Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Version Upgrade
Monday, 9. August 2010
Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Version Upgrade
- Upgrade available on these qualifying applications: Microsoft Access 2000-2002; Microsoft Office Access 2003; Microsoft Works 6.0-10; Microsoft Works Suite 2000-2006 or later; any 2000-2007 Microsoft Office suite; and any Microsoft Office XP suite
- Features a new, results-oriented user interface to make powerful productivity tools easily accessible; offers an increased spreadsheet row and column capacity of one million rows by 16,000 columns
- Gives you the option of displaying a spreadsheet dynamically as HTML for easier online access; Excel Services users can navigate, sort, filter, input parameters, and interact with PivotTable views — all within a Web browser
- Resizable formula bar and context-based Formula AutoComplete help streamline the formula authoring process
- Dramatic visual effects in just a few clicks, quick table formatting and a completely redesigned charting engine help you better communicate your analysis
Excel 2007 Version UpgradeAnalyze, share, and manage information more effectively with Microsoft Office Excel 2007, the latest version of the most widely-used spreadsheet tool. Featuring new spreadsheets that hold more data than ever before, this software gives you the freedom to import, organize, and explore massive data sets quickly and easily, and the advanced analysis tools help you make the right decisions for any situation. Whether you need to create a table or write a formula, Excel 2007’s new user interface keeps things simple and straightforward. This version upgrade of Excel 2007 is available for those who currently run the following applications on their PCs: Microsoft Excel 2000-2002; Microsoft Office Excel 2003; Microsoft Works 6.0-10; Microsoft Works Suite 2000-2006 or later; any 2000-2007 Microsoft Office suite; and any Microsoft Office XP suite.
Quick table formatting and a completely redesigned charting engine that will help you better communicate your analysis in stunning charts. View larger. |
User-Friendly Operation
Excel 2007 helps reduce the time and frustration of learning new software with menus and commands that present the right tools when you need them. The improved Help system provides tooltips and links to relevant information in Microsoft Office system programs or on the Internet when connected. Get started easily by using online tutorials with step-by-step instructions or by using some of the new out-of-the-box templates. Keep your documents and sensitive information safe and secure by detecting and remove unwanted comments, hidden text, or personally identifiable information in your documents using the Document Inspector.
Use the Data Connection Library to import external information, and then explore this data with Office Excel 2007 View larger. |
Office Excel 2007 helps you analyze information by improving PivotTable view creation and conditional formatting and providing full support for SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services. View larger. |
With the new user interface, you can immediately view the most important cell-editing, formatting, and navigation tools. View larger. |
Powerful Productivity Tools
Excel 2007’s new, results-oriented user interface to make powerful productivity tools easily accessible. It also offers more room for you to work in and delivers faster performance. Based on the job you need to accomplish, whether it is creating a table or writing a formula, Excel 2007 presents the appropriate commands to you within the new user interface.
Versatile Options For Optimum Results
Excel 2007 gives you the option of displaying a spreadsheet dynamically as HTML for easier online access, and Excel Services users can navigate, sort, filter, input parameters, and interact with PivotTable views–all within a Web browser. You can also publish business-critical spreadsheets to Office SharePoint Server 2007 and set controls over which users can view and modify spreadsheets on the server. If you want to build a custom report from an online analytical processing (OLAP) database, the Data Connection Library makes it a snap to connect to external sources of data.
Increased Spreadsheet Row and Column Capacity
Excel 2007 offers an increased spreadsheet row and column capacity of one million rows by 16,000 columns that enables you to import and work with massive amounts of data and achieve faster calculation performance with support for dual or multicore processors. Quickly format cells and tables exactly as you want them by using Cell Styles and Table Styles galleries. Tables also include AutoFilters while column headers stay in view when you scroll through the data, so you can keep better manage data. For added convenience, AutoFilters populate and expand any table automatically.
Formula Authoring Options
To help streamline the formula authoring process, Excel 2007 offers a resizable formula bar and context-based Formula AutoComplete. You can also refer to named ranges and tables within formulas and functions.
Office Excel 2007 and Excel Services provide the means to share and interact with spreadsheets in a Web browser. View larger. |
Professional-Looking Charts
Excel 2007 helps you create professional-looking charts with dramatic visual effects in just a few clicks, quick table formatting and a completely redesigned charting engine that will help you better communicate your analysis. By using predefined Chart Layouts and Chart Styles, or manually formatting each component, (such as axes, titles, and other chart labels), you’ll save time and increase productivity. And to make sure your charts really stand out, take advantage of stunning effects such as 3-D, soft shadowing, and anti-aliasing to help identify key data trends and create more compelling graphical summaries. Page Layout View lets you see exactly how your spreadsheet will print and direct visual feedback where the page will truncate gives you the help you need to properly adjust page margins. For seamless interaction between different software applications, the Excel charting engine is consistent in the 2007 versions of Word and PowerPoint.
