Depends on what you care about. The MS Knowledge Base would have
information about new features.

http://support.microsoft.com/search/...features+Excel
http://support.microsoft.com/search/...features+Excel
http://support.microsoft.com/search/...features+Excel

Also search the google archives for threads on new features in the
various subsequent Excel releases.

Some general comments (based on what I care about):
- Excel 97 supports the same number of rows and columns in a worksheet
as later versions
- There are not many new worksheet functions in later versions
- Help is significantly slower in 2003, but attempts to search the web
for updated information
- Later versions crash less frequently
- Excel 2002 and later allows you to auto recover your work if Excel
does crash
- Excel 2002 and later has enhanced error checking to identify text
that only looks like numbers, ambiguous dates, inconsistent formulas in
a region, unlocked cells containing formulas, etc.
- Excel 2003 significantly improves a number of probability and
statistics calculations, but still has a ways to go.
- Excel 2003 offers a significantly improved random number generator
(worksheet only, not ATP or VBA)
- Excel 2000 adds a VBA Round function that uses ASTM rounding (round
exactly 5 to produce an even rounded number)

I'm sure others have other new features that they care about. If you
don't care about the new features, then you won't find the upgrade to be
worth the money, but as Mike counseled, you should be sure that you have
the latest patches for whatever version you end up using.

Jerry

adphillips wrote:

I have excel 97. Do I really need to update to a new program? (I don't have
alot of usage for excel).