Excel 2003 & 2007 Questions

[pbt]

Don't know if this is the right place for this thread - so if it get's moved that's fine.

My company has decided to install Office 2007 on a new computer that I will get. I will be the test dummy of Office 2007.

I have asked our IT guy if you could install 2007 and still leave 2003 on this new computer. He says it is too much trouble.

I have read many post from some of the MVP's here that have 97 on up on their computer.

I have no knowledge of what it takes to install different versions. I was thinking that Partioning of the hard drive was how it was done.

My worries is that if he leaves me with only 2007, that maybe some of the macros in the sheets that I, and the whole company work on will not work properly. Or if I open it in 2007, it will open in 2007 every time. In others words I would be left without the ability to "test" in 2007.

With what I do, it is essential that if I open a file, (during realcompany work) that it works, macros included. I will not have the option or time to wait for my IT guy "to find the time" to fix the problem.

We use a lot of Excel books that have macros (some very intense) that were written by a former employee using 2003.
And this is where I am getting my knowledge of VBA.

Needless to say, the IT guy is the brother-in-law of one of the bosses, so I have to come up with a way to convince the higher-ups that my worries are justified. (if this is the case)

I guess my questions are:

1. Is it really that hard to have two versions of Office (or in particular, Excel only, don't need the rest) installed on the same machine.
2. Would I (or will I might) encounter some problems with some of the VBA codes written in 2003

I think that I can handle the "brother-in-law" situation with the right words since I am the most senior employee in the company.

Any comments on this will be greatly appreciated,

Harry Shue
since it's already out
http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?t=252527&start=60

 

[Richard Schollar]

Hi Harry

I can't really talk about it from a corporate perspective, but from a home perspective it is really simple to install Office 2007 alongside your existing Office (it is one of the options after you insert the installation DVD). I currently have Office 97 Professional, Office 2003 Pro and Office 2007 Pro all happily coexisting alongside each other on my home PC. You don't have to worry about partitioning the drive (I didn't have to) - you just need to make sure you only use one copy of Outlook.

You could well run into trouble with macros (especially if any of them create/use Toolbars or FileSearches, or modify/add menu items, or even have hardcoded old row limits (the classic being Range("A65536").End(xlUp) since the new row limit is so much greater)).

Also, 2007 files can't be opened in 2003 (you do have the option to save down in earlier file formats from within Excel 2007 though).

You may (I'm not certain of this by any means) run into compatibility issues if you have exisiting 2003 spreadies with lots of pivot tables in them.

I, personally, would think it was easily the most sensible option to install 2007 alongside 2003.

Richard

 

[starl]

I regularly run 97-2003 on one machine and 2000 with 2007 on another (I'm not ready to have 2007 be my default).
As long as you install them in different folders (i suggest WIDELY different folders.. do not install both in the "Microsoft Office" folder), there's no problems running them together. As Richard said, you can only have one version of Outlook, but you can only have one version of Access, too.

As for code, I'm just finishing up our 2007 VBA book. Filesearch is an absolute no no for 2007. Everything else written in earlier versions is iffy. Toolbars will end up on your addin ribbon; charts and pivot tables are completely different.. i'm not sure about the code on that, but since Bill completely rewrote the chapters, I'm sure there are differences (tho it could be argument based). hmm.. You can't "Kill" the open workbook. Conditional Formatting changed enough that you have to be careful there...

I think it's a VERY BAD IDEA to not keep an older version around. The 2007 convertor still has issues and I wouldn't trust it for awhile yet.. not if you have an advanced workbook.

 

[Richard Schollar]

Tracy,

I didn't know there was a problem with multiple versions of Access? I have Access 97 and 2002 quite happily chugging away on my works PC and Access 97 and 2003 on my home PC which haven't - yet - thrown a fit. I haven't even fired up Access 2007 yet, and I'm slightly worried about the consequences if I do - can you elaborate?

 

[starl]

hmm - i've read it's not recommended to run multiple versions of access side by side.. i think it took some manual changes if you did. So I don't bother.

I've fired about Access 2007 - way different. looks less intimidating, but haven't converted any dbs to it

 

[SydneyGeek]

I'm starting to use Access 2007 and it is way different. Some bits I like. Some I definitely don't. My main one...

In the VBA window, hit the quote key. Doesn't matter if it's the single or double, nothing happens until you hit it again. Then you get two. Or... you think it's OK, so you type a letter to start a comment. and you end up with an accented letter instead of apostrophe and letter. GRRRR...

Denis

Denis

 

[Richard Schollar]

I haven't even fired up Access yet altho not that I'm kinda Access guru afterall

I actually wrote some code in Excel 2007 at the weekend though, and even made use of the ribbon to apply some formatting. This was a big step for me, as I have barely touched 2007 (2003 is good enough for everything I currently do). I'm sure my usage will grow...

 

[pbt]

Thanks Richard and Tracy for the comments.

I have not forgotten about this thread, just was real busy here and wanted to wait until the IT guy did his thing.

He went ahead and installed 2007 along side 2003. So now I'm "playing" with it.

ONE problem that occured and he said that he would have to check into it. So I thought I would see if I could get an answer to help him.

All 2003 Excel icons appear as "unidentifiable" icons. Clicking on them opens in 2003 Excel.

Going to Properties, reveals that they are .xls files. Open with: says "Unknown application. Clicked on the Change...button and clicked both the 2003 and 2007 Excel icons to Open With - but nothing changes.
They are still Unknown application, but still opens in 2003.

No problem with a book created in 2007, shows correct icon.
(Using windows XP)

Harry

 

[starl]

i don't get it..?

 

[pbt]

Does that mean I didn't explain well enough?

Harry