Improved Spreadsheet Analysis
New data analysis and visualization tools help you analyze information, spot trends, and access your company information more easily. Use conditional formatting with rich data visualization schemes to discover and illustrate important trends, and highlight exceptions in your data with colored gradients (heat maps), data bars, and icons. When it comes to sorting and filtering, two of the most important types of basic analysis that you can do with data, Excel 2007 offers new tools, such as multiselect in AutoFilters, sort or filter by color, and quick filters for specific data types. You can also create a PivotTable or PivotChart view more easily by using data fields to reorient data quickly to summarize and find the answers you need–simply drag the fields to where you want them to display. Additionally, full support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services enables you to query your most current business data.
New Excel XML Format
Reduce the file sizes of spreadsheets and improve their interoperability with other data sources by using the new Excel XML Format. This option enables a more efficient exchange of information and helps keep your business running smoothly.
Share Spreadsheets and Business Information
Excel 2007 makes sharing spreadsheets and business information easier than ever before, thanks to integration with Excel Services and the new Excel XML Format. Excel Services renders an Excel spreadsheet as HTML so others can access the information within a Web browser. Other options include creating business dashboards from spreadsheets to share within a portal, and tracking the key performance indicators of your business using browser-based dashboards that can be created from Excel spreadsheets, Excel Web Access, and Office SharePoint Server 2007. You can also enjoy the flexibility of saving files as XPS or PDF (with the installation of an add-in) for easier sharing.
Effectively Manage Sensitive Information
Excel 2007 and Excel Services enable you to manage and control spreadsheets on a server to help protect important business information and ensure that people are working with the most current data. Centrally manage sensitive information by publishing spreadsheets to SharePoint Server 2007. This both helps ensure that the members of your organization are working with the most current business information and prevents the spread of multiple versions of the same file. For added peace of mind, you can protect confidential business information while helping to ensure people can view the data they need with report management features. Using Office SharePoint Server 2007, your organization’s IT staff can set up and manage Data Connection Libraries that enable people to more safely connect to external data sources without assistance. For added flexibility, you can also use the Excel Services Web services application programming interface (API) to integrate server calculation of Excel files into other applications.
Rating: 
(out of 23 reviews)
List Price: $ 109.95
Price: $ 92.00
Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel, VBA, and .NET (2nd Edition)
“As Excel applications become more complex and the Windows development platform more powerful, Excel developers need books like this to help them evolve their solutions to the next level of sophistication. Professional Excel Development is a book for developers who want to build powerful, state-of-the-art Excel applications using the latest Microsoft technologies.”
–Gabhan Berry, Program Manager, Excel Programmability, Microsoft
“The first edition of Professional Excel Development is my most-consulted and most-recommended book on Office development. The second edition expands both the depth and range. It shines because it takes every issue one step further than you expect. The book relies on the authors’ current, real-world experience to cover not only how a feature works, but also the practical implications of using it in professional work.”
–Shauna Kelly, Director, Thendara Green
“This book illustrates techniques that will result in well-designed, robust, and maintainable Excel-based applications. The authors’ advice comes from decades of solid experience of designing and building applications. The practicality of the methods is well illustrated by the example timesheet application that is developed step-by-step through the book. Every serious Excel developer should read this and learn from it. I did.”
–Bill Manville, Application Developer, Bill Manville Associates
The Start-to-Finish Guide to Building State-of-the-Art Solutions with Excel 2007
In this book, four world-class Microsoft® Excel developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors—three of whom have been honored by Microsoft as Excel Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs)—show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel’s most powerful new features. Using their techniques,you can reduce development costs, time to market, and hassle—and build more effective, successful solutions.
Fully updated for Excel 2007, this book starts where other books on Excel programming leave off. Through a hands-on case study project, you’ll discover best practices for planning, architecting, and building Excel applications that are robust, secure, easy to maintain, and highly usable. If you’re a working developer, no other book on Excel programming offers you this much depth, insight, or value.
