Faster calculations and quicker formatting for presentations are coming with Excel 2007, the next version of Microsoft’s spreadsheet application. Of the Office 2007 client applications, Excel 2007 incorporates the most improvements over its predecessor and could benefit both experts and occasional users. However, all users will need to change work routines for the new UI, and Excel’s new graphics features can’t substitute for sound data presentation.

More New Client Features than in 2003

While less widely used than Outlook and Word, Excel remains a critical application for many business users. Historically, Excel’s vanguard of users was financial analysts and others who use its calculation and charting capabilities to define and evaluate numerical models. However, Excel is also pressed into service as a desktop database management tool, where it’s often used to consolidate data across multiple systems and occasionally even as the primary data store for smaller data sets.

Excel 2007 improves all of the product’s main functions:

Faster calculations and quicker formatting for presentations are coming with Excel 2007, the next version of Microsoft’s spreadsheet application. Of the Office 2007 client applications, Excel 2007 incorporates the most improvements over its predecessor and could benefit both experts and occasional users. However, all users will need to change work routines for the new user interface, and Excel’s new graphics features can’t substitute for sound data presentation.

More New Client Features than in 2003

While less widely used than Outlook and Word, Excel remains a critical application for many business users. Historically, Excel’s vanguard of users was financial analysts and others who use its calculation and charting capabilities to define and evaluate numerical models. However, Excel is also pressed into service as a desktop database management tool, where it’s often used to consolidate data across multiple systems and occasionally even as the primary data store for smaller data sets.