Excel 2008 - No Personal Macro Workbook? What a dud!

[cargen]

Is Microsoft nuts?

I've used Excel on a Mac since version 1.0 and every upgrade has been an improvement until this one. No easy way to make macros? What a backward step from Excel 2004!

I kept the 2008 versions of Entourage, PowerPoint and Word installed but I just removed Excel 2008 because it is simply unusable by a power user. I tried to utilize Customize Keyboard as a work around to replace my macros but Microsoft just does not provide near enough flexibility.

How could the brand manager allow this to ship?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Is Microsoft nuts? <br><br>I've used Excel on a Mac since version 1.0 and
every upgrade has been an improvement until this one. No easy way to make
macros? What a backward step from Excel 2004! <br><br> I kept the 2008
versions of Entourage, PowerPoint and Word installed but I just removed Excel
2008 because it is simply unusable by a power user. I tried to utilize
Customize Keyboard as a work around to replace my macros but Microsoft just
does not provide near enough flexibility. <br><br>How could the brand
manager allow this to ship?

What good would a Personal Macro Workbook do when Office doesn't execute
VBA? They announced that a *long* time ago, so I'm not sure why people
are surprised...

The brand manager had to make a choice between releasing Office 2008 now
without VBA (which only a minority of users care about), or not
releasing anything until 2010. I don't like the choice, but I'd
certainly have made the same decision.

Using XL04 with the rest of Office 2008 is a good option for many of my
clients that need VBA support. Since XL04 and XL08 can run fine
simultaneously, they could even use XL08 for some of the new features,
then open the file in XL04 to run VBA.

I certainly expect to keep XL04 around.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Is Microsoft nuts?

I've used Excel on a Mac since version 1.0 and every upgrade has been an
improvement until this one. No easy way to make macros? What a backward step
from Excel 2004!

I kept the 2008 versions of Entourage, PowerPoint and Word installed but I
just removed Excel 2008 because it is simply unusable by a power user. I tried
to utilize Customize Keyboard as a work around to replace my macros but
Microsoft just does not provide near enough flexibility.

How could the brand manager allow this to ship?

If I were the brand manager I would not have let it ship.

All you and I can do is to tell the brand manager why macros are important
to us and how we use them, and what the consequences to Microsoft are
(Example: I can not use Office 2008 because..)
(Example: I use VBA macros to do the following and am unable to use Excel
2008 because...)

The place to send your comments regard Excel is:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/suggestions.mspx?product=excel

VBA is an expensive feature to maintain. If Microsoft can get away with
selling lots of copies of Office without VBA then they will. On the Windows
side, when Microsoft announced the end of VBA the public reaction was swift
and loud, but Mac users were notably quiet about it.

Maybe instead of whining about feature bloat Mac users should be complaining
about feature disappearance instead, as the Windows users did.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[kevinvh]

Like everyone else, I was shocked to find there was no VBA support in Office 2008. Still, I put the disappointment behind me and got stuck into learning about Applescript. Hard work initially, as I found the Microsoft web stuff and 2004 guide useless, and the Mactech 'Moving from Office VBA to Applescript' just as useless.

Open the Applescript Script Editor, goto Menu/File/Help and select "Show Applescript Language Guide" and spend half a day reading it and trying the examples. I had little trouble converting my extensive excel macros with no prior applescript experience. Also, while in Script Editor, goto Menu/File/Open Dictionary and review the dictionary associated with Excel (and any other application on your HD that is scriptable).

VBA gone forever - good riddance (I think?).