• Design worksheets that will be more useful and reliable
• Leverage built-in and application-specific add-ins
• Construct applications that behave like independent Windows programs
• Make the most of the new Ribbon user interface
• Create cross-version applications that work with legacy versions of Excel
• Utilize XML within Excel applications
• Understand and use Windows API calls
• Master VBA error handling, debugging, and performance optimization
• Develop applications based on data stored in Access, SQL Server, and other databases
• Build powerful visualization solutions with Excel charting engine
• Learn how to work with VB.NET and leverage its IDE
• Automate Microsoft Excel with VB.NET
• Create managed COM add-ins for Microsoft Excel with VB.NET
• Develop Excel solutions with Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)
• Integrate Excel with Web Services
• Deploy applications more securely and efficiently
Rating: 
(out of 37 reviews)
List Price: $ 59.99
Price: $ 33.78
Shear Says:
Review by Shear for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Version Upgrade
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We use Excel for some in-house data entry and processing. Much of this was automated using VBA, which was programmed in previous versions of Excel. It was decided that we would go ahead and upgrade the machine used for this function to the newest version of Excel, so it would be “future proofed” for some time to come. Well, that was a mistake.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that Microsoft would have changed so much in Excel, that the VBA macros would effectively be destroyed. Programs that use to take 2-5 seconds to run, now take minutes. It is a complete waste. I will have to spend many hours trying to figure out why the VBA code no longer functions as it did in previous versions of Excel.
Dave Says:
Review by Dave for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Version Upgrade
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I love excel and have run excel 2003 for years – but I sure don’t like excel 2007 – the menus are busy, over-developed and non intuitive – and you can’t modify them back to the “classic” look and feel – what a step backward – I’m throwing away the money I put into buying 2007 and getting 2003 back – it’s a super program, but 2007 is a real step backwards interface and useability wise. Buy 2003 if you have the chance – it might be forced out sometime – then I go to a mac running XP and I’ll stay non upgraded.
Christopher Calebrese Says:
Review by Christopher Calebrese for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Version Upgrade
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Creating a plot with a few thousand data points cripples Excel 2007. There is no problem creating the same plot in Excel 2003, while in Excel 2007 the program grinds to a halt and takes minutes to resume working, or begins to consume large amounts of memory until the program crashes. A web search shows others experience the same problem and also that Microsoft has known of the problem since June of 2007 yet, as of September 2007 has not made a fix readily available. The inability to handle basic functionality such as this is a deal breaker.
Steve Dietrich Says:
Review by Steve Dietrich for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Version Upgrade
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By way of background I have used Visicalc, Supercalc, Lotus and several earlier version of excel. I have used one of the programs an average of perhaps 2 hours a day for the past 25+ years.
Even the latest version of Excel lacks the productivity of 1990’s supercalc with many more keystrokes and mouse movements required to perform simple operations. The 07 version of Excel is nearly unusable in a productive environment as it struggles to perform basic and complex jobs. It may be great at graphics, but the far greater need is to generate accurate, quality spreadsheets.
Microsoft has sacrificed performance for the sake of change ;the increasing dependence the mouse not only slows the user but adds to physical problems.
The problems are not my opinion alone. I loaned the laptop to several grad students who returned it with a very negative reaction to the new version.
Many of our clients, including some large public agencies, intend to defer the changeover due to the loss of productivity with both the operating system and Excel 2007. We will defer equipment upgrades to avoid problems with this software.
Being Microsoft means being too large and perhaps too arrogant to say you are wrong and to take a more customer friendly path. However, in this behavior they have created a real opportunity for a competitor to deliver a functional competitive product. Microsoft’s anti competitive practices can protect it from danger while it delivers inferior products but can not be relied upon to protect it from delivering defective products.
Joshua Nelson Says:
Review by Joshua Nelson for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Version Upgrade
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The new ribbon design is supposed to make it easier to learn and use. It may be for some new users but for experienced users, it isn’t. This version takes away some critical nuts & bolts customization features and many tasks now take longer to perform. This is not due to the learning curve, it is the inherent nature of the way the ribbon works. Once you are familiar with the program, nothing is faster than the old menu structure. If Microsoft added an option to allow users to choose between menus and ribbons, it would be the best of both worlds, satisfying the needs of both new and experienced users. The new version does not run macros as fast however. My recommedation for existing users: keep Office 2003 for as long as you can and consider going to Open Office when Microsoft no longer supports 2003 (unless they restore the functionality in a newer release of 2007).
R. Lodato Says:
Review by R. Lodato for Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel, VBA, and .NET (2nd Edition)
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Over the years, I’ve read a number of books on Excel programming. Each one seemed much like the previous one, generally talking about writing macros and creating data-entry forms. Professional Excel Development takes the concept quite a bit farther. Rather than giving you the same old tired lessons, this book goes into detail on exactly how to build professional level applications. It even explains how to make your Excel-based application look as though Excel had nothing to do with it. Suffice it to say, this ain’t your daddy’s Excel book.
