Micosoft Excel

worried_jim

I and the department I work for uses a lot of excel spreadsheets, there are a couple of guys who are a whiz at building /amending them but I really want to be able to do it myself and also get some brownie points for my learning plan this year and I want to be able to do this myself.

Now the dilemma is that most of our docs are set up on MS Excel 2002, my home PC has Office 2000 and we do have a few machines in the office set up for 2007- I know cutting edge.

I was going to teach myself using Excel For Dummies By Greg Harvey but am not too sure which version to get, or should I try and get hold of the software for 2002 for home so I can teach myself and be familiar more of the time with systems at work.

Or if I learn one is it easy to swap the skills between the different (newer) versions?
Any suggestions and advice appreciated. Jim

InsideInsurance

It depends what level of things you are wanting to do.

Basic spreadsheets are fairly similar other than where buttons are located. Slightly more advanced editing etc changes a fair bit between versions. Macro's probably change the most.

2007 probably was a fairly big change as it introduced the ribbon so a big difference on how it looks but only a reasonable change on how it functions. A bigger set of changes happened behind the scenes.

worried_jim

I would need to build spreadsheets and be able to import data into them using macros.

EchoLocation

Excel is Excel, it is still a spreadsheet program so basic everyday usage will be the same no matter which version - although later versions of Excel did introduce additional functions which will not be compatible with earlier versions (the SUMIFS function for example). I'd say it's best to learn with the software version you will be using everyday. And certainly learn and be comfortable using Excel as a spreadsheet program first before you start on the VBA/Macros.

worried_jim

Just got the 2002 dummies book for 99p. Thanks for your advice.