Death of VBA in Office 2008

[gibsonm]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I have a client with an extensive set of Word 2004 macros written in VBA.

The person who wrote these has confirmed that rewriting then in AppleScript / Automator will not be possible due to the limited support for these provided by Office 2008.

As the client spent a swag of money to get software assurance they have received their Office 2008 media kit.

However I can't install it as this will break their "mission critical" macros.

Can this forum confirm:

1. Given Office 2008 for Mac's total lack of VBA support, their macros will no longer work?

2. Due to the poorly implemented support for AppleScript / Automator, this functionality can not be restored by re-writing for one of these processors?

3. There is no seamless converter available to replicate Office 2004 VBA scripts into something Office 2008 can use?

I suspect worse case we might end up using parts of Office 2008 but remaining with Word 2004 for the macros (even though this will cause all sorts of other problems).

Or perhaps we just leave Office 2008 on the shelf and write off the money (A$20,000+) spent on Software Assurance.

 

[John McGhie]

Yes, to all of the below

Now, let me make some recommendations:

1) Carefully consider whether you need to install Office 2008 at all. In a
business setting, it does not add much useful functionality. Support for
Exchange Server is still not good, but it is improved in Entourage 2008.
Support for graphics is improved, but not much. You get the new fonts.

2) You will lose VBA and anything that smells like it. So the Analysis
Toolpack disappears in Excel.

3) Installing Office 2008 in parallel with Office 2004 works just fine, and
that's what I have done. So your partial scenario is well-supported.

* The "Released" version of the OOXML converter is not there yet. When you
install Office 2008, it will remove the Beta version, so Office 2004 will no
longer be able to open Office 2008 XML documents.

* Which means that until the released version of the converter hits the
streets, you will not be able to use Office 2004 to run your macros in
Office 2008.

When the released version of the converter appears, it should install and
work in a parallel installation of Office 2004/8. The "converter" is
actually the XML engine from Office 2008, so forcing the beta into an Office
2008 installation would break 2008.

4) There is no VBA to AppleScript converter.

My suggestion?

A) Install Entourage 2008 and PowerPoint 2008, plus Silverlight and
Expression Media if you want them. Erage 2008 has some useful improvements.

B) Remove Entourage 2004. Entourage 2008 will up-convert the Erage
database, after which 2004 can't read it, so you must not allow two versions
of Entourage to run concurrently. If you quit Erage 2008 and run Erage
2004, 04 will read the old database, 08 reads the new one. Your users may
get very confused, so don't let it happen.

C) Now, sit and wait for the next version.

Don't waste time on an extensive re-coding of VBA, just convert the "must
have" stuff that you need right now. Run the rest in Office 2004.

Cheers

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I have a client with an extensive set of Word 2004 macros written in VBA.

The person who wrote these has confirmed that rewriting then in AppleScript /
Automator will not be possible due to the limited support for these provided
by Office 2008.

As the client spent a swag of money to get software assurance they have
received their Office 2008 media kit.

However I can't install it as this will break their "mission critical" macros.

Can this forum confirm:

1. Given Office 2008 for Mac's total lack of VBA support, their macros will no
longer work?

2. Due to the poorly implemented support for AppleScript / Automator, this
functionality can not be restored by re-writing for one of these processors?

3. There is no seamless converter available to replicate Office 2004 VBA
scripts into something Office 2008 can use?

I suspect worse case we might end up using parts of Office 2008 but remaining
with Word 2004 for the macros (even though this will cause all sorts of other
problems).

Or perhaps we just leave Office 2008 on the shelf and write off the money
(A$20,000+) spent on Software Assurance.

--
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/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

One caveat, more a comment for the archives: in general AppleScript
support for Word is pretty good, I think. The expert AppleScripters I
know wouldn't call it "poorly implemented", as far as I can tell (I'm
very novice myself). That doesn't make rewriting your macros the best
answer, and indeed, it may be impossible, but as a statement of the
general situation, it strikes me as incorrect. I wonder whether "will
not be possible" means the person who wrote them said something like "I
know VBA but I am not going to teach myself a whole new incomprehensible
language just to redo these macros, unless you want to pay me $100,000
for it" and "limited support" means "no way to just click a button and
convert the macros."

