Windows Excel 2007 Custom Ribbon Compatibility

[markh]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel

I have an Excel spreadsheet (xlsm format) that I built in Windows and that utilizes vba code partially called from a custom menu added to the Ribbon using xml. When I try to open the spreadsheet in Excel 2008, Excel crashes completely. While I have found several forum discussions about vba issues, I cannot find any information about customized interface compatibility between the Windows and Mac versions of Office. I had assumed Excel 2008 would either create a Mac-style menu or ignore my customUI. I did not expect Excel 2008 to simply crash. Has anybody else had this experience? Does anybody know of a solution or what the intended behavior is? Am I correct in understanding that custom menu commands cannot be created on the Mac? I have no experience using AppleScript with Office and am not 100% clear about whether or not scripts can be called from within Excel. Thanks in advance for any help and info.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel

I have an Excel spreadsheet (xlsm format) that I built in Windows and that
utilizes vba code partially called from a custom menu added to the Ribbon
using xml. When I try to open the spreadsheet in Excel 2008, Excel crashes
completely. While I have found several forum discussions about vba issues, I
cannot find any information about customized interface compatibility between
the Windows and Mac versions of Office. I had assumed Excel 2008 would either
create a Mac-style menu or ignore my customUI. I did not expect Excel 2008 to
simply crash. Has anybody else had this experience? Does anybody know of a
solution or what the intended behavior is? Am I correct in understanding that
custom menu commands cannot be created on the Mac? I have no experience using
AppleScript with Office and am not 100% clear about whether or not scripts can
be called from within Excel. Thanks in advance for any help and info.

It clearly should not crash. However, VBA just does not work in Office 2008.
What should happen when the file is opened in Excel 2008 is a macro warning
which the user can chose to ignore. The file should then open and appear
just as it would when opened in Windows with the shift key down.

Keep watching this thread, as there will probably be someone from Microsoft
asking you to send them the file so they can determine what is causing the
crash.

That said, YES, you can develop a custom user interface, and have scripts
called from within Excel; but, they can not be VBA scripts. The original XLM
macro language still works fine (with a few exceptions) in Excel 2008.
However, I suggest that you not develop in this language, but wait till the
next version of Mac Office where VBA will be supported. Meanwhile have your
Mac clients use Office 2004 where VBA does work. (However, there is no
guarantee that the VBA you developed for you windows application will work
if you did not allow for this possibility when it was originally written.)