Chip Special: HTML & Java/Chip-Special_1997-01_HTML-a-Java.bin/viewers/excel7vw/disk1/xlview1.cab/Xlview/Xl95info.txt

Text File | 1995-12-07 | 15.1 KB | 255 lines

WhatÆs in Microsoft« Excel for Windows« 95?
-------------------------------------------

A spreadsheet is used to view, manage, analyze, and chart data.  It is used to simplify
your work and increase your productivity.  Microsoft Excel is the spreadsheet
innovation leader.  With over 19 million users, Microsoft Excel has been chosen the
overwhelming favorite by customers worldwide.  Consistently, Microsoft Excel has
been the most award winning spreadsheet for both Microsoft Windows and Apple
Macintosh. Throughout the years, Microsoft Excel has provided continual innovation
and has endeavored to drive the spreadsheet category forward by marrying customer
feedback and technology expertise.

This new version is no exception.  Microsoft Excel for Windows 95 is a spreadsheet
designed specifically to provide users with the tools they requested. Microsoft Excel
for Windows 95 helps users get their jobs done, no matter what job they're doing.
There were two primary goals in designing Microsoft Excel 95:
1) Be the best spreadsheet for Windows 95
2) Respond to user requests by making Microsoft Excel for Windows 95 Faster,
Easier, Richer, More integrated, and More Customizable.

This guide gives you a brief summary of many of the features and functionality of
Microsoft Excel 95.  For more information on Microsoft Excel or to see some
sample files, visit the Microsoft Excel Viewer Experience area of the Microsoft
Excel Home Page on the Internet (http://www.microsoft.com/MSExcel) or
Microsoft Excel Forum on MSN (Go MSExcel).

Faster
-----
Microsoft« Excel for the Windows« 95 operating system is the fastest version of
Microsoft Excel to date.  Microsoft Corp. devoted approximately 25 percent of the
total development effort to make the most commonly used features of Microsoft Excel
faster.  Critical spreadsheet operations, such as formula recalculation, are considerably
faster than they were in Microsoft Excel version 5.0 (approximately 50 percent
faster*).  In addition, common operations, such as charting, cut, copy and paste, and
opening and saving files, are from 20 percent to 600 percent faster.

Easier
-----
o  Consistency with the operating system makes the transition to Windows 95 easy and
   allows users to take full advantage of the functionality of Windows 95.
o  The user interface of Microsoft Excel allows users to feel as comfortable using
   Microsoft Excel as they are using Windows 95, and allows Microsoft Excel to
   take advantage of many of the productivity benefits provided by Windows 95.
o  The 32-bit Microsoft Excel speeds user activity by allowing for true pre-
   emptive multitasking making it easy for users to accomplish tasks in two
   applications at once.  By virtue of being a true 32-bit application, Microsoft
   Excel also is able to take advantage of Windows 95 capabilities that are
   useful to customers, such as having access to a virtually unlimited amount of
   memory and resources.  This means users will not be constrained in usage or
   file size.
o  Long file names allow users to more easily find and identify files with truly
   descriptive names.
o  Plug and Play capabilities help ensure that Microsoft Excel will respond
   correctly to the loss of a network or to changes in display settings.
o  Universal Naming Convention path names allow users to open or link to
   files out on the network without first mapping to a drive.  Universal
   Naming Convention names are especially useful for macros and cell formulas
   that will be distributed to other users.
o  Drag scraps to the desktop and back into Microsoft Excel.   Users can
   simply drag a range of a Microsoft Excel work sheet to the desktop for quick
   access to important numbers or for temporary storage when transferring
   information between applications.

Increased ease of discovery and more intuitive tools allow users to get more out of
their spreadsheets.

