Excel 2003 Review
by John Walkenbach
Excel 2003 is part of the Microsoft Office 2003 System. This latest release of Excel can be summed up in one word: DISAPPOINTING. Of all the Office 2003 components, it seems that enhancing Excel received the lowest priority.
The new Excel features are:
- The ability to import and (possibly) export XML data, and map the elements to cells in a worksheet. But this feature is not available in all editions of Excel 2003 (see below)
- A new "designated" List feature that identifies a worksheet list by outlining it with a blue border.
- Minor AutoFilter enhancements
- The ability to synchronize worksheet scrolling to make it easier to compare two sheets
- Fixes for some of the statistical functions.
- Integration with Microsoft SharePoint Services
- Savvy developers will be able to create "Smart Documents" that utilize Smart Tags. This seems very complicated, and I haven't even bothered to explore it.
That's it. Any experienced Excel user can easily come up with a list of a dozen or so enhancements they would like to see. The folks at Microsoft, of course, are well aware of these user wishes. But, they didn't make the cut.
XML Features
Word on the street is that XML is the best thing since sliced bread, and it will revolutionize the information industry. Maybe it will. But for now, I estimate that maybe 5% of all Excel users will find any value at all in these new XML features.
But wait… If you buy Office 2003, you may not even have access to these new XML features. For some reason, the new XML features are available only in the "Professional" edition of Office. This is, perhaps, the dumbest marketing decision ever made by Microsoft (and they've made a lot of them). In the past, developers needed to be concerned with version incompatibilities. Now, they will also need to deal with incompatibilities within a single version!
Despite the amount of hype coming out of Redmond, Excel's new XML powers basically boil down to the ability to import data from a new source. When you open an XML file, you have the ability to map the elements to cells in a worksheet. For multi-element XML files, they come in as a list. If your company happens to use Microsoft SharePoint Services, you can save the list to your SharePoint server.
OK, so what else can you do with XML? Say you have a worksheet database table and you want to export it to an XML file. Excel 2003 should be able to handle such a task, right? Well, not quite. In order to export an arbitrary range of data to an XML file, you must first "map" the data to an XML schema file. And it's not possible to create such a file using Excel. You'll need to purchase another tool to create the schema file.
New List-Related Features
A common use for an Excel spreadsheet is to store a list of data. With Excel 2003, you can officially designate such a range list. After doing so, AutoFiltering is turned on, and the list appears with a blue outline (the blue outline gets thicker when the List is activated). As an option, you can choose to display summary formulas at the bottom in the "total row." You must choose these summary formulas from a dropdown list (custom formulas not allowed). The formula that's created uses the SUBTOTAL function.
Novice users might like this new list feature, because it can prevent some errors. For example, if you insert a new row within your list, it doesn't actually insert a new row. Rather, it moves the subsequent cells in the list down so it doesn't mess up other non-list data to the left or right.
Still other uses might be confused. After all, people have been using lists in excel for about 15 years. When you refer to a list, do you mean a "designated" list or a normal list? It would have helped if this feature had a name other than list. (I use the term "designated list" in my books).
A new toolbar, List and XML, appears when a list is active. This toolbar has commands to work with lists. For example, you can insert or delete rows, access the Sort dialog box, and access the data entry form (which is still as limited as it's always been).
Perhaps the most useful aspect of designating a list concerns charting. If you create a chart from data in designated list, the chart series expands automatically when the list is augmented with new data. In the past, this type of "auto-expanding" chart required using some non-intuitive names and editing the chart SERIES formula.
Related to the new list feature is an enhancement in the SUBTOTAL function. This has always been one of Excel's most confusing functions, and now it's even more confusing. Excel 2003 enables you to use this function to work with visible data only. You do this by adding 100 to the first argument. In the past, SUBTOTAL ignored hidden data only if the data was hidden by AutoFiltering or an outline. Now, the function works as expected even if the data is hidden manually.
AutoFiltering Enhancements
In Excel 2003 the AutoFilter drop-downs display two new items at the top: Sort Ascending and Sort Descending. These items perform just like the more convenient buttons in the Standard toolbar.
Synchronized Scrolling
Another new feature is called compare side-by-side. This gives you synchronized scrolling when viewing two sheets to compare them. I think Lotus 1-2-3 had this feature about 15 years ago. Yawn… And if you're looking for any automatic way of comparing the contents of two sheets, forget it. The actual sheet comparison must be done with your eyes.
Stat Functions
Microsoft's marketing literature refers to "enhancements" to the statistical functions (those available in the Analysis ToolPak add-in). This, of course, is a new definition of the word enhancements. Truth is, these function have been broken for more than a decade, and they finally return accurate results in Excel 2003.
Office-wide enhancements
Excel users will notice a few other differences, which are actually part of the Office-wide enhancements. Cosmetically, Excel looks a bit different. The toolbar icons now use more colors, and the toolbars themselves have a 3D look (which I don't really care for).
You'll also find that the toolbars pick up the colors used in the Windows color scheme. This does not affect those of us who prefer the Windows XP "classic" scheme. In fact, there is a downside. Those who don't use the XP Windows themes will find that it's difficult to determine the row and column of the active cell. In the past, the row and column borders of the active cell changed colors. Now the color change is very subtle.
Another new Office feature is the Research Pane -- which appears in the Task Pane. You can use this to search for information or access premium content (assuming you've purchased a subscription).
Help System
A new release of Office means a new Help system. As far as I'm concerned the Help system in Office XP worked very well. But now they've changed it. So much so that it's extremely annoying to use.
Now, the results from your search always appear in the Task Pane -- even if you've chosen to turn off the Task Pane. The Help text itself appears in a pop-up window. In other words, accessing the Help system now requires two windows: the Task Pane window and the Help window itself. I use the Help system a lot. For me, this new Help system is reason enough to avoid upgrading.
One potential advantage is that the Help system can now access updated Help topics on the Net. This, of course, will be useless for those who prefer to work without a Net connection.
Another new Office 2003 feature is Rights Management, which is a "persistent file-level protection technology that helps protect digital intellectual property from unauthorized use." This is another one of those features that is available only in the "Professional" edition. I have no need for this, so I haven't bothered to check it out.
Conclusions
So there you have it. There's not much to say, really. And not much to recommend.
I'm sure Microsoft has lots of good reasons for releasing Office 2003. Enticing Excel users is obviously not among them.
Excel is definitely showing its age, and there are many features that need to be upgraded and enhanced. A good example is the convoluted Options dialog box. We old timers have gotten used to it, but I pity a new Excel user who is trying to figure out how to change some basic options. And then there's charting. Excel really needs some new chart types, and the ability to display publication quality charts. And why can't Excel for Windows have the handy Formatting Palette that's in the Mac version? And I won't even mention the 256-column limitation.
Other components of Office 2003 may have features that would justify an upgrade. To be frank, I've only used Word and Excel, and neither of these products warrants an upgrade -- unless, perhaps you're Office 95 or 97. If Word and Excel play a large part in your upgrade decision, it's pretty much a no-brainer: Don't bother upgrading. I know I won't.