I would not rush into getting an upgrade. First, study what the new features are and determine if you really need them. A lot of software upgrades have new security features built into them and although they supposedly make your computer experience safer, I would still wait until they have been released for a while and read about other people’s experiences with the upgrade.

I have found that by keeping antivirus software and a firewall on my computer as well as running TuneUp Utilities once in a while, my computer keeps running well. Plus you should get enough memory. More memory will make computer usage much easier and faster for you. It’s a worthwhile investment. Hey time is money!

Windows users get small fixes through Windows Updates on a regular basis and these have not been problematic for me although maybe others have had problems. I also have Firefox updates every once in a while and they have not been problematic either. But I would love to hear comments from others about this, if you have had problems.

Let me give you a personal anecdote related to recently attempting to upgrade iTunes and how I can no longer use it on my computer.

I’ve been using iTunes for my iPod shuffle for several years now. No problems whatsoever. So about 2 months ago, I was going to import a few songs and mp3 files into my shuffle via the iTunes interface on my computer. There was an upgrade button that came up and I must have been tired and needed some coffee, as I allowed the upgrade to proceed, not following my own advice! Well little did I know at the time, this was the beginning of the end of the functionality of iTunes on my computer!

After the upgrade, iTunes no longer saw my iPod. So I haven’t been able to add or delete songs or files since then. So I decided to uninstall iTunes and reinstall an older version. When finishing that task, a new problem occurred. This one was an error message that the program could not find a folder called iTunes in My Music folder and so when I manually created the iTunes folder, it still couldn’t see it. And another message stated to consult support.

Great! All these errors and messages were really helpful. Sure did make my day.

So I gave up and decided it was hopeless on my PC. I relegated iTunes to my laptop and installed it there. And now I have even another new problem. iTunes now tells me it can only use one library for my songs. That means the library of songs I installed from my desktop must be erased and iTunes will then be happy to let me install a whole bunch of new songs and files on my laptop.

Whoopee! I’m just thrilled about having the opportunity to reinstall my music and spend more time quality time with iTunes as I once again put my music back on my Shuffle after erasing everything because iTunes wants me to spend even more quality time with it, as I already have throughout all of these hours of upgrade stupidity.

So there’s my tale. Let me know yours. All I know is over the years as I have read reviews on, for example, Norton Systemworks, and the versions seem to get worse as the years progress and people have more problems as they upgrade. Of course, this is not scientific, but anecdotal. However, it rings true for many as you’ll surely find out if you do your research and read about other people’s experiences with upgrades.

Overall, go to Amazon.com and read the reviews for any software you might be thinking of buying or upgrading. They usually have a wide variety of comments on their site and you can often get a good sense of what the people think about a product.

So happy or unhappy upgrading.

And Remember To Do Your Research!!!

And feel free to contact me when you’re in trouble. Maybe I can help.

Dr. Stu

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DrStu@DrStuTheTechGuru.com

212-665-5813

There’s a big difference between the 2003 and 2007 versions of Excel and the other MS Office programs as well. As I have been teaching adult students both versions in a computer school, I have seen some interesting reactions to the new version.

It seems that people who have previously used Excel 2003 have quite a large learning curve getting used to the way Excel 2007 is structured. It is graphically enhanced in a major way which is a good thing for people in advertising and media companies and other places that use graphics. But students are finding it difficult to figure out where everything is in the program as the layout in 2007 is so different. In general they seem to like it in the end but it’s a struggle to get there and they still need to use the program quite a bit more before beginning to get comfortable with the new version.

However, those students who never learned the older versions like 2007. Since they have nothing to compare it to, they seem to like the graphical interface and enjoy learning the program.

But I’m seeing an interesting trend that I want to do more research on. I’d like to see how much of the marketplace is buying up licenses to Excel 2007 and MS Office 2007 vs. sticking with the older versions. Without having done much of the research so far, I would have to guess that 2007 is not taking off like Microsoft wanted or expected it to because I see an extremely light signup rate of students eager to learn the 2007 version whereas the 2003 courses are still getting a majority of signups.

Simply stated, if the enrollments at my school represent a sample of what’s going on in the business world, then companies are just not rushing out to buy licenses to Microsoft Office 2007 as they are costly and then training the staff to use the new program is very time consuming and there may be few benefits to the company to use the new version, if they don’t use a lot of graphics in their spreadsheets.

I predict that the older 2003 version of Excel and the other 2003 MS Office programs will remain strong in the marketplace for many years to come even though Microsoft will discontinue support, because it is a very robust version of the program. Many companies simply don’t stand to gain very much and will not want to spend the money to buy it and train their staff to use the new version.

Time will tell!

Excel’s Fill Handle is an interesting and very valuable part of the program. Using it will help you create a series of days of the week, months of the year, successive dates and various number patterns.

In the video below, you’ll see how to use it. Basically, it’s quite easy. All you do is click on the cell and look at the bottom right corner for a very small back square. When you hover over this square, click your left mouse button at the same time and drag it to the right or down, and you’ll see it write the days of the week or the months, etc. for you. Using this feature will save you a lot of time especially when you need to create large spreadsheets.

USING EXCEL’S FILL HANDLE

Saving Excel files in the new 2007 version has opened up Pandora’s box. The new 2007 program has created a new file extension for Excel to use. It’s called XLSX as compared to XLS in the 2003 and earlier versions. This has resulted in some compatibility issues in regards to saving files in 2007 that are to be opened in 2003 or earlier versions.

