Customer Reviews

Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Version Upgrade [Old Version]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

I am a power user of Excel and have been using it for nearly as long as it has existed, but I do not own this latest incarnation of Excel and never plan to.

A good friend recently purchased a new laptop running Vista and with a full installation of Office 2007. She called me to help her with a spreadsheet that she migrated from Excel 2003 that was not updating correctly on several of the formulas. I can honestly say I've never been more frustrated by a piece of software in my life! I can navigate a spreadsheet with my eyes closed, but not only couldn't I solve the update problem she was having with Excel 2007, I couldn't find anything on the "ribbon" that was remotely familiar.

If you purchase this "upgrade", expect to spend hours trying to figure out how to do things that previously took you minutes or seconds to accomplish in the past. The ribbon is an abomination.

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).

You can try this for free for up to 60 days by registering with Microsoft and downloading an evaluation copy. When you're sure you want it, permanently activate it with the product key you get in your Amazon package.

The new version of Excel has two huge advantages:

1. It removes the old 256 column/65,536 row limitation. You can now have 16,384 columns and more than a million rows.

2. Excel 2007 can use all the cores/processors in your computer (or you can restrict it to use only some, so huge background calculations do not tie up your machine). On my dual core computer, Excel 2007 is **way** faster than 2003 at almost every task.

I've seen no crashes, hangs, or hiccups. A widely publicized multiplication error has been reported, though - 850 * 77.1 should make 65535 but instead makes 100,000!

And everything else about Excel 2007 is frustrating. The new "ribbon" interface is unnecessary, awkward, and a waste of real estate -- it's difficult to locate features, and almost every operation takes more pointing and clicking than older releases. Bypassing the ribbon with the new "Quick Access Toolbar" is problematic because (bizarrely) Microsoft has deleted many distinctive command icons, leaving them with identical green lights. Every time you use the sort dialog, the box gets bigger, eventually filling the screen, forcing you to resize it again and again. I haven't yet worked out how to set up default formats and styles. And it's easy to inadvertently paste a formula into a million cells, triggering a coffee break-sized delay...

Excel 2003 may cost more than Excel 2007. If the two plusses don't help you, you may think that 2003 is worth more.

Earlier this year we purchased a new computer for my office with Vista and Excel 2007. The simplest of functions such as saving a document are a pain. Making things worse the complaints you will read about concerning the lack of VBA function and inability to customize menus is all true. The few times I've sat down to work on that machine using Excel have been awful experiences. The new employee who never used much excel before doesn't mind it and likes it now that he has worked with it. Still we are having too much problems with the new format and VBA to make is worth upgrading too.

I just ordered a new computer for myself. I got it with XP and will install an old 2003 version of office on it. I really really can't mention how my 2 hours or so of working with the new Excel sucked.

For new users start with 2007. For old users of 2003 who are happy with what they have and are pretty sure that the 2007doesn't have any new power functions they need (probably 99.9% of users) I strongly recommend staying with 2003. That is what I'm doing for sure. I figure if I'm ever really forced to upgrade I won't be so limited in my options from the standpoint of learning curve. If ever forced to abandon 2003 I will seriously consider other alternative non-microsoft software. Its like working with a whole new program so why not give someone else a shot first since Microsoft is back to their unreliable ways.

XP users are revolting because its about the only good operating system they've made since version 3.1.

Don't be surprised if Office 2007 Excel costs companies millions if not billions of dollars in lost productivity and errors. I would DEFINITELY NOT RELY on Excel 2007 for ANY ENGINEERING calculations or projects that could result in loss of life due to known calculation bugs. Microsoft in my view has a history for screwing over power-users with releases that aren't backward-compatible and require significant re-work for macros or scripts to work right. This was the case for earlier versions of Microsoft Access. Excel 2007 takes the prize in Office 2007 Pro. It's as though Microsoft marketing (and not engineering) designed it specifically for beginners. While this might seem like a good way to capture greater market share, it appears to have been conducted at the expense of intermediate and advanced Excel and Office users.

In most companies, the top 5% of Excel power users perform the majority of data analytics and produce over 90% of the pivot tables and advanced workbooks for everything from marketing database analytics to sales compensation planning and forecasting. It is this group of users that in my view should keep Excel 2003 and avoid Excel 2007. At a minimum, former Excel 2003 users will have to re-learn a hideous new menu system just to begin with. I went so far as to purchase a third-party tool that tries to re-create the Office 2003 menu look and feel. Even the most basic Excel 2007 features seem buggy. If I try to edit a text box, the cursor moves backwards when I scroll forward! It's so bad, I find myself editing in notepad and then pasting back into the text boxes. Excel 2007 to power users is a slow death by 1000 paper cuts.

The most advanced Excel users rely upon pivot tables a great deal. This is one area that is infuriatingly poorly designed in Excel 2007, and there are significant compatibility issues with earlier Excel versions. There are a few benefits to Excel with regard to number of columns and record/row size, still in earlier versions you could always reference an external text source to overcome the record limitation. I'm not a big fan of litigation but I'd sign on to a class action if I receive an invitation. My advice is to hang on to Excel 2003 until Microsoft engineers can wrest back product control from the dolts in their marketing group. Also, OpenOffice.org 3.0 Calc is a nice product. It has some pivot table features (not as good as Excel 2003) but good enough for the average user. My only sense of satisfaction is that I'm sure the top 5% of Excel power users at Microsoft also despise this latest release if they are being forced to use it under CDOE policy. I would bet that they are using Excel 2003 instead of this dumbed-down monstrosity if at all possible. If you are in business and have a tough competitor with a really smart analytics or accounting team, bribe their IT Director to upgrade to Office 2007 with Excel. That will most definitely sabotage your competitor.

This is possibly the worst software I have ever encountered, disjointed poorly presented an absolute disaster. I wouldnt buy this software with someone else's money, let alone my own. The only people that will appreciate this package are those who have nothing else to do than play with the unfathomable and garish "Ribbon", gone are the quick and easy links, gone is the locical progression. If you want to accomplish a task quickly and easily look for another package.