Microsoft Office 2007 is clunky, awkward, and uninformed. Also it seems like it's trying to dress like a Mac. Look, there's nothing cool, hip, or sleek about spreadsheets or databases. Don't kid yourself on this one. Keep it simple.
Most importantly to me though is that Excel 2007 no longer supports dBase IV, the .dbf file type, because they decided that "nobody uses it anymore." It turns out that DBF is one of a hand full full of required files that make up a shapefile in the world of another proprietary, monopolistic software giant: ESRI's ArcGIS. Don't get me wrong, I bought into the ArcMap scene as well, but it baffles me that A) Microsoft did not do their research before giving the axe to DBF, and B) ESRI did not talk to Microsoft about what is to be expected in their next huge software rollout. FAIL. The both of you.
Anyway, Office 2007 was recently loaded onto my machine at work, and I quickly opted to have Office 2003 installed underneath. I can live with 2007 on my computer, but I am not interested in using it (at least Excel) on a regular basis. I decided to go ahead and return Excel 2003 to the default program used to open .xls files:
- From the Start Menu choose Run
- Enter the following (the path may be different on another machine) and hit Enter/OK
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /regserver
That's it. The OFFICE11 directory is where Office 2003 lives, and will now be used to open .xls files with Office 2007 installed as well.Other Options:
- Save an Excel 2007 file as .csv, import the CSV in Access 2007 and export as a DBF. What a lame, unnecessary waste of time.
- Download the free OpenOffice software package. The DBF support from OpenOffice is supposedly much for friendly than Excel ever offered, though I have not gotten around to trying it out.
- Change industries. Open a surf shop.
