Excel for a Mac switcher

[davcald]

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

I work with large spreadsheets, 32000-65000 rows, involving charts. This has worked well on my older Windows computers with office 2000. I have a new Vista laptop with Excel 2007, and the charts caused a huge slow down (almost unusable). I blamed Vista, but switching back to Office 2000 on the Vista machine fixed it. I have also heard of others having this issue with 2007. I have purchased a Macbook (for personal use) and have the same problem in Excel with the test drive Office 2004. I am currently using bootcamp with Vista and Office 2000 when using the Macbook for these spreadsheets. I would like to purchase Office 2008 to avoid useing bootcamp, but I would like some feedback on what to expect with 2008. Is anyone familiar with this problem, and has it been fixed in 2008? This is really the only reason for me to buy Office, so I would like to hear from others before making the decision.

 

[davcald]

I decided to purchase Office 2008, did the update and still have the
problem. Excel is fine with more normal worksheets, but these large
sheets just hang. I am hoping someone can give me pointers to reduce
the hanging. For example, maybe ther is a way to format the data or
chart that will help.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

I decided to purchase Office 2008, did the update and still have the
problem. Excel is fine with more normal worksheets, but these large
sheets just hang. I am hoping someone can give me pointers to reduce
the hanging. For example, maybe ther is a way to format the data or
chart that will help.

Hi David,

Every once in a while there is a posting similar to yours. Is it
possible for you to provide an example document by putting it on the
internet someplace for people to download?

Have you tried opening the same file in OpenOffice v 4.2 free
http://www.openoffice.org/

I'm curious if it's any better there. How about Google spreadsheets? Any
better there?

-Jim

 

[davcald]

Jim,

Thanks for the reply. I have been using computers for 25 years, but new to the Mac, so it is great to find a place to learn.

I have tried Openoffice with Windows and Ubuntu, and Numbers on the Mac. They seem like good alternatives for most work, but these worksheets are just too much for them. I also have to share the work with my Windows machine at work, and even though they are somewhat compatible for most functions, they do not understand things like Vlookup and the charts do not load. I use Google docs for some things for the ease of sharing, but it is very limited in the number of rows and columns.

I like Excel, and I really would like to use the latest version, but it looks like Microsoft screwed up something with latest versions, 2007 & 2008 for this type of worksheet.

I could scrub a file of proprietary data and post it, but I am not sure where to do that. I may try playing around with the chart to see if there is a point where it does not hang, e.g 16000 rows vs 32000 rows.

I'll keep watching the board and post if I figure out anything.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Jim,

Thanks for the reply. I have been using computers for 25 years, but new to the Mac, so it is great to find a place to learn.

I have tried Openoffice with Windows and Ubuntu, and Numbers on the Mac. They seem like good alternatives for most work, but these worksheets are just too much for them. I also have to share the work with my Windows machine at work, and even though they are somewhat compatible for most functions, they do not understand things like Vlookup and the charts do not load. I use Google docs for some things for the ease of sharing, but it is very limited in the number of rows and columns.

I like Excel, and I really would like to use the latest version, but it looks like Microsoft screwed up something with latest versions, 2007 & 2008 for this type of worksheet.

I could scrub a file of proprietary data and post it, but I am not sure where to do that. I may try playing around with the chart to see if there is a point where it does not hang, e.g 16000 rows vs 32000 rows.

I'll keep watching the board and post if I figure out anything.

Hi David,

OpenOffice version 2.4 is a significant upgrade with lots of new
capabilities. It's only been out a few days, which is why I specified
that you should try it in version 2.4. There's a pretty good chance
your workbook's functions will work OK and I'm interested to know about
the ability to scroll in version 2.4.

I know that VLOOKUP is supported in OO version 2.4.

The reason I am asking you to check this out is in case it works for you
then the Mac user community gets two things:
1. A work-around for people experiencing the same problem
2. Something that we can use as a benchmark and say to Microsoft, "Hey,
look what they did. If they can do it, you should be able to do it, too!"

Yes, I realize OpenOffice is not as good as Microsoft Excel in very many
ways, but if it works to solve this one particular problem, then at
least there's a Mac solution of some sort even if it's not the ideal
solution.

-Jim

 

[davcald]

To follow up:

I have not yet tried OpenOffice on the Mac, but I will. If it will do the job, and is compatible with Excel, I'll use it, but I find that with the Linux version, even if the files are compatable, they do not look the same. This is a problem if I create a chart with a text box or arrow for a customer and it displays funny on there system.

I have tried making the charts in Excel with progressively less rows, to see at what point it stopped hanging. I started at 32000 and had to get to 5000 rows before I could work with it. It was still slow however. This makes me think that it is related to memory management by Excel. As stated previously, I get this same problem with Excel 2007.

I woudl liek to learn, and hope I can help others but at the end of the day, it looks like I'll wind up using Excel 2000 on Vista.

Thanks for the help, I'll post more info as I learn.