Excel Reference Books/Materials

[watermt]

I first want to thank every one of the contributors and visitors here in this
Excel discussion group for all of their valuable knowledge and willingness to
share with us who post questions. This is by far the best web environment
that I've used to gather an understanding of how an application works; the
replies have all been super and very, very helpful.

Now I'm ready to explore more and was thinking about purchasing an Excel
reference book. The title I'm looking at is the "Microsoft Office Excel
2007: Data Analysis and Business Modeling". But before I do I'd once again
like to get feedback from anyone who has purchased or read this book, if
possible?

I have a couple of questions regarding the version (Excel 2007):

1. We're currently using Excel 2003 (with plans to upgrading to Excel 2007);
will the information in the book translate back to my 2003 version?

2. And, will the CD that comes with the book work on my Excel 2003
application?

If anyone has any input or other book suggestions I'd appreciate your
comments/suggestions,

Mike

 

[Eduardo]

Hi,
with reference and if you can save as excel 2003 yes when selecting save as
you choose the version
To your 2nd question I don't understand what you mean, the CD is for excel
2007 so depending on the features might work or not in excel 2003

If this was helpful please click yes, thanks

 

[JLatham]

I generally agree with what Eduardo said:
Some things on the CD might work, some might not. There are new features in
Excel 2007 that don't exist in 2003 - besides the increased number of
potential rows and columns, there are new worksheet functions to be
considered. It could also depend on the format of the files on the CD - 2003
may not read them at all if they're in .xlsb format (haven't tried that
myself).

I would also suspect that if you're depending on the book to teach the user
interface, that since it's targeted at 2007 it would be totally useless for
that in 2003. This would come into play if you were also intent on using it
as a 'tutorial' for new employees/persons unfamiliar with Excel interface.

 

[watermt]

Your repsonses were correct on both accounts. I went ahead and purchased the
2007 versions of the reference materials and some of the CD-ROM functions and
formulas do only work in Excel 2007, but much of it works in Excel 2003.
Thanks to Eduardo and to you JLatham for your input.