Software or Spreadsheet

save-a-lot

interesting thread, thanks all

mkeeley

There's now a demo version of XLAC for anyone who's interested http://www.xlac.co.uk

computerwoman

www.ebuyer.com
cheap m$ works for around a tenner this has spreadsheet on it.
cw.

mkeeley

Not sure how Excel compatible Works is these days, I know a time back it wasn't very, but the latest version may have changed.

You can use OpenOffice with it but there a couple of minor quirks, the main one shows up in the expenses pie chart where the expense type text isn't displayed correctly. Also it takes an age to open linked workbooks, in Excel it's instant but in OO it took 20-30 seconds. Once opened all seemed fine though.

The other alternative is to check eBay for either an OEM or Student & Teachers version of Office 2003. Although it will cost a bit more than a tenner you'll get the full versions of Excel, Word etc. Ignore the Buy It Now's and go for the auctions you actually bid on, you'll probably get it cheaper that way. The only other thing to make sure is that it hasn't been activated as I'm not sure if that's transferable and that t comes with its COA to make sure it's not a pirate copy.

Marc

mkeeley

As a follow up I checked the Works discussion forum on the Microsoft site and the spreadsheet component still doesn't sound compatible enough. For example charts often won't display, no hyperlinks and most major I don't think you can link workbooks. So it looks like an OEM/Student & Teachers version of Office would be the way to go.

Marc