# Excel 2016



## Brian from Maui (Jan 9, 2016)

Thinking of purchasing Excel 2016.  Any comments from those that already have purchased 2016?

Trying to upgrade from 2003..........

Thanks!

And SAFE & PROSPEROUS NEW YEARS from Maui!


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## Caleeco (Jan 9, 2016)

I'd also be interested to hear from anyone with working experience of the new suite! I'm still rocking 2010, which is pretty solid!


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## Smitty (Jan 9, 2016)

Brian from Maui said:


> Thinking of purchasing Excel 2016.  Any comments from those that already have purchased 2016?



Happy New Year, Brian!

Long time no hear!  How's the handicap these days?  It better be down to about 75 by now!  I think I'm up to about 225, but here those **** white balls get lost in the snow! 

Regarding 2016, it really depends on what you want to do.  If 2003 does what you need (and you're not up to having an entirely frustrating experience learning the whole new Ribbon interface) then I'd stay away.  

If you're up for some _*really cool stuff*_, like the ability to build charts with Bing Maps directly in Excel (like where in the islands all your golf courses are and their pars - and how much you've spent on each ), or Power Pivot/Power Query, etc., then I'd totally go for it.  But it is a very frustrating transition, especially from the normal File menu interface that we were used to using.  

The Ribbon aside, Excel has grown a lot: 1MM+ rows and 16,000 columns, so you can now use it like a database with absolutely no fear of Excel crashing (OK, I'm just being an A$$ there)...64+ levels of IF statements and Conditional Formatting, which is a great idea (OK, I'm just being an A$$ there too)...Seriously, there is a whole lot of cool stuff, but it still acts like the old time Excel, so what do you need to do?

Now to more painful things:

You will need to think about which delivery route you want to go: Excel 2016 as a stand-alone product or Office 2016 (as the suite - and if you want Home/Student/Pro/Pro +/Alien, etc.), which are one-time purchases, or go with Office 365 which is subscription based (monthly/annually), but constantly updated and allows you to install on up to 5 devices (including MACS).  Unfortunately with 365, you still need to figure out which service level (aka "Version") you want, and MS doesn't make it easy to figure out what's best for you - But they do have a live chat where you can ask.  In fact, I did just that and asked for you and they suggested Office 365 Personal (that'll make a fun blog post )...

The 365 subscription has access to your own Sharepoint site, which is pretty cool and MS has done a really good job of making it user friendly (but most people will never find it).  Frankly, as much as I hated the new Ribbon versions of Office (and the whole 365 thing), I'm pretty much a 365 fan now.  It's just too **** hard to explain because MS does such a crap job of making things easy to understand.

All giving MS crap aside, I'm a real fan of 2016 and they've got some *really *smart folks on the Excel team (it's the marketing people who are freaking idiots).  I'd go for it if you need all the new stuff, but if 2003 works for you then I'd stay the hell away.

(But 2016 is really cool)...

Edit: I forgot linked Pivot Table sources (read: database relationships, so no more VLOOKUPs to build a master), Slicers, Timeline Slicers, etc.  

If you're a Dashboarding person then GO FOR IT, if you're balancing your checkbook, then probably not.

Smitty


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## Brian from Maui (Jan 9, 2016)

Aloha Smitty

Took the plunge and bought the home version.  Totally different interface.  At my age, '97 would have sufficed!


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## Jon von der Heyden (Jan 10, 2016)

Wowza that's quite a hop. The ribbon is going to drive you nuts!


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## RoryA (Jan 10, 2016)

For my money, 2010 is still the best balance of features vs stability. The only thing that I really miss from the later versions is being able to _easily_ use multiple monitors but that seems to have brought its own pile of headaches.


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## My Aswer Is This (Jan 10, 2016)

I'm using Excel 2013 and I like the ribbon.
I've been using Excel since the 1980's and upgraded every time a new version has been out about a year.
Is the Ribbon in Excel 2016 different from 2013.
When I looked at this site the ribbon looks similar to 2013
Excel 2016 | Ribbons,Tabs and Quick Access Toolbar


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## Smitty (Jan 10, 2016)

> Is the Ribbon in Excel 2016 different from 2013.



Not really.  I'd say the biggest change is on the Data tab where PowerPivot has been rolled into a single Manage Data Model button, and the Get & Transform options for Power Query.  The Get External Data options are still there, but will likely go away in v.Next.

On the Insert tab Power View has been replaced with Power Map (3D Map).


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## Smitty (Jan 10, 2016)

Brian from Maui said:


> Took the plunge and bought the home version.  Totally different interface.  At my age, '97 would have sufficed!



Have fun with that! 

One thing you'll want to do if you plan on using VBA is to goto File-->Options-->Customize the Ribbon-->On the right-hand side click the "Developer" button.  That will load the Developer tab on the Ribbon.  Otherwise it will be hidden.


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## shg (Jan 10, 2016)

RoryA said:


> For my money, 2010 is still the best balance of features vs stability.


Amen. I looked forward in high anticipation to Excel 2007 for two years. Aside from the trauma of the Ribbon, it was miserably unstable, and had the worst Help ever. I believe Excel 2010 is what Excel 2007 had hoped to be, and am delighted with it.

My youngest uses and likes Excel 2013, but it's the version she had when she started to become a power user, so she doesn't really know any different. The CPU cycles wasted on eye candy are appalling.

I'm thinking 2016 is unlikely to be an improvement.


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## My Aswer Is This (Jan 10, 2016)

From my experiences in life a lot of people are always reluctant to upgrade to newer versions. Finally when they upgrade they find it was not as scary as they thought. I remember in the early 80's when Windows 3.0 came out a lots of my friends said "Never Me I’m sticking with DOS forever".


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## Caleeco (Jan 11, 2016)

i just found out I can get either Office 2013 or Office 2016 for £9.90 under a Home Use Policy from my company...

Tempting


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## dckmob (Jan 16, 2016)

Using a 365 account, I updated to from 2013 to 2016. Happy with the Power BI integration, but it "feels" like 2016 is less stable while running scripts. May have something to do with my new computer that is extremely more powerful than the old one. Basically what is does is that it stalls my script and I have to press "continue". Have not been able to find the cause of the "problem".


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## Smitty (Jan 16, 2016)

dckmob said:


> Using a 365 account, I updated to from 2013 to 2016. Happy with the Power BI integration, but it "feels" like 2016 is less stable while running scripts. May have something to do with my new computer that is extremely more powerful than the old one. Basically what is does is that it stalls my script and I have to press "continue". Have not been able to find the cause of the "problem".



I'd start a new thread in the Excel Questions forum and post your code (make sure to show where it stalls).


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## dckmob (Jan 16, 2016)

HI Smitty,

It was just my (re)view on Excel 2016. No need to start a thread (yet)


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## dpazz (Jan 27, 2016)

I have a copy but not got round to install on my server yet


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