Datasheet

Version Released Comments
10 2001 Known as Excel 2002 (or Excel XP), this version is part of Office XP.
It has a long list of new features, but most of them are of little value
to the majority of users. Perhaps this version’s most significant
feature is its ability to recover your work when Excel crashes.
11 2003 Officially known as Microsoft Office Excel 2003, this version’s new
features are improved support for XML, a new list range feature,
Smart Tag enhancements, and corrected statistical functions.
12 2007 As I write this book, the current version is officially known as
Microsoft Office Excel 2007. This version has many new features,
including new file formats, a revamped user interface, support for
much larger worksheets, a handy page layout view, document
themes, new conditional formatting options, much better-looking
charts, a new table feature, a few new worksheet functions, and
much more.
* Excel 6 doesn’t exist. Beginning with Excel 7, the version numbering was changed so that all Microsoft
Office applications had the same version number.
If you must share a workbook with someone using a version before Excel 2007, save the file
as an XLS file by choosing the Excel 97–2003 Workbook option in the Save As dialog box.
Pay attention to the results of the Compatibility Checker, which appears automatically when-
ever you save your file in this older format. This useful dialog box, shown in Figure 1-2, iden-
tifies potential problems when your workbook is used by someone who has an Excel version
earlier than Excel 2007.
Figure 1-2: The Compatibility Checker helps identify potential compatibility problems.
You can display the Compatibility Checker dialog box at any time by choosing Office ➪
Prepare ➪ Run Compatibility Checker.
Tip 1: Understanding Excel Versions
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