o  Answer Wizard helps users discover how to use the tools in Microsoft Excel
   to get their work done.  Answer Wizard lets users ask questions in their own
   words and provides the best form of assistance for that question.
o  Quick Tips provides in-context help for dialog-box settings, rather than
   forcing users to read help screens in a different window.
o  Interactive Answers automatically takes the user directly to the right
   command or setting to accomplish the task at hand.
o  Step-by-Step Answers provides detailed, step-by-step help to aid users in
   accomplishing simple tasks.
o  Visual Answers explains a larger process or provides a more thorough
   explanation of functionality in the product.
o  TipWizard« assistant watches users as they work and provides tips and
   suggestions to get work done more quickly.
o  Getting Results Manual provides guidance for getting work done rather
   than providing an explanation of each feature in Microsoft Excel.
o  Animated Visual Feedback helps users better understand the results of
   commands.  In past versions, these actions might have happened too quickly,
   and caused confusion for the user.
o  Scroll Tips helps users navigate more precisely through their spreadsheet by
   providing tips on the scroll bar that tell users which row or column they
   will see in the spreadsheet.
o  Resizable scroll bars automatically adjust to the length and width of the data
   in a worksheet and prevent users from hyper-scrolling past their data.
o  Auto-Outline provides users with an easy and automatic way to view
   summary information, or to see a detailed view of their data.
o  Workbook Table of Contents allows users to easily navigate through the
   sheets in a workbook.  Users simply right mouse-click on the VCR-style
   controls to display a workbook table of contents.

New tools help streamline multistep processes and make routine tasks automatic.

o  AutoCorrect speeds up data entry by correcting common typing errors "on
   the fly".  Microsoft Excel 95 shares a correction list with the rest of the
   Microsoft Office family of products.
o  AutoComplete eliminates data-entry errors and speeds repetitive data entry
   by automatically completing an entry (based on previous entries) as the first
   few letters in a cell are typed.  Right-click the cell to get a drop-down list of
   previous entries from which to choose.
o  Improved Drag and Drop now allows users to move or copy data by
   dragging data between worksheets, across workbooks, to the desktop, or to
   other applications (without the need to tile applications).
o  Enhanced Drag and Plot allows users to drag data across worksheet tabs to
   add new information directly onto a chart.
o  Cell Tips automatically pop up when a user hovers the mouse over a cell
   containing a note.  Cell Tips helps users document their own sheets or
   provide comments on another userÆs work.
o  Number formats by example allow users to choose exactly how their
   numbers will appear on their work sheet before they apply it to the data.

Richer
-----
More analysis tools provide the depth and versatility needed for customers to get their
job done, no matter what job they are doing.
o  Spreadsheet Solution Templates make it easy to get started in Microsoft
   Excel.  New templates include the following:  invoicing, purchase orders,
   time sheets, expense tracking, financial reports and cash flow, personal
   budgeting, mortgage calculation, car leasing, sales quotes, and change-
   requests tracker.
o  Template Wizard with Data Tracking allows users to easily turn their
   existing spreadsheets into templates.  It also helps users set up an automatic
   system to track important template fields in a separate database.
o  AutoFilter with Top 10 extends the already popular
   list-management feature in Microsoft Excel by providing customers with an easy
   way to see the highest or lowest (best or worst) items in a list.
o  AutoCalculate is always displayed on the status bar and allows users to get a
   quick average, count, min, max or sum of their data by displaying the result
   of highlighted cells.
o  PivotTable« dynamic views, the ultimate way to view data
   multidimensionally.  Users can instantly rearrange their data by just dragging
   and dropping their spreadsheet data headings.  The PivotTable« Wizard
   guides the users through the process of building a summary table of their
   data.
o  The 50 percent faster* recalculation engine allows users to work more
   efficiently by cutting analysis time in half.
o  Charting lets users see a graphical display of spreadsheet data making it
   even easier to analyze information.
o  Data Map allows users to analyze information visually by creating a map to
   display geographic-based data.
o  Multiple data layers provide users with the tools they need to see
   relationships between their data points by displaying a graphical
   representation of multiple data points.
o  Pinpoint maps let users automatically plot their customersÆ locations on a
   map simply by providing their zip codes (as in a customer database).
o  PlacePin allows users to mark locations of stores or customers manually by
   placing a pushpin in the map.  PlacePin maps are saved so they can be
   applied to any other map.

Analysis tools allow teams to work together easily.

o  Shared Lists make team collaboration a snap by allowing multiple users to
   enter or edit data in the same file at the same time.
o  OLE Properties, such as the values in important cells, are exposed so they
   can be listed in views of an exchange folder.  Properties allow users and
   organizations to more easily manage their documents.
o  Post to Microsoft Exchange Folder makes it easy for users to publish a
   file directly to a Microsoft Exchange public folder, so that users have access
   to the information they need to get their jobs done.
o  Notes/FX  support provides the ability to exchange data between Microsoft
   Excel worksheet cells and fields in a Notes form.
o  Scenario Manager allows users to work together to perform what-if
   analysis.
o  Auditing Toolbar allows users to easily share spreadsheets by providing
   visual tools that allow a user to understand and navigate through another
   userÆs formulas.
o  Send Mail and Routing provides users with an easy way to mail documents
   directly from within an application.

