Excel 2007 and the QI Macros for Excel | Upgrading to Excel 2007

Upgrading to Office 2007 or 2010
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Jay Arthur
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KnowWare International, Inc.
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Denver, CO 80224

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In the January 9th, 2007 issue of BusinessWeek, the Tech & You editor Stephen Wildstrom suggests that Office 2007 is not a must have. Here's why:

Learning Curve: The new ribbon interface moved functions around, which means that "many of us will have to relearn what we already know." Microsoft says that it will take several hours for existing users to "get up to speed" on the new interface. I don't know about you, but I don't have several hours to spend. Here's the current and 2007 versions of the menu. Try to find "File Open or Save" on the new menu...(hint: it's hidden behind the circular Office Icon at top left).

Excel 95-2003 Menu

Excel 2007 Menu

Excel 2010 Menu

Functionality: Excel still has way more functionality than most users ever tap. Even Jay, who considers himself a superuser, hasn't found or used all of the functions in Excel. Wildstrom says: "Since earlier versions of Office already contain just about every bell and whistle you could imagine, there aren't a lot of new features in Office 2007. "
Compatibility and Sharing: To work with XML (the new standard for sharing data), Office programs create files named ".docx" for Word or ".xlsx" for Excel. These cannot be read by earlier versions of Excel without a translator that you can download from Excel. This makes it hard to share the results of your work. You can set an option to save files in ".xls" however.
Bugs: I've spent the last 30 years developing software. One thing I know for sure: software doesn't release, it escapes. Major new releases of any software are filled with bugs. I don't care how good you are at development or testing, something always slips through. Every day of the year I get messages from Microsoft that "updates are ready for my computer." I'd spend 30 minutes a day installing changes if it was up to them. Even automatic install makes me reboot which takes time.

If my business didn't depend on supporting all versions of Excel, I wouldn't upgrade for at least a year. Give Microsoft time to work out the kinks in their new interface before you bet your business on it.

Information Technologies departments are salivating over the opportunity to spend money to upgrade Office because it will look good on their accomplishments , but no one knows how much it will cost in lost productivity to retrain everyone on the new interface. Based on my own experience, the personnel costs will be more than the software, but this won't be booked back to IT. It will be hidden in the day-to-day workings of your business.

Here's The Point

Wildstrom sums it up nicely: " If you are happy with your current version of Office, there's no compelling reason to rush out and buy Office 2007."

And I will add, if you do install Office 2007, keep the current version of Excel on your computer for backup.

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Upgrading to Office 2007 or 2010

Here's The Point