The authors, Stephen Bullen, Rob Bovey, and John Green, show a level of sophistication well beyond the norm. They’d rather teach you the proper way to program instead of teaching you how to use Excel. In fact, the first thing they do is distinguish five different levels of usage: Excel users, Excel power users, VBA developers, Excel developers, and professional Excel developers. The book is written for the highest level, so expect a lot of depth. The entire structure of the book builds around a time-entry application that is developed from a simple spreadsheet to a full-blown, production quality program. A CD-ROM is also included with all of the source code and multiple examples that are scattered throughout the book.
Reading Professional Excel Development is not something to be taken lightly. The authors have done a fine job putting together a cohesive methodology for using Excel as an application development platform. I know of no other book that covers this platform in such depth. At times I found myself lost in the details, but I suspect a “professional Excel developer” (which I am not) would be delighted in the depth of description and copious examples provided.
Professional Excel Development is an extremely well-written book that covers the use of Excel to a depth few authors have dared to tread. The text gives you the tools to build applications that are much more than automated spreadsheets. Almost any program your imagination can devise can be created using the techniques given, which is a testimony to the power of Excel. Bash Microsoft if you want, but they do sometimes come up with a winner, and Professional Excel Development allows you to take full advantage of its capabilities. I highly recommend this book.
Eric Green Says:
Review by Eric Green for Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel, VBA, and .NET (2nd Edition)
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Even if this book was not as well-written and insightful as it is, there is simply no other VBA book that comes close, in content and quality, on building professional-grade Excel applications. If that is your field, you have a lot to lose by not getting it. (I’ve stalked several large bookstores here in New York City and Amazon, of course.)
THE BOOK:
This book is a goldmine of application-design wisdom for developers seeking to write professional, VBA applications that stand the test of time. Even for none-professionals, like myself, the book contains a plethora of VBA “best practices” that can be put to immediate use. The authors are clearly sharing with you years of personal, professional experience, and top-notch acumen.
Because I am not the most attentive reader, the first thing I find myself looking at is how well-written a book is (a quality which makes me a Walkenbach fan). I am impressed by how “thorough”, “well put”, and “to the point” most sentences in this book are – from the first to last word!
A FEW HIGHLIGHTS FOR ME:
> Imagine building almost bullet-proof applications. The user never sees an ugly VBA error message, and, if an error occurs, the developer usually knows very quickly what the cause is. I do this now…courtesy of the book’s excellent chapter 12 on Error Handling and a thorough chapter on Debugging (Chapter 16).
> Chapter 17 – Optimizing VBA Performance (and a little digression on creative thinking) is a must read. This alone is worth the book price!
> Imagine a progress-bar display that you can easily “plug in” to any VBA program you write. Now you can…this book shows you how, in Chapter 11.
> Do you understand how to use API functions, and which ones are most useful for Excel. Read Chapter 9. I first found this chapter online (informit.com), which led me to this book, in the first place. Knowing API, will allow you to tap into the entire windows operating system from VBA.
> Do you really understand classes…do you understand Interfaces and how you can put them to use in VBA?
Chapter 7 on Classes is worth a solid read. (Even if you’ve read chapter 5 & 6, in Ken Getz’s VBA Developer’s handbook). Chapter 11, demonstrates the usefulness of Interfaces, with two great examples (Sorting and Progress-Display).
> What if you wish to write code in .Net, C, (or VB6) yet still work with EXCEL or connect with your VBA code? This book shines on this topic with three chapters (20 – 22). I have not yet seen a discussion as thorough in another VBA book. (If I’ve missed one, please add me to your Amazon buddy list and email me. Thanks.)
> If you are not a database expert but want a good overview of using Excel to work with Databases, I suggest your read Chapter 13.
> How do “you” currently go about building your Application’s Menubars and ToolBars? Most books recommend a table-driven system of some sort or another, which is what I was using, and, indeed, this book does, too…but wait until you see the authors’ version in Chapter 8. In fact, I made the painful decision to give up my habit of doing things after spending time with this chapter, and the authors’ wisdom is paying off!
As a reviewer from California put it, “Finally, The sequel to Walkenbach for developers is here!”, and another from New Delhi, “Every line that I have read so far has a meaning. The book is written in a simple fluent language and brings out the point very clearly. It will take me to the next level of programming.”
