Macros!!!

[smcarew]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) When are we getting macros back in Excel?? If i have to hire someone to convert to applescript then i am getting rid of Microsoft. What is the holdup?

 

[CyberTaz]

VBA isn't something that can just be 'plugged in'. It will return to Mac
Office with the next major release of the suite which is expected to be late
this year or the beginning of next.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

No hold-up. The return of VBA is perfectly on-schedule for the release
announced by Microsoft: the next version of Office.

Microsoft Office updates on about a three-year cycle.

Professional software companies do not add functionality between versions:
that causes too much trouble for users. Updates will "fix" functions. They
may "enable" functions that were disabled in the initial release because
they didn't work properly.

But they will never "Add" functionality. Certainly not a huge slab of
functionality such as VBA.

Most professional users have simply waited for the next version. People who
didn't read the product information carefully have simply rolled back to
Office 2004.

Cheers

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) When are we getting
macros back in Excel?? If i have to hire someone to convert to applescript
then i am getting rid of Microsoft. What is the holdup?

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:john@mcghie.name

 

[hughG]

No hold-up.  The return of VBA is perfectly on-schedule for the release
announced by Microsoft: the next version of Office.

Microsoft Office updates on about a three-year cycle.

Professional software companies do not add functionality between versions:
that causes too much trouble for users.  Updates will "fix" functions.  They
may "enable" functions that were disabled in the initial release because
they didn't work properly.

But they will never "Add" functionality.  Certainly not a huge slab of
functionality such as VBA.

Most professional users have simply waited for the next version.  People who
didn't read the product information carefully have simply rolled back to
Office 2004.

Cheers



This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

 --

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:j...@mcghie.name

Why on earth did they remove it in the first place??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Why on earth did they remove it in the first place??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You might want to check your keyboard. You seem to have sticky "?" and
"!" keys. ;-)

When Microsoft started development of Office 2008, they were faced with
three major challenges:

1. Convert their Office 2004 code so that it would also run native on
Intel computers. This was around the time Apple began introducing the
Mac Pro with the Intel processor along with Rosetta. Any old code, like
Office 2004, was running much more slowly on Intel machines.

2. Adapt Office for Mac to support Office for Windows new file formats
(.docx, xlsx, .pptx, etc.) as well as a slew of new features that Office
2007 for Windows introduced. Maintaining compatibility with Office for
Windows is a must-have for Office for Mac.

3. Upgrade old VBA code to work in the new version of Office for Mac.
This is cross-platform scripting and it involves some very deep coding
that's not easily done.

Both #1 and #2 were done and it took Microsoft four years. To include
upgrading VBA would have set the release date for Office "200?" to a few
years after that.

Microsoft had a choice. They could spend time on #1 and #2, which
absolutely had to happen, and include VBA or they could remove VBA to
release a more compatible product in a more timely manner. Not everyone
would use VBA, but most everyone would need to either work on a new
Intel Mac or exchange files with Windows users. The choice they made was
to remove VBA.

Before you say something like, "Well, why didn't they just hire more
developers?", you should understand that software development is often a
lot like having babies. One woman can have a baby in nine months, but
it's impossible for two women to have a baby in 4-1/2 months.

Hope this helps!

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[CyberTaz]

Not to mention that MS had announced the abandonment of VBA altogether & had
intended to exclude it from Office 2007. The groundswell of objection from
major Corporate & Government customers forced them to change their mind, but
it was too late on the Mac side, contributing to the points Bill presented.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac