Data Analysis Toolpak Add-In for Excel

[Adam]

I just bought Office 2008, and have been eagerly awaiting the new version of Office for months. As soon as I installed Office, I went to Excel and tried to use the Add-Ins tool to install the Data Analysis Toolpak (found in Office 2003 and Office 2007), but no Add-Ins are available.

I really need the Data Analysis Toolpak for school and work. Where can I find it?

Thanks.

 

[Axon]

Hi Adam,

I too was shocked to find this add-in missing. As a Scientist, I rely on this quite a bit for quick and dirty analyses. And did you happen to notice that the error bar functionality for charts has changed? In Excel 2004 I could specify a custom standard error term (located in the cell of my choice), but this feature is now gone from Excel 2008. What's going on?? Excel 2004 has this... Excel 2007 for Windows has this... is Microsoft trying to water down Excel to appeal only to average consumers? The analysis tool pack and the ability to specify custom error bars are essential tools for any Scientist or Engineer (and students too)... and don't get me started on the lack of VBA support...

And why is Word such a RAM hog? Even running under Rosetta Word v.X uses only about 80 MB of real RAM when displaying a 200+ page report with embedded graphics. The same file under Word 2008 takes 200 MB!! And then it will jump to 700+ MB as soon as it starts to load some of the images in the file (JPEGs). Over 700 MB!!! Word v.X displays the images faster than Word 2008 and still only uses a fraction of the RAM (it may rise to 120 MB when scrolling through the images). I've tested this out on 2 Macs - a new MacBook Pro C2D 2.4 GHz (4 GB RAM) and a Mac Mini C2D 1.8GHz (2 GB RAM). Same story on both machines. I'm very disappointed in my purchase. I was very excited at the prospect of abandoning Word v.X and Excel 2004, but it looks as though I'll be using them for much, much longer.

Feeling a little let down here...

 

[Diane Ross]

And why is Word such a RAM hog?

Do you have Entourage open with the Progress Window open? Close the Progress
Window and you should see improvements. This is an Apple bug and hopefully
we will see this fixed in the next update.

 

[John McGhie]

Office 208 does not have all the functions of Office 2004 (and vice-versa).

Users need to very carefully compare features before deciding whether to
upgrade.

I would strongly advise scientific and professional users who have an older
version to leave it installed, at least until they have proved that the new
version has all the functions they need.

Cheers

Hi Adam,

I too was shocked to find this add-in missing. As a Scientist, I rely on this
quite a bit for quick and dirty analyses. And did you happen to notice that
the error bar functionality for charts has changed? In Excel 2004 I could
specify a custom standard error term (located in the cell of my choice), but
this feature is now gone from Excel 2008. What's going on?? Excel 2004 has
this... Excel 2007 for Windows has this... is Microsoft trying to water down
Excel to appeal only to average consumers? The analysis tool pack and the
ability to specify custom error bars are essential tools for any Scientist or
Engineer (and students too)... and don't get me started on the lack of VBA
support...

And why is Word such a RAM hog? Even running under Rosetta Word v.X uses only
about 80 MB of real RAM when displaying a 200+ page report with embedded
graphics. The same file under Word 2008 takes 200 MB!! And then it will jump
to 700+ MB as soon as it starts to load some of the images in the file
(JPEGs). Over 700 MB!!! Word v.X displays the images faster than Word 2008
and still only uses a fraction of the RAM (it may rise to 120 MB when
scrolling through the images). I've tested this out on 2 Macs - a new MacBook
Pro C2D 2.4 GHz (4 GB RAM) and a Mac Mini C2D 1.8GHz (2 GB RAM). Same story
on both machines. I'm very disappointed in my purchase. I was very excited
at the prospect of abandoning Word v.X and Excel 2004, but it looks as though
I'll be using them for much, much longer.

Feeling a little let down here...

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[John McGhie]

Office 208 does not have all the functions of Office 2004 (and vice-versa).

The Analysis Toolpack is not supported in Office 2008.

Users need to very carefully compare features before deciding whether to
upgrade.

I would strongly advise scientific and professional users who have an older
version to leave it installed, at least until they have proved that the new
version has all the functions they need.

Cheers

I just bought Office 2008, and have been eagerly awaiting the new version of
Office for months. As soon as I installed Office, I went to Excel and tried
to use the Add-Ins tool to install the Data Analysis Toolpak (found in Office
2003 and Office 2007), but no Add-Ins are available.

I really need the Data Analysis Toolpak for school and work. Where can I find
it?

Thanks.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Axon]

Hi Diane,
No... I don't have Entourage open at all. I used it for about 10 min and decided it wasn't for me. Apple Mail and iCal in Leopard just suit my needs better. Thanks for the suggestion, but this seems like something inherent with the new version of Word (likely all the new bells and whistles). All of the new and fancy GUI-goodness has to come at a price.

Hi John,
I think we were all led to believe that Excel 2008 was similar in functionality to Excel 2004. All the reviews I read prior to purchase made no mention of an additional drop in essential feature support (other than VBA). It was touted has having a revamped graphics engine, but was also rated as being basically the same as Excel 2004. And Microsoft really wasn't advertising the removal of additional features on their web site...

I truly hope that error bar functionality and add-ins will be reinstated through a subsequent software update because, as it stands now, Excel 2008 is not very useful to me (and perhaps, any other Scientist).

Thanks for your comments!

 

[Guest]

Nowhere in any literature that I read was there any mention of Excel 2008 not supporting the Data Analysis Toolpak Add-In. This really stinks. Excel is not very useful for statistical work if you don't have these tools. I can't understand why these wouldn't be included. This is quite frustrating.

I've already installed Office 2008 and really like it, but this is a big problem for me. Is there any way to get in touch with someone at Microsoft to find out if there is a solution to this?

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Nowhere in any literature that I read was there any mention of Excel 2008 not
supporting the Data Analysis Toolpak Add-In. This really stinks. Excel is
not very useful for statistical work if you don't have these tools. I can't
understand why these wouldn't be included. This is quite frustrating.

I've already installed Office 2008 and really like it, but this is a big
problem for me. Is there any way to get in touch with someone at Microsoft to
find out if there is a solution to this?

You can get register your thoughts with Microsoft by using the send feedback
command in the Help menu. There is no solution to this other than time. All
of us are waiting for Microsoft¹s statement. The basic problem is that since
there is no VBA, the analysis Tool pack (which is largely VBA) can¹t run.

 

[mike_Lee]

Axon, as another scientist (I am a molecular biologist), I have the same feeling as you are. so you can rest assure that excel 2008 is useless to at least TWO scientists

 

[David Fritzinger]

Axon, as another scientist (I am a molecular biologist), I have the same
feeling as you are. so you can rest assure that excel 2008 is useless to at
least TWO scientists

Make that three ( I am also a molecular biologist)

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I just bought Office 2008, and have been eagerly awaiting the new version of
Office for months. As soon as I installed Office, I went to Excel and tried
to use the Add-Ins tool to install the Data Analysis Toolpak (found in Office
2003 and Office 2007), but no Add-Ins are available. <br><br>I really need
the Data Analysis Toolpak for school and work. Where can I find it?

Functions that used to be in the Analysis Toolpak Add-in (e.g.,
WEEKDAY(), RANDBETWEEN(), etc.) have been incorporated in XL.

Wizards such as the Histogram wizard will not run in XL08 since VBA has
been removed. No question - that sucks.

However, the output of all the wizards can be obtained using built-in XL
functions and commands (in some cases the quality of the output will be
better - the ATP's Random Number Generator was pathetic).

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Nowhere in any literature that I read was there any mention of Excel 2008 not
supporting the Data Analysis Toolpak Add-In.

Since the ATP Add-in uses VBA, it was a logical result, though
admittedly, one had to have some understanding of the tool in order to
know that...

This really stinks.

Yes, it does.

Excel is
not very useful for statistical work if you don't have these tools.

????

The ATP functions have been incorporated into XL, and the ATP VBA
wizards don't provide any actual capability not provided by built-in
functions. Yes, it's more work to do it using functions, but it's
perfectly possible.

Note that in some cases, the ATP results were relatively poor - the
Random Number Generator in particular was wholly inadequate by modern
standards.

I can't
understand why these wouldn't be included. This is quite frustrating.
<br><br>I've already installed Office 2008 and really like it, but this is a
big problem for me. Is there any way to get in touch with someone at
Microsoft to find out if there is a solution to this?

If you post back here with your specific problem, you may be able to get
a built-in function solution.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Axon, as another scientist (I am a molecular biologist), I have the same
feeling as you are. so you can rest assure that excel 2008 is useless to at
least TWO scientists

Just out of curiosity, what functionality is provided in the ATP that
can't be reproduced with built-in functions?

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Axon:

Hi John,
I think we were all led to believe that Excel 2008 was similar in
functionality to Excel 2004. All the reviews I read prior to purchase made no
mention of an additional drop in essential feature support (other than VBA).
It was touted has having a revamped graphics engine, but was also rated as
being basically the same as Excel 2004. And Microsoft really wasn't
advertising the removal of additional features on their web site...

In Microsoft's defence, they did not "remove" any features from the
Universal Binary version of Microsoft Office for the Mac. They conducted a
mad scramble to "add" as many features from Office 2004 and Office 2007 as
they could, given the time, people, and money available to them, from the
time that Apple announced that they were going to Intel.

What you see is all that they had the time/people/money to do.

The point I am trying to make is that they didn't take any out, they simply
couldn't add as many as they would have liked to.

I truly hope that error bar functionality and add-ins will be reinstated
through a subsequent software update because, as it stands now, Excel 2008 is
not very useful to me (and perhaps, any other Scientist).

I think that's most unlikely. Sorry, but standard industry practice in the
software industry is "NEVER add functionality in updates, it pisses off our
customer system administrators!"

I do expect that the next version of Mac Office will arrive rather sooner
than might be expected. But it would be very irresponsible of me to raise
anyone's hopes that any of the missing functions will appear in an update.

I guess it's theoretically "possible". But if I were a betting man, I would
not put the rent on it.

Cheers

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Adam]

Thanks for all the help, everyone. So, since I can't do any substantial data analysis in Excel 2008 as it currently exists, do y'all think that a third-party might come along with some sort of add-in, or is that even possible?

If not, can someone recommend some software that is good for the Mac for data analysis? I REALLY, REALLY hope Microsoft will come up with a solution for this. When can we expect to hear something from them? Any ideas?

Adam

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Thanks for all the help, everyone. So, since I can't do any substantial data
analysis in Excel 2008 as it currently exists, do y'all think that a
third-party might come along with some sort of add-in, or is that even
possible? <br><br>If not, can someone recommend some software that is good
for the Mac for data analysis? I REALLY, REALLY hope Microsoft will come up
with a solution for this. When can we expect to hear something from them?
Any ideas? <br><br>Adam

What are you trying to do?

The ATP did little or nothing that can't be done with built-in functions
except create a wizard to make selecting ranges and criteria easier, and
produce formatted output.

Yes it's a PITA, but it's certainly possible to do substantial data
analysis in XL08.

For examples of how to do many of the ATP analyses using the ATP, see

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ec/~nhunt/oatbran/

And it's certainly possible that one could write an applescript or Real
Basic application to replace the ATP wizards. Don't know what the demand
will be.

 

[Axel Hammerschmidt]

Just out of curiosity, what functionality is provided in the ATP that
can't be reproduced with built-in functions?

None, given enough time. But then why bother with Excel?

 

[Axel Hammerschmidt]

For examples of how to do many of the ATP analyses using the ATP, see

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ec/~nhunt/oatbran/

"This page last cultivated on 10 September 1999"

 

[JE McGimpsey]

"This page last cultivated on 10 September 1999"

And the ATP is older than that, so I'm not sure what your point is...

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Just out of curiosity, what functionality is provided in the ATP that
can't be reproduced with built-in functions?

None, given enough time. But then why bother with Excel?[/QUOTE]

If it's not providing what you need, then *don't* bother, naturally.
There are tons of statistical packages out there...

However, this thread started out with the assertion that XL was useless
for statistics without the ATP. I've never found that to be the case. In
fact, I've found nearly the opposite - most of my clients that really
know statistics would never use the ATP.

I also know a ton of scientists (primarily biologists and biological
science students) who use the ATP t-tests, 99% of the time
inappropriately. It seems the ease of using the ATP overrides their
understanding (or lack of understanding) of the underlying population
requirements.