• 2007 vs 2003 (Excel 2007, 2003)

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    WScshenoy
    AskWoody Lounger
    March 7, 2008 at 2:31 am #449243

    I’ve done a couple of searches, but can’t find anything comprehensive in this Forum, so I thought I’d ask. I recently switched from Excel 2003 to 2007. I’ve been using it about 2 weeks and I’m not thrilled with the product. I think that I probably haven’t made full use of the new features, but I wanted to ask users here what their favorite changes are so I can start to incorporate them.

    I already know that I don’t like the non-customizable ribbon, but I don’t have to show it and I can customize the quick access bar. My other complaint is the change of keystrokes. I can learn new ones, but why should I have to after all these years?

    Are there any good new functions besides IFERROR?

    I’m looking forward to hearing your views.

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    • WSHansV
      AskWoody Lounger
      March 7, 2008 at 2:51 am #1100933

      I don’t have Office 2007 yet, so I can’t say anything about the interface.

      I do know that there are new functions AVERAGEIF, COUNTIFS, SUMIFS and AVERAGEIFS.

      AVERAGEIF is similar to the already existing function SUMIF: =AVERAGEIF(A2:A5, “>250000”, B2:B5) calculates the average of those values in B2:B25 for which the corresponding value in A2:A25 is greater than 25,000.

      The COUNTIFS, SUMIFS and AVERAGEIFS allow you to count, sum or average values that satisfy multiple criteria. This has always been a very popular subject in all Excel forums/discussion groups, including ours, so these functions are a welcome addition. They should be more efficient than the array formulas or SUMPRODUCT formulas that have been the standard workaround in earlier versions of Excel.

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    • WSrory
      AskWoody Lounger
      March 7, 2008 at 12:26 pm #1100969

      Which keystrokes are you referring to as a matter of interest?
      FWIW, opinion seems to be very much divided on Office 2007 at the moment from what I’ve seen!

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      • WScshenoy
        AskWoody Lounger
        March 7, 2008 at 2:50 pm #1100979

        The / would activate each of the menus. For example /ESV was paste special values, and /ESR was paste special number formats. Those actually still work in 2007 but you have to remember them with no cues. Before the letter was underlined when you got deep into a menu and didn’t remember the last step.

        In 2007 you can activate the menus with ALT, and the keystroke letters for the commands appear. However, the keystrokes are all different now. I’m having trouble seeming the pattern in some of the organization. One command I find irritating is Sort. You can use keystrokes to select the area, open the dialogue box, but you have to use the cursor to select the sort by variable.Some of the other dialogue boxes are similar.

        The functionality is probably mostly the same, but the strokes are all different. I don’t like to use the mouse so relearning keystrokes is a pain to me.

        I found this comparison http://www.add-ins.com/Excel 2003 versus 2007.htm[/url] that focused on calculation, chart, and file opening speed. I did notice that things seemed a little slower.

        I use the conditional average formulas quite a bit, also conditional max, min, stdev and lots of other conditional calculations. So I’ll start using the new ones, but may have to use some array functions for others.

        I’m trying to keep and open mind. Just because its different, I don’t want to conclude it’s bad. I am having a hard time doing some simple formatting tasks. I’ve customized the ribbon bar with things I use a lot. In 2003 you can assign a custom icon for toolbar commands that don’t already have an icon. In 2007, you can’t do that. Anything that doesn’t have a predefined icon, you have the same generic icon. Of course, it’s not very useful to have two toolbar commands that two completely different things with 1 icon! I remember what they do by the location in the toolbar.

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        • WSrory
          AskWoody Lounger
          March 7, 2008 at 3:13 pm #1100980

          You can still have / act like Alt in 2007 but you have to turn it on in the Options under Advanced. (unlike previous versions it’s switched off by default in 2007) You don’t get the cues simply because the whole menu structure is different, but the theory is that most of what you want should be more easily accessible on the ribbon now. Just a question of getting used to it I guess. There are quite a few MVPs who don’t like the new layout much either and the lack of customisation is a real pain. We can but hope it will get better in the next version(s)! Certainly there are a few things that seem to have taken a large step backwards (recording chart macros for one) but hopefully they will be resolved in the fullness of time if enough people complain! grin

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          • WSstans
            AskWoody Lounger
            March 7, 2008 at 6:09 pm #1101034

            I think using 2007 is easier, but it’s learning the lay out of the program thats tricky.

            I have Office 2007 at home and Office 2003 at work. I do a lot of work at home and slowly but surely I’m starting to use my home computer then transfer the files to my lap top for work. At first I wasn’t too crazy about it though.

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