You didn't say how you did it 2003 but here is the xl95 help on it. I have
found that when you need something to run in multiple versions it is best to
develop in the earliest version instead of the latest. I have a client that
has users that only have xl95 so I develop for the lowest common
denominator..

This example sets the status bar text to "Please be patient..." before it
opens the workbook LARGE.XLS, and then it restores the text to the default.

oldStatusBar = Application.DisplayStatusBar
Application.DisplayStatusBar = True
Application.StatusBar = "Please be patient..."
Workbooks.Open filename:="LARGE.XLS"
Application.StatusBar = False
Application.DisplayStatusBar = oldStatusBar

This example adds a new menu item to the Help menu in the Visual Basic
Module menu bar and then sets the status bar text, the Help filename, and
the Help context ID for the new menu item (note that the HelpFile and
HelpContextId properties are available only in Windows).

Set menuObj = MenuBars(xlModule).Menus("Help")
Set newMenuItem = menuObj.MenuItems.Add(Caption:="&Read Me First", _
OnAction:="readmeMacro", _
Befo=1)
newMenuItem.StatusBar = "Read this topic before you begin"
newMenuItem.HelpFile = "C:\xl5\vba_xl.hlp"
newMenuItem.HelpContextID = 65535

--
Don Guillett
SalesAid Software

"Frank" wrote in message
...
When running macros in Excel 7.0 that were built in Excel 2003, the status
bar messages do not display. Status bar messages are critical when
troubleshooting new macros or when troubleshooting macros that do not work
as
well in Excel 2007 as they did in previous Excel versions.

One way around it is to enable update display but that greatly slows down
the macro.

All the macros I have run in Excel 7.0 exhibit this same problem.