I could not agree more!
ACCESSORIES:
(For a fee you can download chapters in html from http://safari.oreilly.com/)
As you would expect, all code examples for the book (and more) are found on an accompanying CD. The excellent commenting of code, aids learning.
I do have one peeve: The book is not available in searchable PDF format. To be fair to the authors…if they did…your grandmother would probably have it by now
I also use two, must-have, VBA Add-Ins produced by Stephen Bullen and Rob Bovey respectively, free of charge from their respective websites.
Stephen Bullen’s Auto-Indenter: with a simple “right click”, your VBA code is automatically indented at all the right places (with options to suit your personal preferences). Think of how much time you spend tabbing and moving lines about!
Rob Bovey’s code-cleaner: which cleans up your VBA file and shrinks its size significantly. (It also gets rid of a mysterious VBA error, the name of which escapes me now).
Roberto Pippalada Says:
Review by Roberto Pippalada for Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel, VBA, and .NET (2nd Edition)
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If you cherished the Walkenbach’s book for years and were longing for the advanced part to follow some day, you are there. So what if it is by different author.
Once I got the book and browsed through for couple of hours I already was eager to share my excitement. But… decided to do some more reading to make sure that the quality holds throughout the book. And I am still impressed immensely. This is an outstanding book
Buy the book even just for Chapter 20. Combining Excel and Visual Basic 6.
The rumors about the death of VB6 are highly exaggerated. Even if you believe otherwise, the techniques described for using VB forms in VBA will give you a good grasp how to achieve the same thing with other languages.
Basically, if you are a developer and were looking for a book to let you outgrow the limitations of VBA, this is THE BOOK.
If you are a power user and would like to stay in confines of Excel and VBA, then most probably Walkenbach’s book will be sufficient, although reading this book will give you an incentive to do more.
XL-Dennis Says:
Review by XL-Dennis for Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel, VBA, and .NET (2nd Edition)
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The book is targeting power users and professional developers and if You consider Yourself to be in this group then this book is for you.
It’s a well written book, with a high technical level and with a good structure.
But as with every book it has its strong parts as well as weak parts. Weak parts in terms of that some chapters are overviews only and do not give any depth on the subjects they cover.
The chapters that cover best practice are all excellent. Here the authors share all their experience & knowledge by discussion application structures, structure for notation, advanced techniques for userforms and toolbars, error handling, debugging and many other things. The chapters also cover well how to create and use add-ins and so called user defined functions (UDFs).
The chapters that deal with VB 6.0 & Excel are all excellent too. A welcome contribution is that this book leverages many of the good techniques we use in MS VB 6.0 into Excel, especially when it comes to userforms.
The book covers in a nice way how to create & use classes, create & use ActiveX DLL and front-loaders for Excel in MS VB 6.0.
A whole chapter is devoted to Visual Tools for Office System (VSTO) but point also out all the present shortcomings of VSTO.
As with every book nowadays this book also includes a chapter about XML which is well written and with a high technically level. However the chapter is rather short which tend to compress the content.
If the above is what You’re looking for then this book is a must have.
The following chapters provide overviews of the subjects:
Worksheet Design
Programming with Database
Data Manipulation techniques
Windows API
Creating XLLs with C#
If You’re looking to get more then an introduction or compressed picture on these subject then there exist other books that will give You more.
The book uses an example, PETRAS Timesheet, to exemplify the subject that is covered in each chapter. Some readers will appreciate it very much while other (like me) will skip it. Anyway, PETRAS timesheet is also well worked out like the rest of the book.
In order to work through both the PETRAS Timesheet case and all the examples the book is given You need to have access to the following softwares:
MS Office 2003 Professional (minimum requirement for the VSTO-chapter)
MS Visual Basic 6.0 (no longer available for sale from Microsoft)
Visual Studio.NET (C#)
VSTO (Separate tool that require Visual Studio.NET)
Kind regards,
Dennis Wallentin aka XL-Dennis
Mr. Shane Mcgrath Says:
Review by Mr. Shane Mcgrath for Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel, VBA, and .NET (2nd Edition)
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I’ve been working with Excel for years…
This is by far the BEST EXCEL DEVELOPMENT BOOK I’ve ever seen. It paid for itself many, many times over in the theory, and code tricks I’ve learned from it.
BEWARE BEGINNERS….if you’re unfamiliar with Excel or VBA development, this isn’t the book for you…start with Excel 2003 Power Programming by John Walkenbach.
If you’re looking to take your spreadsheets to the next level, BUY THIS BOOK…IT RULES