When I did it with IMDB, it retrives all the infos from the
page while I'd like to import selected datas -- I used to used excel
2003 on a windows platform and it was piece of cake to do it. But on
Mac, I confess that I'm more than lost without the web-browser window
and the small arrow box.
Larry
One of the biggest complaints I have about the Mac version of Excel,
is that Microsoft doesn't seem to have much interest in improving the
web query functionality. It's 1000% better on the Windows platform,
and keeps getting better. For the Mac... no improvements since the
first version that supported the one-line file approach (only the URL
is necessary... the other 3 lines are unnecessary, since they don't do
anything).
Having said that, I've used them successfully if and only if the web
page has perfectly formed tables that keep a fixed format. Having
columns or rows shift from one use to the next is a problem. Passwords
are also a problem, if required to access the page. I use Yahoo!
Finance, and even if I'm logged on already, my web query shows me a
log in page instead of my data table. With the Mac version that's a
barrier you can't get over. On Windows, you can actually login and get
the data as part of the web query.
I've even gone to the extreme of keeping a Windows box networked to my
Macs, where I'll do more sophisticated web queries on Windows, then
read the files into my Mac Excel worksheets.
My biggest fear is that the next Mac release this fall/winter(?) will
also be disappointing in that regard. If that's the case I probably
won't upgrade.
I couldn't survive without Excel, but most of the development effort
since Excel 4 for Mac has been on prettier charts and tables and not
on improving the functionality.
....Charles
