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Migrating to Excel 2000 A change of scene, but the weather is the same
Just as you start getting comfortable with a package, the software developer comes out with a new version and the learning curve starts all over again. Fortunately, with Excel 2000, you don’t really have to spend any time at all in learning it if you’ve used Excel before. Actually, the new version isn’t a major upgrade at all the substance and functionality remain the same as before. Even the file format is almost the same and except for losing some arcane links and formulas, you can directly open an Excel 2000 spreadsheet in Excel 97. So compatibility should not be an issue if you share your spreadsheets with other users.
What’s new?
The major changes are in the user-interface, which are in line with the upcoming Windows 2000. Dynamic menus, customizable clip-art and more multi-lingual support are common across the new Office 2000 applications. The file Open and Save dialog boxes have become easier to use with a new Place Bar (similar to what Outlook has had for quite a while), and the Office Assistant has jumped out of its box to become a floating paper clip. Office 2000, like Windows 2000 can install missing or corrupted files from the CD (or over the network) on the fly as and when they are needed.
For the everyday user there’s hardly anything new specific to Excel except for tighter Web integration and the possibility to publish spreadsheets directly to the Internet if you use a Microsoft developed platform. There are lots of new options for formatting charts and making them look more attractive. For the power user, however, Excel now supports Visual Basic 6. This is a major enhancement from the previous version software developers can now develop full-fledged applications in Excel just as could be done with Access in the past.
And, as with every software upgrade, Excel 2000 is really space hungry and will gobble up all that extra space you have in your new hard disk.
Should you upgrade? It isn’t really necessary. But if you do decide to switch to Excel 2000, you don’t have to spend much time learning it.
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