MS Office 2011 for Mac

[peszo]

Has anyone purchased or used it yet? do you recommend it? I understand they added VBA to the 2011 product, is it same as native VBA in the PC version or is it special to only Mac?

Thanks

 

[DonkeyOte]

an article published a while back:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/189123/microsoft_announces_office_for_mac_2011.html

implication is 2011 will be based on VB6 like Windows versions
2001 & 2004 were I believe based on VB5 unlike their Windows counterparts

edit: see also http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=504707

 

[SydneyGeek]

...That puts Office 2011 only 1 version behind the latest MS versions -- they are now based on version 7 of VBA.
Still, having VB6 as the underpinning is a huge step forward from using Applescript.

Denis

 

[DonkeyOte]

I didn't even know there had been a major version change with 2010

 

[SydneyGeek]

The 7.0 version is to enable 64-bit functionality.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff700513(office.11).aspx

Denis

 

[Norie]

Isn't the inclusion of VBA with Excel Mac 2010 more of a reinstatement rather than introducing something totally new?

I'm sure earlier versions of Excel for the Mac had VBA but for some reason they took it out.

 

[SydneyGeek]

Yes, it is a reinstatement.

As Luke pointed out earlier versions used VB5 (as per Office 97). In Office 2008 VBA was replaced with Applescript, immediately reducing the compatibility with Windows versions. In 2011 it's back, but now with VB6 as the base.

Denis

 

[Norie]

Denis

I don't think the VB6/VB7 thing is going to matter for a while.

The only thing I've seen talked about in any detail is about the declarations for API functions, apparently IntPtr has replaces Long.

That can be handled using compiler directives to basically declare with one way for 32-bit and another for 64-bit.

I think it may only be a problem when 64-bit versions of applications like Excel are being used.

I've not heard of too many people actually using the 64-bit version of Office 2010, perhaps because, for Excel anyway, you can only have that version installed.

 

[SydneyGeek]

True. Just making the point that Office Mac is not on the same VBA version as Office 2010 -- as has been the case since Office 2000 for Windows.

Bringing VBA back is a welcome move. However, it will create support issues for developers trying to work with 2008 and 2011. If 2011 is so much better (as Rory said) people might migrate across fairly quickly...

Denis

 

[RoryA]

Just to be picky, in 2008 VBA was replaced with nothing, not Applescript, since that's entirely separate.
If you want compatibility you can (for the time being) always use XLM.