what are the main differences between Excel 2003 and Excel 2007?

Hello Joe,

Hope you enjoyed your Microsoft Excel course with BEST Training.

Thank you for your question regarding Excel version differences.

Here are some thoughts:

Number of rows
Excel 2003 - Limited to 65,536
Excel 2007 - Over 1,000,000
Comments - Very few users need large numbers of rows.

Number of Columns
Excel 2003 - 256
Excel 2007 - 16,384
Comments - Very few users need large number of columns.

Calculate speed
Excel 2003 - FAST
Excel 2007 - VERY SLOW
Comments - After a test of 10,000 calculations of a small workbook and recording key values - Excel 2003 did the task in 5 minutes. Excel 2007 took almost two hours. Excel 2007 was 20X slower. If calculation speed is important, stay with Excel 2003 unless you have a super computer with multiple processors.

Charting Speed
Excel 2003 - FAST VERY
Excel 2007 - SLOW
Comments - Excel 2003 created 100 charts in 8 seconds. Excel 2007 took almost four minutes to do the same task.

Chart Refresh
Excel 2003 - Extremely fast, almost instantly
Excel 2007 - Extrmely slow.
Comments - Almost like watching grass grow. Multiple reports of Excel 2007 being beyond slow when one changes chart data. Even reports of worksheets containing multiple graphs taking several minutes to refresh when selected.

Opening and closing files
Excel 2003 - Fast
Excel 2007 - Slow
Comments - Excel 2003 opened, copy some data (via a macro) and closed 100 tiny workbooks in less than 30 seconds. Excel 2007 took a minute and half to do the same task.

Conditional Formatting
Excel 2003 - Limited to 3 tests
Excel 2007 - Many tests are allowed
Comments - The improvement is very useful if you need conditional formatting that changes dynamically. However, posts on user forums indicate that using this feature greatly slows down Excel 2007. The alternative is static formatting (I.E., format when you need to) using the Conditional Format Assistant.

Customizing toolbars
Excel 2003 - Very customizable
Excel 2007 - Limited customization
Comments - With Excel 2003 you can remove commands you don't want from the toolbars and add commands you want. And you can create your own buttons for your custom macros. With Excel 2007 you can not modify the ribbons. You can add buttons to the quick access toolbar.

Color Palette
Excel 2003 - Limited colors
Excel 2007 - Essentially unlimited colors
Comments - Excel 2003 is easier to use and get different colors quickly. Excel 2007 gives more choices. We call it a toss up as to the benefit.

Patterns in formatting charts and cells
Excel 2003 - Many choices
Excel 2007 - Patterns are no longer available for selection Comments - Microsoft removed a feature that was very useful for those of us who fax or want to print copies from a laser (non color) printer.

Interface
Excel 2003 - Menus and buttons
Excel 2007 - Ribbons with buttons and text drop downs
Comments - Some will love the 2007 interface, some will hate it. Figure one to two weeks to relearn Excel basics. It most likely will take over a year before you match your past productivity.


Macro recording
Excel 2003 - Fair
Excel 2007 - Poor
Comments - For some reason, Microsoft has made macro recording worse in 2007, and often does not record actions with charts. Or, the action that is recorded often doesn't work. At least in Excel 2003 one got a starting point versus an empty recorded macro.

Macros
Excel 2003 - VBA used
Excel 2007 - VBA used
Comments - Macros you wrote in 2003 or earlier versions, especially chart macros, will likely not work and need modifications to work in Excel 2007. Recording may not give you the clues on how to fix.

Macros and workbook protection
Excel 2003 - No problems
Excel 2007 - Major problems
Comments - In Excel 2007, if you password protect your workbooks and they contain macros, there is no way to enable macros.

Charting - adjusting point values
Excel 2003 - Easy to do by
Excel 2007 - Impossible
Comments - Microsoft removed the feature that allows one to change the value of data points by dragging the point on a chart.

Customizing Macro buttons
Excel 2003 - Standard feature
Excel 2007 - Feature removed
Comments - One wonders why Microsoft removed. Or did they just forget to leave in?

Stability
Excel 2003 - Very few reports of crashes
Excel 2007 - Frequent user group reports of crashes and not being able to save files
Comments - Looks like Microsoft rushed a product to market that wasn't ready for prime time.

File opening time
Excel 2003 - No problems
Excel 2007 - Many reports of problems of files not opening or very slow to open
Comments - Files will not appear in Excel 2007 when double clicked and Excel is closed. Primary workaround is to not close Excel or to first open Excel and then open the file.


I hope this answers your question. If it has, please mark this question as resolved.

If you require further assistance, please reply to this post. Or perhaps you have another Microsoft Office question?

Have a great day.
Regards,

Richard
Microsoft Office Specialist Trainer