In fact, Microsoft is looking forward to the next version of Office. I
suspect a lot of issues in 2007 will not be addressed until that next
version or later. Issues like the color compatibility will be left alone by
MS, and maybe only addressed by a developer who is frustrated by the problem
and designs a workaround. Microsoft's user statistics probably told them
that 98% of users never adjusted their color palette in Excel 2003; this is
the same famous 98% who never adjusted their menus or toolbars, and now we
have the ribbon.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


"JCooper" wrote in message
...
Thank you for your reply- Appreciated.
Ok- going forward, what can be done to minimize the impact this could have
on the community that has used the Office 2003 product for so long and
relied
on if features and functions (both good and bad)- I understand the
learning
curve to upgrade to Office 2007- but where or how can we get more out the
comp pack to bridges the 2 universes?
Sorry for so long an email- but the issue exist: Microsoft wont look at it
or even acknowledge (there is nothing on their website that covers such an
issue) it really seems that Office 2007 is out--the world should move to
it
ASAP and forget about 2003. The world, cant move that fast which leaves us
in
a pickle to create work arounds.

"Jon Peltier" wrote:

The new Excel 2007 shore is purty, but none of us understand the new
Excel
2007 color system (well, at least I don't). One particular lack of
understanding involves color compatibility. All of my work is either 2000
to
2003 or 2007, nothing important crosses the threshold, so I haven't had
to
learn about it yet.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


"JCooper" wrote in message
...
QUESTION: I can open in Excel 2007 spreadsheets created in Excel 2003,
showing the original colors for fonts, backgrounds and borders.
However,
I
cannot continue using those colors as I expand the spreadsheet with
Excel
2007 because the color palette is completely changed. I am forced to
mix
in
new colors with the old. BTW- we use a GPO to employ the office comp
pack
so
office 2007 users save to 97-2003.

1) Did Microsoft abandon backward compatibility regarding colors, or
am I
missing something?

2) Is there a work-around or an add-on that will do the job?

3) If there is a work-around or add-on can it provide the old classic
set
of 40 colors as the default WHICH WILL OPEN FOR EVERY OLD AND NEW
SPREADSHEET
in Excel 2007 (and not require redoing for each old and new
spreadsheet)?

4) what do we do with Old documents created in excel 2003 when our
company
moves to Office 2007- will MS have a fix for this so we can open the
docs
in
either version and see the same thing in both without worring the
colors
(that indicate data) may be miscinturpreted by a client becuase of
this.

Sorry for the vent---this is frustrating as I see no solution for this.