Excel 2008: Analysis Add-in?

[Shree Vattikuti]

I have avoided buying the upgrade for 2008, because the regression and solver were basic tools I have had to use. While I really would have liked the speed improvement, I need these functions. I thought this was a deficiency in iWork and thought Microsoft would not drop these. I am considering starting to use Gnumeric which even includes simulation analysis.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I have avoided buying the upgrade for 2008, because the regression and solver
were basic tools I have had to use. While I really would have liked the speed
improvement, I need these functions. I thought this was a deficiency in iWork
and thought Microsoft would not drop these. I am considering starting to use
Gnumeric which even includes simulation analysis.

Gnumeric's an excellent package. No Pivot Tables or conditional
formatting, and charting isn't quite as good, but as long as you can
compile your own version, it's a good option.

If you like the improvements in Word, PPT and Entourage, you can always
run XL04 with the 08 versions of the others.

Regression in XL08 can be done at least as well (if not quite as
conveniently) with the tools here:

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

Solver's hopeless in 08 right now, but I'm hopeful that this can
eventually be solved by MacBU, though I don't have any specific reason
to think so.

 

[MW]

PLease add my voice to the chorus of stunned mac users regarding the loss of Solver and data analysis tools. I am in an MBA program, where each are daily, vital tools.

If MS is trying to chase the Mac out of universities, this is a brilliant first step.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

PLease add my voice to the chorus of stunned mac users regarding the loss of
Solver and data analysis tools. I am in an MBA program, where each are daily,
vital tools.

If MS is trying to chase the Mac out of universities, this is a brilliant
first step.

They are not. Voice your concern via send feedback on the help menu.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

PLease add my voice to the chorus of stunned mac users regarding the loss of
Solver and data analysis tools. I am in an MBA program, where each are daily,
vital tools.

This isn't the place to add your voice. This is primarily a peer-to-peer
newsgroup.

Use Help/Send Feedback... instead

Note that the part of the Analysis Toolpak that didn't make it to XL08
was the wizards (e.g., the functions were incorporated into XL so no
add-in was needed). The wizards used XL functions (except the poorly
implemented Random Number Generator), so their results can be obtained
using those functions. See

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

for some pre-made workbooks.

 

[Guest]

Did MS eliminate being able to calculate the forward and inverse Fourier transforms in 2008???

Yikes, what a waste of an upgrade for me!

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Did MS eliminate being able to calculate the forward and inverse Fourier
transforms in 2008???

No, but they did eliminate VBA and therefore the ability to use the FFT
wizard in the Analysis Toolpak Add-in.

Since the wizards used XL functions (except for the poorly implemented
ATP random number generator), you can still calculate forward and
inverse Fourier transforms, but it means building tables and using the
now built-in matrix functions.

Probably too much of a PITA for most people, but it can be done, and
it's rather straight-forward, if tedious - there are examples you can
Google for...

 

[Phillip Jones]

They are not. Voice your concern via send feedback on the help menu.

Better yet have the university do it as well. If you could get all the
university's to do so and lend their voice, maybe it would force MS hand
and make them hire some more Mac programmers to fix the problem.

Manny Software vendors still consider Mac's Play toys or Machines just
video and Audio Processing and art design.

They are just as capable of doing *any* job any other platform could do,
Windows, UNIX, Linux if they had the software.
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[Richardc]

Are there statistical functions in Office 2008, such as ANOVA? I cannot find any reference to them in the help system.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Are there statistical functions in Office 2008, such as ANOVA? I cannot find
any reference to them in the help system.

All the statistical functions from the Analysis Toolpak Add-in were
incorporated into XL08.

However, ANOVA was implemented in the ATP as a wizard, not a function,
which means it used automation to drive the built-in and ATP functions.
This no longer works in XL08.

However, you can find a good substitute here:

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

 

[Unsolved Mystery]

Just throwing another voice in for Solver support. I shouldn't have to run VMWare, Windows and Office 2007 to be able to do undergraduate business school stuff.

Yes, I have submitted feedback through the normal channel, but here's another hit on the internet for Microsoft. Hopefully this site and others will help people know ahead of time not to buy Office 2008 if they need these functions.

Have a nice day.

 

[Franz]

Sorry if this is a stupid question. Can anyone help me find the XIRR function? I can't find it in the Insert-Functions tab where I expected it to be. I can only find IRR. I tried to find it on the "coventry.uk" link, but I can't open those spreadsheets.

