Missing Features in Excel 2008!?

[sonic64]

I was running Excel 2008 on Macbook Pro with Leopard 10.5.1. When I tried to add Y error bars on my column chart, I found that there is no way to customize the error bars. The "custom" feature in Excel 2004 (Mac) and 2007 (PC) is somehow missing in Office 2008.

Any suggestion?

 

[Guest]

Data Analysis is missing can somebody point me out on where to download the add-ins

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I was running Excel 2008 on Macbook Pro with Leopard 10.5.1. When I tried to
add Y error bars on my column chart, I found that there is no way to
customize the error bars. The "custom" feature in Excel 2004 (Mac) and 2007
(PC) is somehow missing in Office 2008. <br><br>Any suggestion?

No suggestions - the feature is missing in XL08.

MacBU is aware of this, of course, and has it on the list to get fixed.
Whether, and if so, when, it gets fixed obviously depends on (a) how
difficult it is to implement, and (2) competing priorities.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Data Analysis is missing can somebody point me out on where to download the
add-ins

First, you can't download the Data Analysis Tools in the Analysis
Toolpak Add-in (ATP) - it comes on your Office install CD (for versions
other than XL08).

Second, where it is on your CD depends on which version of XL you're
talking about...

 

[Richard Jones]

I cannot believe that Excel 2008 no longer supports VB macros. Like them or not they were essential to automating serious spreadsheets. I and I suspect many other serious users will never upgrade until support for VB macros is reinstated. Do you really expect me to rewrite all my spreadsheets using Apple's scripting??

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Richard -

I sympathize with your position, but it should come as no great shock at
this point. The demise of VBA in Mac Office has been widely publicized since
the first rumors of 2008 started to emerge over a year ago and one of the
first *official* announcements to come from MS on the new version

As to what *we* "really expect", well, we don't expect you to do anything
other than what you consider right for your needs. Those participating here
do not work for MS, nor do we have much - if anything - to say about what
the company does/does not choose to do.

You might consider voicing your opinion where it will do more good: Excel
Help> Send Feedback.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I cannot believe that Excel 2008 no longer supports VB macros. Like them or
not they were essential to automating serious spreadsheets. I and I suspect
many other serious users will never upgrade until support for VB macros is
reinstated.

That's certainly one option. Rewriting macros in XL4M, Real Basic or
AppleScript is another option for a subset of users.

I'll certainly use both XL04 and XL08 for the forseeable future.

Do you really expect me to rewrite all my spreadsheets using Apple's
scripting??

Who are you referring to? Everyone who posts here is a user. Use
Help/Send Feedback to tell MS.

However, MacBU is acutely aware of the pain point that dropping VBA has
caused. They made a business decision based on market and resources, and
decided that shipping Office 08 without VBA was a better option than
shipping Office 2010 with VBA.

Not what I wanted either, but I understand the decision.

 

[Ronald Foust]

Saving multiple sheets (up to 100) in pdf format did not work in Excel 2004.

NeoOffice has a neat function to "Export to pdf". Not only will it export multiple sheets, it will also label each page in pdf with the tab name in each sheet in excel.

Is this function in Excel 2008?

 

[ASUlab]

We use pc Office 2003 to build excel pivot charts and then copy them into powerpoint presentations. We can then "drill down" into the underlying pivot table if needed, during the powerpoint. Wondering if MacOffice 2008 has this capability?

 

[Hamad Aljudai]

Ronald,

I can export to PDF using the Print function. Try going to "Print". You'll see a PDF button there. Click Save As and you're done.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

We use pc Office 2003 to build excel pivot charts and then copy them into
powerpoint presentations. We can then "drill down" into the underlying pivot
table if needed, during the powerpoint. Wondering if MacOffice 2008 has
this capability?

No Mac XL version supports Pivot Charts.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Saving multiple sheets (up to 100) in pdf format did not work in Excel 2004.
<br><br>NeoOffice has a neat function to "Export to pdf". Not only will it
export multiple sheets, it will also label each page in pdf with the tab name
in each sheet in excel. <br><br>Is this function in Excel 2008?