What you must do now is save it as an Excel 97-2003 Wookbook file and it will open up in the earlier versions with no problem. But what may occur are various compatibility issues where some of the formatting or other graphics will be either non existing, altered or be unable to have changes made to them.

The video below will show you how the new conditional formatting features of Excel 2007 will either not be displayed or will be altered when you save your file as an earlier version.

You’ll come away with a good understanding of this very important issue in Excel 2007.

SAVING FILES IN EXCEL 2007

The new version of Excel poses some challenges for users. It’s a very mixed bag as to people liking the new version and not liking it. As with everything in life or many things in life, there are pros and cons.

The Ribbon is the first new feature to manage, as most of your work will start from here. In general, the ribbon is a breakout of the menus and toolbars that exist in the 2003 and earlier versions. Each of the features that have been located on the 2003 menus or toolbars are now located in various places all over the ribbon within tabs and groups.

Please take a look at one of my videos below to get a good understanding of how this Ribbon is organized.

It’s fairly logical in its design but it’s often hard to find where things are. It’s definitely a time on task adventure to learn it. You won’t be able to learn it by osmosis or subliminal programs in your sleep. And some will like it more than others.

But once you do get the hang of the Ribbon and the other new features in the program, you’ll most likely enjoy it as the graphics you can design with are far superior by leaps and bounds to earlier versions.

And if you’re in a company that uses large databases, Excel has over a million rows and many thousands of columns for you to enter data. Definitely enough to list all of the Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, Subway, Taco Bell, Hardees, Waffle House, Arbys, Wendys, KFC and Burger King menu items with room to spare.

And I actually eat quite a bit of organic food!

But Excel 2007 is pretty cool once you know it. Just check out the enhanced conditional formatting features. They’re great. I’m using them a lot in my spreadsheets.

The Smart Art graphics are also terrific. You can get super creative if you so desire. For graphic designers and those who need to use graphics with their spreadsheets, you’ll love this version.

For those who don’t need any new features and are perfectly satisfied with the 2003 or earlier versions, you probably won’t want to bother learning this version and may not get much value from using it.

I’d recommend downloading a free trial of one of the Office 2007 versions and using it for 2-3 months. From the date you download it, you get 2 months plus the remaining days in that 2nd month to use it for free. The trials last until the last day of the second month.

So enjoy learning and using Excel 2007 and as Obi-Wan Kenobi often said, “May the force be with you.”

WATCH ONE OF THE EXCEL TRAINING VIDEOS BELOW

THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE SAME VIDEO

(Full Screen or Closeup)

THE EXCEL 2007 RIBBON (Fullscreen)

THE EXCEL 2007 RIBBON (Closeup)

When you begin your Excel training and get familiar with the new ribbon in the 2007 version, you’ll also want to learn how to use the new Quick Access Toolbar. This feature alone can save you many hours of time, as it helps you to place any tasks that you perform often, in one place. It’s similar to the toolbars in the previous versions and you can choose to place any function on it that exists in the program.

It is located either directly on top of the ribbon or under it, depending on where you decide you want to put it. You’ll see it on the top left. Point your mouse to it and you’ll see several of the icons that are there. On the right side of the icons, you’ll see a very small triangle that you can click and choose from a list the icons you would like to see appear on the toolbar. Some of the items listed are the New, Open, Save, Print Preview, Undo and Redo.

Watch one of the videos above or below for a good demonstration.

You can, however, add many other icons that are not listed above by customizing the Quick Access Toolbar. There are two ways to do this. One is to click on the Office Button on the top left and then the Excel Options button at the bottom. This will bring you to the Excel Options dialog box where you’ll click on the word “Customize” on the left side. This will bring you to the “Customize the Quick Access Toolbar” area. The other way is click on the small triangle to the right of the toolbar. It will open up a menu and then click on the words, “More Commands.” This will bring you directly to the Excel Options dialog box in the Customize section where you can add or remove items from the Quick Access Toolbar.

On the left pane, click the arrow on top where it says, “Popular Commands” and select “All Commands.” Then you can scroll down the list, which is in alphabetical order, and choose whatever functions in the program that you want to include on your Quick Access Toolbar. Just click on something such as “Hide Columns” for example, and click the word “Add” between the left and right panes and you’ll see Hide Columns appear in the list of icons on the right pane. You can adjust the order that you would like your list of icons to appear in by clicking on the up or down arrow located on the right side of the pane. You can also just choose individual Tab commands only such as the Home Tab or Insert Tab, etc, when you initially click on the arrow where it says, “Popular Commands.”

When you close the dialog box and go back to the main screen, you’ll see the icons you added included on the Quick Access Toolbar. If you want to change the placement of the Quick Access toolbar to be either above or below the ribbon, just click that small triangle on the right side to open the menu, and then click on, “Show Below the Ribbon” or “Show Above the Ribbon.” Overall, it’s very useful to setup your Quick Access toolbar with the functions that you perform regularly as this will make your life a lot easier as you won’t need to search as much for some functions all around the ribbon and its tabs.

WATCH ONE OF THE EXCEL TRAINING VIDEOS ABOVE OR BELOW

THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE SAME VIDEO

(Full Screen or Closeup)

THE QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR (Full Screen)