Entirely possible the AppleScript has some bugs around the features you
use, of course--it's not devoid of bugs, and I'm sure there are some
things that are impossible.

 

[Phillip Jones]

And above all beside the information given by these nice people. If
you have access and can use Office2008 open Help menu and go to
*feedback* and give you exact points you made to the MacBU Which they
can in turn show to the higher up "hey we made a serious faux Pas
(pardon my French).

One caveat, more a comment for the archives: in general AppleScript
support for Word is pretty good, I think. The expert AppleScripters I
know wouldn't call it "poorly implemented", as far as I can tell (I'm
very novice myself). That doesn't make rewriting your macros the best
answer, and indeed, it may be impossible, but as a statement of the
general situation, it strikes me as incorrect. I wonder whether "will
not be possible" means the person who wrote them said something like "I
know VBA but I am not going to teach myself a whole new incomprehensible
language just to redo these macros, unless you want to pay me $100,000
for it" and "limited support" means "no way to just click a button and
convert the macros."

Entirely possible the AppleScript has some bugs around the features you
use, of course--it's not devoid of bugs, and I'm sure there are some
things that are impossible.

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[Jim Gordon MVP]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I have a client with an extensive set of Word 2004 macros written in VBA.

The person who wrote these has confirmed that rewriting then in AppleScript / Automator will not be possible due to the limited support for these provided by Office 2008.

As the client spent a swag of money to get software assurance they have received their Office 2008 media kit.

However I can't install it as this will break their "mission critical" macros.

Can this forum confirm:

1. Given Office 2008 for Mac's total lack of VBA support, their macros will no longer work?

2. Due to the poorly implemented support for AppleScript / Automator, this functionality can not be restored by re-writing for one of these processors?

3. There is no seamless converter available to replicate Office 2004 VBA scripts into something Office 2008 can use?

I suspect worse case we might end up using parts of Office 2008 but remaining with Word 2004 for the macros (even though this will cause all sorts of other problems).

Or perhaps we just leave Office 2008 on the shelf and write off the money (A$20,000+) spent on Software Assurance.

Hi,

Direct answers to your questions:

1. Their macros will no longer work.
2. A major subset of VBA capabilities is offered via AppleScript, but
not everything in VBA is supported via AppleScript
3. There is no converter from VBA to AppleScript.


Office 2008 is not for everyone. In their zeal to be compatible with the
new XML file format offered by Windows Office 2007, MacBU decided to be
incompatible with any VBA documents made over the last 15 years on the
Mac! Even documents made using the recently current version (2004) are
incompatible with 2008 if they have or use VBA or add-ins.

As others pointed out, you can continue to use Word 2004 and install
other portions of Office 2008, such as Entourage.

Personally, I don't like having Word 2008 and Word 2004 together on the
same computer. If you open a document in Word 2008, then 2008 becomes
the default application for all Word documents after that, even if
you've chosen to always use Word 2004 in Finder's Get Info.

On my systems I use Office 2004 because I am, like you, heavily reliant
upon VBA. For documents that I receive in the new file format I use
OpenOffice (http://www.opoenoffice.org/) or NeoOffice
(http://www.neooffice.org/). Both programs are free. OpenOffice
requires installation of Apple's X11 (an option in the OS install).
NeoOffice relies upon Java and does not require X11, but it is an older
version of OpenOffice. Both have limitations that make them not my first
choice for working in office, but I do rely on them for handling the new
file formats. There's VBA in these free products, but only for the
spreadsheet, and the implementation is also a subset of complete VBA, so
you can't use the open source products as simple substitutes for
Microsoft office. I use them to Save As and choose the older 97-2003
format so I can use the resulting files in Office 2004.

-Jim

 

[gibsonm]

Well not the answer I was hoping for but thanks anyway.

Looks like we will:

1. Stay at Office 2004, since installing even part of Office 2008 will break the current beta OOXML format converter.

2. Use the "opportunity" to get off Entourage and its disastrous "all in one" database concept and move to Apple Mail, iCal and Address Book and take advantage of the iCal Server Workgroup options available in OS X 10.5.x Server and Workstation.

3. Retire PowerPoint and move to Keynote.

4. Retire Excel and go to "Numbers"

That will leave us only Word 2004 (which is the product that uses VBA).

Anyone want an unopened Office 2008 for Mac DVD?