 

[Jamie]

Are there any genuine reasons to upgrade to 08?

I would glady pay for 08 had MS tweaked some of the brilliant and most useful tools in 04 e.g. VBA/Solver/customizable shortcuts etc. However, all I seem to find is more disappointment from everyone that all these great things have been removed or dummed down for short-term commercial gains by MS.

Someone, please tell me why I should pay the money to upgrade! What am I missing?

(PS new charts and ledger sheets are not genuine reasons)

 

[Gene]

Sorry if this is a stupid question. Can anyone help me find the XIRR function? I can't find it in the Insert-Functions tab where I expected it to be. I can only find IRR. I tried to find it on the "coventry.uk" link, but I can't open those spreadsheets.

In reading the Excel Post's I gathered that the XIRR function is not available in Excel 2008 and therefor did not purchase the program. If you find out otherwise, Jamie, or anyone else, please post your finding.

 

[Mike Middleton]

Franz -

In Mac Excel 2008, if I type =xirr( into a cell, I see XIRR(value,
dates,[guess]), showing me how to complete the arguments.

As far as I know, functions that were previously available with the Analysis
ToolPak add-in are now standard worksheet functions in Mac Excel 2008 (as
they are in Windows Excel 2007).

- Mike Middleton
http://www.DecisionToolworks.com
Decision Analysis Add-ins for Excel

 

[Ryan]

Mike,
It does look like there are functions that were previously in data analysis. However, the data analysis, specifically regression, looks at multiple data outputs that these functions do not provide. Additionally, the oatbran files do not allow for multiple regression, which data analysis provided

 

[Mike Middleton]

Ryan -

The array-entered worksheet function LINEST has been included in all
versions of Excel (at least since Excel 4).

LINEST can be used for multiple regression with up to sixteen explanatory
variables.

LINEST does not depend on the availability of the Analysis ToolPak add-in.

(The Regression tool wizard of the Analysis ToolPak used Excel's built-in
LINEST function for its computations.)

- Mike Middleton
<http://www.DecisionToolworks.com>
Decision Analysis Add-ins for Excel

Mike,
It does look like there are functions that were previously in data
analysis. However, the data analysis, specifically regression, looks at
multiple data outputs that these functions do not provide. Additionally,
the oatbran files do not allow for multiple regression, which data
analysis provided

Franz -

In Mac Excel 2008, if I type =xirr( into a cell, I see XIRR(value,
dates,[guess]), showing me how to complete the arguments.

As far as I know, functions that were previously available with the
Analysis
ToolPak add-in are now standard worksheet functions in Mac Excel 2008 (as
they are in Windows Excel 2007).

- Mike Middleton
<http://www.DecisionToolworks.com>
Decision Analysis Add-ins for Excel


wrote in message &gt; Sorry if this is a stupid question. Can anyone help me find the XIRR
&gt; function? I can't find it in the Insert-Functions tab where I
expected it
&gt; to be. I can only find IRR. I tried to find it on the "coventry.uk"
link,
&gt; but I can't open those spreadsheets.

 

[Henrik Scheller]

Hi. The link to OATBRAN is useful. But I need 2-way ANOVA which used to be possible in Excel. Of course it can be coded with standard functions. I can also calculate it on a piece of paper. But then why would I need a computer at all?

 

[Carl Witthoft]

Ryan -

The array-entered worksheet function LINEST has been included in all
versions of Excel (at least since Excel 4).

LINEST can be used for multiple regression with up to sixteen explanatory
variables.

LINEST does not depend on the availability of the Analysis ToolPak add-in.

(The Regression tool wizard of the Analysis ToolPak used Excel's built-in
LINEST function for its computations.)

- Mike Middleton
<http://www.DecisionToolworks.com>
Decision Analysis Add-ins for Excel

Just to add to that: with a little judicious setting up, you can use
LOGEST to fit certain combinations of exponential and linear functions
as well.

I even made LINEST fit a sine, by fitting to both sin(X) and cos(X),
and extracting the frequency and phase, but that falls in the realm of
software wanking


Far better just to get a real tool: Regress+, or ProFit, or R, or
FreeMat, or Octave, etc etc.

 

[infernalman7]

Anyway to have it handy in Excel is actually the best thing. That's what we've paid for.

I'm doing High School Quantitative Methods right now and I always have to reboot to Windows and use Excel 2007 to create histograms all the time.