More Integrated
--------
Integration and consistency increase across members of the Office family.

o  OLE Drag and Drop allows users to drag and drop elements anywhere
   within Microsoft Excel across worksheets, between workbooks, to other
   applications (without tiling), and to the desktop.
o  Office Binders provide users an easy way to store and print documents from
   different applications as a single file.  A binder could contain documents
   from Microsoft Excel, Word and the PowerPoint« presentation graphics
   program and even documents from some Office-compatible products
   and print them as a single document with consecutive page numbers.
o  Access Forms allow users to access the robust forms in Microsoft Access to
   simplify data entry into a database stored in Microsoft Excel.
o  Access Reports let users effortlessly create complex group reports, or even
   mailing labels, from their lists or databases in Microsoft Excel.
o  Convert to Microsoft Access enables users to painlessly turn a flat-file
   database into a relational database with the click of a button.  A wizard
   imports the Microsoft Excel list into Microsoft Access and automatically
   creates relational tables for the user.
o  PivotTable dynamic views in Microsoft Access allow users who keep their
   databases in Microsoft Access to harness the power of the analysis tools in
   Microsoft Excel to make great business decisions.
o  File Open with FindFast is consistent across all Office applications.  In addition
   to file-management features, such as renaming and deleting files, File Open
   provides users lightning-fast searches through large numbers of files to find the
   one they are looking for.
o  Improved Print Dialog Box is consistent across all Office applications and
   makes it easier for users to print Microsoft Excel documents (even to collate
   multiple copies).
o  Dialog Box and Toolbar consistency between the members of the Office
   family and the Windows 95 operating system helps to ensure that users feel
   comfortable working in their applications.
o  More shared resources.  Almost 16 MB of resources are shared between the
   Office family of applications letting users save hard drive space and allowing
   them to share tools and learning across all applications.

More Customizable
----------
Enhanced help and new data-access tools provide the most robust environment for
creating customized solutions.

o  Enhanced Visual Basic« for Applications Help.  Based on the Visual Basic
   programming system, Applications Edition, introduced in Microsoft Excel
   5.0, this feature makes it easier than ever to create custom solutions.
o  Visual Basic for Applications Sample Code will provide better examples
   than ever before and will allow developers to cut and paste prewritten and
   pretested code into their own solutions.
o  Data Access Objects lets developers use the Microsoft Access database
   engine to write powerful solutions to bring data into Microsoft Excel for
   analysis, or even create and modify databases.
o  More granular protection settings let developers more easily bullet-proof
   their custom solutions.
o  Modeless Debug Window allows developers to switch to other files or sheets,
   and access all commands while debugging their code.
o  Improved Microsoft Excel Object Model provides control of new features,
   such as OLE Properties, as well as commonly requested developer features, such
   as mouse cursor shapes and password-style dialog boxes.

Painless Transition
-----------
o  The same file format as Microsoft Excel 5.0 helps to ensure an easy
   transition from Microsoft Excel 5.0 to Microsoft Excel 95 by eliminating the
   need for converters.  Maintaining the same file format also will allow users to
   seamlessly share files with those not yet running Windows 95 or Microsoft
   Excel 95.
o  Forward compatibility guaranteed to the next version of Microsoft Excel.
   Microsoft Excel 95 includes built-in support for future converters to allow
   compatibility with future versions of Microsoft Excel.
o  Lotus« 1-2-3« and Quattro Pro filters make it easy to make the transition
   from the latest versions of Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro.

* Based on Microsoft evaluations using a 486/33 with 16 MB of RAM.

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Microsoft, Windows, PivotTable, TipWizard, PowerPoint and Visual Basic are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Lotus and 1-2-3 are registered trademarks and Notes/FX and Notes are trademarks of Lotus Development Corp.
Quattro Pro is a trademark of Borland International Inc.