I have 4 versions (2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007) of Office installed on
my main machine, and they all play well together. The only restriction
of significance is that you can have only one version of Outlook
installed, but this doesn't apply to your situation. If you are
writing code-behind workbooks in NET, you'll have problems associating
the right typelib with your application, but if you aren't doing so,
or don't know what code-behind means, this will not affect you.
Do Excel 2003 and 2007 share Registry keys?
Generally, each version of Excel uses its own set of registry keys.
COM add-ins are listed in the version neutral key for Excel, so the
will be registered regardless of the version in use. This is generally
a good thing, unless you have CAIs that won't work in 2007.
It is quite possible that certain add-ins use the same registry keys
regardless of what version is hosting the add-in. Depending on what
those keys do, this is either a blessing or a curse. Excel 2003 write
is values to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0
while Excel 2007 uses
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0
Any gotchas that I need to be aware of?
When you do the install, be sure to the "keep older versions" option.
By default, the installer will remove the previous version unless told
not to.
Your xls file association may be changed by the installer to point to
2007 rather than 2003. Therefore, if you double-click an xls file icon
in Explorer, it will open the file in 2007 rather than 2003.
If you're feeling intrepid, you can use RegEdit to change the entry in
HKCR to point xls to 2003. If you don't know what you're doing with
the registry, do go and play around. RegEdit has no "undo" or "close
without saving" option. Everything is live and if you screw something
up, problems will arise, from minor annoyances all the way to being
unable to start Windows.
You can also use /regserver to restore the xls file association back
to 2003. However, this may change other setting that you don't want to
change. Even in the worst case, both 2003 and 2007 will work, but you
may lose some custom settings. Close all applications, go to the
Windows Start menu, choose Run, and enter the following:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Excel.exe" /regserver
and click OK. The quotes should be entered as shown, and there is a
space character after the last quote before the / character, and no
space following the / character. You may need to change the path to
Excel.exe. To find the correct path, open XL 2003, open VBA, CTRL G to
display the Immediate window, and enter the following and the press
ENTER:
?Application.Path
That is the folder in which Excel.exe resides. Append "\Excel.exe" to
this path to get the full file name, as required with /regserver, of
Excel.exe.
Will some VBA (same or different) be available when I press alt+F11 in Excel
2007 if I install only Excel 2007?
Even if you install just Excel (not the entire Office suite), you'll
get nearly all the libraries you need. Of course, you won't get, for
example, the PowerPoint libraries, but you'll get all the shared
libraries (Scripting, XML, ADO, etc).
Will installing Excel 2007 after 2003 impact the VBA that I access when I
press alt+F11 in Excel 2003?
99.9% of code that works in XL2003 will work without modification in
XL2007. While the Excel object model changes from one version to the
next, the VBA language itself hasn't changed since VBA6 (Office 2000)
and the editor hasn't changed since it was introduced in Office 97, so
you'll be using the same old VBA (and whether that is good news or
heartbreakingly bad news is a matter of opinion).
Will IE6 continue to use Excel 2003, for example when I download CSV data
from an online bank account?
I assume that IE6 uses whatever program is associated with the "csv"
extension. After installation, this association might point to 2007,
not 2003. You can restore it back to 2003 by using the /regserver
switch, as described above.
Will I be able to uninstall Excel 2007 without affecting Office/Excel 2003?
Are there any gotchas to be aware of?
I've done scores of reinstallations with all the different versions of
Office on various machines with various operating systems, and
generally speaking, you can uninstall 2007 without damaging your 2003
install. Any problems that might arise can be solved by:
1) Running Excel 2003 with the /regserver switch as described above,
or,
2) Using Detect And Repair on the Help menu in XL2003.
(I don't know if VBA is integrated with Excel code, or if it is installed
separately. I know that there is a separate VB product. I don't think I'm
asking about that.)
"
VB" comes in many flavors.
VB Script, used for scripting shell
operations and html in web pages. VB6, the last version of "classic"
VB, now considered quite obsolete (but clung to desperately, almost as
if a cult, by a few hold outs who can't embrace change), VBA, which
exists internal to an application such as Excel and doesn't exist as a
stand-alone product, and VBNET a/k/a VB2008, which is the "real"
VB
for the NET framework. Upgrading to XL 2007 will not change any of
these configurations that you might have installed.
If you are developing workbooks that will be distributed to users who
do not have Excel 2007, I would recommend that you use 2003 for the
development effort. You can maintain compatibility if you use 2007,
but a few things may fall through the cracks. As a general rule,
always develop code in the earliest version that you must support.
I am only concerned about system-wide issues that might arise -- things that
might break or work differently after installing (just) Excel 2007.
I can't give you a guarantee that you won't have any problems at all,
but any problems that might arise are minor and can be fixed quite
easily manually or with /regserver. (As you might have guessed by now,
/regserver can absolve you of any number of sins).
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
Excel Product Group, 1998 - 2010
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)
On Sun, 4 Oct 2009 12:28:07 -0700, "JoeU2004"
wrote:
I have Office/Excel 2003 on Win XP SP3.
I would like to install (just) Excel 2007 (not Office 2007) on the same
computer (standalone laptop).
I have found a 2008 posting with a reference to an MS KB that suggests this
is possible as long as 2007 products are installed after 2003 products,
which would obviously be the case for me.
But that is not always the complete story.
Also, I am not an expert with Win XP and Office installations. I only get
them pre-installed on new computers that I purchase. So I want to be sure
that if I can install just Excel 2007 on the same computer with Office/Excel
2003, it is virtually turn-key and idiot-proof.
Can anyone share their personal experiences with doing what I want to do?
Any gotchas that I need to be aware of?
(Besides being sure that I don't use the default path when installing Excel
2007.)
Do Excel 2003 and 2007 share Registry keys?
Will IE6 continue to use Excel 2003, for example when I download CSV data
from an online bank account?
Will Win XP continue to use Excel 2003 when I click on a ".csv" and ".xls"
file?
Will installing Excel 2007 after 2003 impact the VBA that I access when I
press alt+F11 in Excel 2003?
Will some VBA (same or different) be available when I press alt+F11 in Excel
2007 if I install only Excel 2007?
(I don't know if VBA is integrated with Excel code, or if it is installed
separately. I know that there is a separate VB product. I don't think I'm
asking about that.)
Will I be able to uninstall Excel 2007 without affecting Office/Excel 2003?
Are there any gotchas to be aware of?
(Please answer the last paragraph only if you have personal experience doing
so.)
I can deal with issues involving sharing files between Excel 2007 and Office
2003 products. That is not a problem for me. I will probably use Excel
2007 just for isolated experiments.
I am only concerned about system-wide issues that might arise -- things that
might break or work differently after installing (just) Excel 2007.
TIA.