"Harlan Grove" wrote in message
...

Depending on the complexity of the OP's workbooks and the speed of his/her
Internet connection, OP could try using the free OpenOffice,

http://www.openoffice.org

There are several other freeware and shareware spreadsheet programs that
can
work with .XLS files, though few handle array formulas or external
references. Gnumeric 1.4 does, but it's in beta on Windows.


Hi Harlan,

I could - and should - have given the OpenOffice alternative - Thank you.

Thank you also for the Gnumeric information, although I note from a
response to another recent question that you suggest that waiting until
Gnumeric 1.4's Windows port is more stable.

---
Regards,
Norman