Microsoft Excel 2003 versus Microsoft Excel 2007 and Tip Guide Excel

There are many differences between Excel 2003 and Excel 2007.Some of the changes in Excel 2007 are improvements.Some are a major step backward.We'll leave it up to you to decide which is which.The following are some of our major findings when we compared Excel 2003 to Excel 2007.

Probably the best approach is not to upgrade to 2007 until forced to do so.And hope that Microsoft will release a decent upgrade soon and the first time (versus waiting for an SP2 version, which would patch the patches)

Topics	Excel 2003	Excel 2007	Comments
Number of rows	Limited to 65,536	Over 1,000,000	Very few users need large numbers of rows.
Number of Columns	256	16,384	Very few users need large number of columns.
Calculate speed	FAST	VERY SLOW	We did a test of 10,000 calculations of a small workbook and recorded key values.Excel 2003 did the task in 5 minutes.Excel 2007 took almost two hours.Excel 2007 was 20X slower.If calculation speed is important, stay with Excel 2003 unless you have a super computer with multiple processors.
Charting Speed	FAST	VERY SLOW	Excel 2003 created 100 charts in 8 seconds.Excel 2007 took almost four minutes to do the same task.
Chart Refresh	Extremely fast, almost instantly	Extrmely slow.Almost like watching grass grow.	Multiple reports of Excel 2007 being beyond slow when one changes chart data.Even reports of worksheets containing multiple graphs taking several minutes to refresh when selected.
Opening and closing files	Fast	Slow	Excel 2003 opened, copy some data (via a macro) and closed 100 tiny workbooks in less than 30 seconds.Excel 2007 took a minute and half to do the same task.
Conditional Formatting	Limited to 3 tests	Many tests are allowed	The improvement is very useful if you need conditional formatting that changes dynamically.However, posts on user forums indicate that using this feature greatly slows down Excel 2007.The alternative is static formatting (I.E., format when you need to) using the Conditional Format Assistant.
Customizing toolbars	Very customizable	Limited customization	With Excel 2003 you can remove commands you don't want from the toolbars and add commands you want.And you can create your own buttons for your custom macros.With Excel 2007 you can not modify the ribbons.You can add buttons to the quick access toolbar.
Color Palette	Limited colors	Essentially unlimited colors	Excel 2003 is easier to use and get different colors quickly.Excel 2007 gives more choices.We call it a toss up as to the benefit.
Patterns in formatting charts and cells	Many choices	Patterns are no longer available for selection	Microsoft removed a feature that was very useful for those of us who fax or want to print copies from a laser (non color) printer.
Interface	Menus and buttons	Ribbons with buttons and text drop downs	Some will love the 2007 interface, some will hate it.Figure one to two weeks to relearn Excel basics.It most likely will take over a year before you match your past productivity. If you want the 2003 interface back, we have added the worksheet menu (File, Edit, ...) back with the Spreadsheet Assistant.(Not all menu items could be added back.)
Macro recording	Fair	Poor	For some reason, Microsoft has made macro recording worse in 2007, and often does not record actions with charts.Or, the action that is recorded often doesn't work.At least in Excel 2003 one got a starting point versus an empty recorded macro.
Macros	VBA used	VBA used	Macros you wrote in 2003 or earlier versions, especially chart macros, will likely not work and need modifications to work in Excel 2007.Recording many not give you the clues on how to fix.
Macros and workbook protection	No problems	Major problems	In Excel 2007, if you password protect your workbooks and they contain macros, there is no way to enable macros.
Charting - adjusting point values	Easy to do by	Impossible	Microsoft removed the feature that allows one to change the value of data points by dragging the point on a chart.
Customizing Macro buttons	Standard feature	Feature removed	One wonders why Microsoft removed.Or did they just forget to leave in?
Stability	Very few reports of crashes, fail to save	Frequent user group reports of crashes and not being able to save files	Looks like Microsoft rushed a product to market that wasn't ready for prime time.
File opening time	No problems	Many reports of problems of files not opening or very slow to open	Files will not appear in Excel 2007 when double clicked and Excel is closed.Primary workaround is to not close Excel or to first open Excel and then open the file.
Export/save as DBF file	Standard feature	Not available	Microsoft removed the export/save as DBF option from Excel 2007.