Datasheet

If you’re working an office environment where all the workbooks you produce

with Excel 2007 must be saved in the old 97-2003 file format for compatibility

sake, you can change the program’s default Save setting so that the program

always saves all new workbooks in the old file format. To do this, open the

Save tab of the Excel Options dialog box (Office Button | Excel Options or

Alt+FIS) and then click Excel 97-2003 Workbook in the Save Files in This

Format drop-down list box before you click OK.

Using your macros

The good news is that Excel 2007 supports the creating and running of macros,

using the same Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications of earlier versions. It

even enables you to edit these macros in a version of VBA Editor, if you’re

sufficiently skilled to do so.

The biggest problem with macros comes about if you have a tendency, like

I do, to map your global macros (the ones you save in the PERSONAL.XLSB

workbook so that they’re available when working in any Excel workbook)

onto custom pull-down menus and toolbars. Because Excel 2007 retains only

the single pull-down File menu and Quick Access toolbar, none of the custom

menus and toolbars to which you’ve assigned macros comes over to Excel

2007. This means, that although the macros are still a part of their respective

workbooks and continue to run, you must now run all macros either using

keyboard shortcuts you assigned to them or via the Macro dialog box (click

View | Macros | View Macros or press Alt+WMV or Alt+F8).

You can assign macros to buttons on the Quick Access toolbar and then

run them by clicking their buttons. The only problem is that all macros you

assign to this toolbar use the same generic macro button icon so that the

only way to differentiate the macros is through the ToolTip that appears

when you position the mouse over the macro button.

To assign a macro to a generic macro on the Quick Access toolbar, open the

Customize tab of the Excel Options dialog box (Office Button | Excel Options

or Alt+FIC) and then select Macros in the Choose Commands From drop-down

list box. Excel then displays the names of all the macros in the current work-

book (including all global macros saved in the PERSONAL.XLSB workbook) in

the Choose Commands From list box. To assign a macro to a macro button,

click its name in this list box and then click the Add button. You can then

move the macro button to the desired position on the Quick Access toolbar

with the Move Up and Move Down buttons and, if you so desire, make it part

of a separate section on the toolbar by adding a <Separator> before and after

its button.

Part I: Getting In on the Ground Floor

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