The more I use it,
the more I like it. Definitely not as bad as I thought it would be

Anyone figure out how to add a custom button to the quick access toolbar? I
used to be able to add buttons for my personal macros, and now I have to go
through the macro dialogue boxes.

Thanks

ryanb.

 

[Tyro]

Also should have mentioned that you can press Alt to see the things you can
do on the ribbon and quick access toolbar with other keys. For example,
press Alt then press H then press L. It's not necessary to hold down the Alt
key.

Tyro

 

[T. Valko]

Yeah, I just discovered that. That's probably how I'll use it. With the
ribbon minimized I get 26 rows and can still get to the QAT where I'll be
putting my most frequent actions.

I also found the cf!

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

The ribbon isn't horrible but it'll take some getting used to. Kind of

reminds me of a video game.
LOL


I've been looking around for about a half hour and I still haven't found
conditional formatting

If you haven't found it yet, you will kick yourself... it right on the Home
tab about 2/3 of the way over on the Styles panel.

On my 17" CRT monitor @ 100% zoom I get a whopping 18 rows by 11.6
columns work area!

Notice that the default font is Calibri at a font size of 11 whereas the
XL2005 is Arial at a font size of 10. You can reset XL2007 to that font and
font size by clicking on the Office button (the large round icon in the
upper left corner), click the Excel Options button on the bottom of the
dialog panel that comes up an change the font stuff on the Popular page
(select from the left listing) in the "When creating new workbooks" section.

Here's something I don't understand...

If I want to close Excel I have to click the "X" twice? What's that all
about?

I only have to click it one time... I'm using Vista Ultimate if that might
matter.


Rick

 

[Tyro]

The code you used to set up your menus and custom toolbars goes under the
Add-ins tab on the ribbon. There you'll see Menu Commands and Custom
Toolbars with whatever icons you used.

Tyro

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

Anyone figure out how to add a custom button to the quick access toolbar?

I **think** you have to use XML to create a new panel and buttons for your
own use. There are books out on how to do this...

http://www.amazon.com/RibbonX-Dummi...=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201152966&sr=1-8

http://www.amazon.com/RibbonX-Custo...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201152813&sr=1-1

Rick

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

On my 17" CRT monitor @ 100% zoom I get a whopping 18 rows by 11.6

Notice that the default font is Calibri at a font size of 11 whereas the
XL2005 is Arial at a font size of 10. You can reset XL2007 to that font
and font size by clicking on the Office button (the large round icon in
the upper left corner), click the Excel Options button on the bottom of
the dialog panel that comes up an change the font stuff on the Popular
page (select from the left listing) in the "When creating new workbooks"
section.

XL2005?? XL2003 of course.

Rick

 

[Harlan Grove]

On my 17" CRT monitor @ 100% zoom I get a whopping 18 rows by 11.6
columns work area!

....

I can understand fewer rows, but not fewer columns. I see all of A-O
and part of P at 1024x768 monitor resolution, maximized app and doc
windows, displaying the row/column frame, 8.43 standard column width
and Arial 10pt as standard font. Are you displaying a Task Pain on the
right?

FWIW, I also see 35+ rows at standard 12.75 row height (because I only
display the menu bar, formula bar and a single row of toolbars).

I like the expandable formula bar - nice for those monster formulas

Do the 2nd and subsequent lines use all of the space below the first
line, or do the left sides of the subsequent lines align under the
initial = on the 1st line? If the latter, is the space to the left of
the 2nd and subsequent lines wasted space? I ask because there's a lot
more, er, features to the left of the formula bar's 1st line.

Here's something I don't understand...

If I want to close Excel I have to click the "X" twice? What's that
all about?

....

Do you have Excel 12 set to display each document separately in
Windows's Taskbar? If so, welcome to Office 2007, in which defaults
for *ALL* Office programs are based on what makes the most sense to
*Word* users, not Excel users.

I'm wondering if IFERROR makes a real difference with real long
complex formulas. My guess is that it isn't any better than a
"crafted error trap" although it would shorten some formulas
considerably.

I'd guess the opposite: IFERROR would make error trapping much more
efficient. Indeed, to me it's about the only unambiguous improvement
in Excel 2007.

 

[Ron de Bruin]

If I want to close Excel I have to click the "X" twice? What's that

all about?

Hold the Shif key when you click on the X or use Alt F4

 

[Ron de Bruin]

See
http://www.rondebruin.nl/qat.htm

Very simple way to do it

 

[Ron de Bruin]

I've been looking around for about a half hour and I still haven't found

conditional formatting

See also
http://www.rondebruin.nl/0307commands.htm

 

[JLatham]

My own perception of Excel 2007 is that it's slightly slower than earlier
versions. In some cases it can become measurably slower.

As you've probably noticed from nosing around the forums, graphing/charting
is still mud-flow slow, even after a HOTFIX that did improve performance some.

You may experience some human-detectable slowdown with certain VB commands
that you've included in a User Defined Function. I only *know* of one, but
I'm reasonably certain there are others. Has to do with multi-threading in
multi-core CPUs.

There will now be more compatibility problems if workbooks are developed in
2007 using some of the new functions and then passed on to someone without
2007. But that's something that we've dealt with in each new release - new
worksheet functions such as SUMIFS() will end up going a long way to helping
the more novice user use Excel in more powerful ways.

I'm still wondering about the acceptance of Office 2007 in general - I have
yet to have one client come to me and require Excel 2007 as the final format.
So far everyone is still on a version from 2000 on to 2003. Some
individuals in forums like this one, but not any corporate/groups that I work
with.

 

[Jon Peltier]

2) Pressing X on the Excel title bar closes workbooks one by one and then
when all workbooks are closed, closes Excel.

If you don't show windows in the taskbar, then you will have an 'x' for the
active workbook under the big red 'X' for Excel. You have to hit the big
ugly Office icon, then hit Excel Options, then poke around there to find the
setting.

- Jon

 

[T. Valko]

I'd guess the opposite: IFERROR would make error trapping much more
efficient. Indeed, to me it's about the only unambiguous improvement
in Excel 2007.

Now that I think about it (but I'll know for certain when I dig into it),
it's probably more efficient when there is no error but not as efficient
when there is an error (in some cases).

Which of these is faster to calc if there's an anticipated error:

=IF(ROWS(...)<=COUNTIF(...),.....)

=IFERROR(INDEX(...,SMALL(IF(...,ROW(...)-MIN(ROW(...))+1),ROWS(...))),...)

All of this has to calc to generate the error:

SMALL(IF(...,ROW(...)-MIN(ROW(...))+1),ROWS(...))

While "only" this has to calc to prevent the error:

ROWS(...)<=COUNTIF(...)

Also consider that the IF logical test can be more than a simple 1:1
comparison.

Of course I can see situations where IFERROR is better when the crafted
error trap is long and complex itself.

I guess it boils down to the specific situation at hand.

 

[T. Valko]

...

I can understand fewer rows, but not fewer columns. I see all of A-O
and part of P at 1024x768 monitor resolution, maximized app and doc
windows, displaying the row/column frame, 8.43 standard column width
and Arial 10pt as standard font. Are you displaying a Task Pain on the
right?

Nope, no task pane.

Here's what it looks like:

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/379/xl2007rk8.jpg

I may have to reconsider what I said earlier about the ribbon!