Changing from Excel 2003 to 2010...?

[Victor Delta]

At work, I shall shortly be upgraded from Office 2003 to 2010 as part of a
general IT upgrade (albeit with no change in hardware for users).

My colleagues and I use a large number of pretty complex, linked,
spreadsheets with lots of macros etc. Many of these run from buttons on user
created toolbars etc.

I'm sure Excel 2010 is an excellent spreadsheet programme and we'll all get
used to it in time... However, given the new ribbon UI etc I am a little
anxious about whether our existing spreadsheets will still work properly (we
can't afford any downtime). Obviously I will do some tests before we take
the plunge but I wonder if anyone who has already made this change could
either allay my fears or, if not, at least give me some pointers as to what
problems we may encounter (and whether they are fixable?).

I'm particularly concerned that we don't lose the user toolbar facility.
Will we need to use on of the 3rd party applications that restores the old
toolbar interface? If so, any recommendations please?

With many thanks,

V

 

[Stan Brown]

I'm particularly concerned that we don't lose the user toolbar
facility.

If I remember correctly, that's one of the things you *will* lose.
Customizing the Ribbon is a lot harder than customizing toolbars used
to be. You can add stuff to the Quick Access Toolbar, but (again, if
I remember correctly) anything beyond that requires programming.

Ron de Bruin's article may be helpful:

http://www.rondebruin.nl/imageqat.htm

 

[GS]

Your custom toolbars/menus will appear on the 'Addins' tab of the
ribbon, AND there will be no change in how they work. What users may
find annoying, though, is having to switch back & forth from the Addins
tab to use other Excel features not built into your menus/toolbar
structure.

 

[Victor Delta]

Your custom toolbars/menus will appear on the 'Addins' tab of the ribbon,
AND there will be no change in how they work. What users may find
annoying, though, is having to switch back & forth from the Addins tab to
use other Excel features not built into your menus/toolbar structure.

Thanks but is there really no way of adding a few custom buttons which are
always accessible (as well as the other usual Excel features)?

V

 

[GS]

Victor Delta expressed precisely :

Thanks but is there really no way of adding a few custom buttons which are
always accessible (as well as the other usual Excel features)?

V

They ARE accessible via the 'Addins' tab. Are you wanting to make them
available via a custom tab? If so, you'll need 2 versions of your
project since v12 and later control menus via the XLM component of
their files. I just use the same XLA or XLS for early and late versions
for simplicity of project maintenance. I do suggest, however, that you
immerse yourself in Ron DeBrun's examples for manipulating the Ribbon
since it's obviously here to stay going forward. I expect to continue
using early version files until MS no longer supports updates for 2003.
I just make sure my projects are 'version aware'!

 

[Jim Cone]

Garry,
amen
'---
Jim Cone
Portland, Oregon USA

 

[Victor Delta]

Victor Delta expressed precisely :

They ARE accessible via the 'Addins' tab. Are you wanting to make them
available via a custom tab? If so, you'll need 2 versions of your project
since v12 and later control menus via the XLM component of their files. I
just use the same XLA or XLS for early and late versions for simplicity of
project maintenance. I do suggest, however, that you immerse yourself in
Ron DeBrun's examples for manipulating the Ribbon since it's obviously
here to stay going forward. I expect to continue using early version files
until MS no longer supports updates for 2003. I just make sure my projects
are 'version aware'!

Thanks, although this is making me feel ever more nervous!

Despite what you say above, presumably overall you feel the advantages
offered by Excel 2010 still make it worth upgrading from 2003?

V

 

[GS]

Victor Delta laid this down on his screen :

Despite what you say above, presumably overall you feel the advantages
offered by Excel 2010 still make it worth upgrading from 2003?

Victor,
I thought the release of v12 was a great improvement. I just couldn't
deal with the Ribbon concept. As time passed it became a non-issue and
so I don't have any worries about my clients not using pre-v12 versions
thanks to Ron DeBrun's samples on managing the Ribbon. Meanwhile, my
apps don't use most of Excel's features because they're 'task oriented'
and so only expose menus for the intended purpose of their use. I don't
make projects that run within a user's default instance of Excel so I
pretty much lock down the UI to the point where users may not even
realize they're using Excel. I do this with early version XLAs and a
dummy XLSM file that handles the UI settings. IOW, the only tab
available to my users is the Addins tab. All app features are available
via custom menus/toolbar on that tab. Since it's an automated instance
(not user's default instance), my menus are the only ones on the Addins
tab. Also, automated instances have no security warnings.

Eventually, though, I'll have to evolve my apps to use custom tabs
instead of menus/toolbar on the Addins tab. No problem thanks to Ron
DeBrun!<g>