Norman R. Nager said:
This question is for an MVP: In another thread, an Excel user recommended
Mac Excel Expander. How might installation and use of its components affect
the stability of Excel 11.3.3?
FIrst - MVPs don't have any special insight into commercial code, so I'm
not sure why you've limited your inquiry to MVPs.
That said...
I had never used it, but since it was "Made by the World's Best Excel
Development Specialist" I suspect it's probably relatively stable.<g>
However, XL crashed on my system when I loaded the add-in, applied
alternating colors to a range, then deleted a row in that range. I
didn't do extensive testing, but that could (and if fact, is likely to
be) due to my customized environment, not the add-in.
The following caveats are pretty general to all add-ins (including my
own), and don't reflect any position one way or another on that
particular package:
Any add-in has the potential to interfere with other code you're
running, and can slow things down a little, but it shouldn't change
anything permanently - once you unload the add-in everything should work
as before (unless it changes your preferences, in which case you can
change them back). If an add-in is implemented well, it adds
functionality just like built in functions. If implemented badly, it can
create havoc with your data.
I'd be careful to save my work before using any of the "automation
utilities", at least the first few dozen times I used each one - i.e.,
until you're sure you know what they're doing. I don't know whether the
add-in implements a full Undo capability or not - that's usually rather
difficult.
And I'd be a little leery of using any of the 113 added worksheet
functions for two reasons: (1) Nobody I share my workbooks with
(especially my clients) can be assumed to use EE (and most *can't*, due
to IT restrictions), and (2) I can't tell how the code behind the
functions was implemented to be sure that the proper precision, accuracy
and boundary conditions were tested. That doesn't mean that they aren't
completely proper, but I'd have a hard time selling that to my clients
without a significant test program.
If it were for my use only , I'd just do some testing before I counted
on their accuracy. FWIW, it's exactly what I expect my clients to do
with *my* applications, too.
Based on the list of functions, some of them seem a little redundant,
most seem rather specialized, and a few seem like they could be really
useful. YMMV.
So I guess my bottom line is check it out and see if it works for you.