Saving a multiple sheet workbook to pdf works in XL08, producing a
multiple page PDF that corresponds to what it would look like printed
out.

The sheet name is displayed in each page by setting the header/footer to
display the sheet name (View/Headers and Footers/Customize Footer/Insert
Sheet Name)

I don't have access to my machine with NeoOffice right now - do you mean
that NeoOffice "label(s) each page in pdf with the tab name in each
sheet in excel" (you mean NeoOffice?) even if a printed version
wouldn't? If so, that would be problem for me.

 

[cwhaley]

Saving multiple sheets (up to 100) in pdf format did not work in Excel 2004.
NeoOffice has a neat function to "Export to pdf". Not only will it export multiple sheets, it will also label each page in pdf with the tab name in each sheet in excel.
Is this function in Excel 2008?

Maybe I'm missing something here, but OS X will let you convert any
document in any application to PDFs. As part of the process you can
even automatically email or fax the resulting PDFs.

Just open your 100 page workbook and select Print from the File menu.
The PDF option is at the bottom on the left of the Print menu. Just be
sure to select the Workbook option if you want to convert all pages.

 

[BobP]

Just installed Office 2008 and came to use Excel. Can't find the following that were in 2004, can any one help?
1. Print Preview command button
2. Page break view
3. How to create a chart with two vertical axes

Also as an observation the Adobe Acrobat "create pdf" tool bar does not do anything now. Have to use print and save as pdf. Time consuming!

 

[entropysounds]

"I found that there is no way to customize the error bars."

Me Too.

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT. Oh, and another huge disappointment is the inability to use EndNote with Word 08. If you do research, you may want to consider waiting to upgrade until they fix some of these seemingly regressive changes.

 

[warteschleifenpianist]

I wanted to make an ordinary line chart. As typically I want to have the dates (years) to which my values belong on the horizontal (category) axis. In Excel 2004 this could be done in the data editor for the chart. In the tab "Series" data could be selected for the category axis labels. In Excel 2008 the data editor for charts is modified, the two tabs are merged, but the option to select data as labels for the category axis is missing. Without this option I cannot create the most ordinary diagrame with Excel 2008, just when I started liking it.

Any answers for this problem?

 

[Phillip Jones, CET]

If your using 2008 there actually is in the Save as Menu (converters) at
least on Word and I suspect on Excel. a choice to save as PDF.

In word I found the pleasant surprise, that unlike all previous versions
to 2004 if for some reason you had a page break inserted, The PDF
would start over as a new Job. In 2008 its interpreted as it should be
and its lightning fast as well (OSX.4.11)

Ronald,

I can export to PDF using the Print function. Try going to "Print".
You'll see a PDF button there. Click Save As and you're done.

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[Ronnie]

I'm looking for the best address book option to store my addresses, notes etc. I'm about to switch to Excel. Is this a good tool for that?
&nbsp;I need to be able to print labels with different addresses on each and be able to do multiply search.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I'm looking for the best address book option to store my addresses, notes
etc. I'm about to switch to Excel. Is this a good tool for that? <br>
&nbsp;I need to be able to print labels with different addresses on each and
be able to do multiply search.

If you don't wish to use Entourage, XL is a capable tool.

Labels should be printed from Word, using the Label wizard, and grabbing
the data from the XL sheet.

See:

http://word.mvps.org/faqs/mailmerge/CreateAMailMerge.htm

and while this is oriented toward WinWord, it's got some good advice:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294684

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Just installed Office 2008 and came to use Excel. Can't find the following
that were in 2004, can any one help? <br>
1. Print Preview command button <br>

Doesn't exist - all print functions are performed by the OS, including
print preview.

2. Page break view <br>

Also doesn't exist any longer - Page Layout view accomplishes most of
the same features. I suspect that their research mirrors the Win side in
that only a small minority of users understood and used Page Break view.

3. How to create a chart with two vertical axes

That appears to be either a bug or feature that was removed. Send
feedback via Help/Send Feedback...

<br><br>Also as an
observation the Adobe Acrobat "create pdf" tool bar does not do anything now.
Have to use print and save as pdf. Time consuming!

*No* add-ins work any more - that's a consequence of not including VBA
this release.