Need Advice on new Spreadsheet Software.

[swogden]

I've been using Lotus 123, happily, for more than 10 years.

Discovered when I got my Windows 7 laptop, that my version of Lotus 123 cannot be used with Windows 7.
But I could continue to use it on my XP desktop.

Now Microsoft says it will not be supporting the XP operating system after April 14, 2014.  Doesn't mean I can't continue to use it, but eventually, it will be unsafe to use it on the internet.  (No security updates after 4/14/14.)

So I'm facing the reality that I need to find a new spreadsheet software package to replace Lotus 123.

Possible choices:

Excel (not free) -- Microsoft  (Though there is a limited free version)
Work (not free)  -- Microsoft
Apache OpenOffice (free)
Kingsoft Spreadsheets Free
Googles Docs Spreadsheet

Has anyone had experience with any of these?  Would appreciate your comments and suggestions regarding any of these or ones I haven't mentioned but which you used.

I've pretty much concluded that I will not be able to convert my Lotus 123 files (.wk* or .12m) to the new software without jumping through many hoops.

[swogden]

Just found an entry on EHow that says I can convert most Lotus 123 files to OpenOffice Calc relatively easily.  Will have to test it to see if it works well and whether the new file will need to be reformatted.  Also have to check print specifications.

[lguzman1]

 If you use Microsoft Office that would give you all the software. Word, Power Point, Access, Excel which is like lotus. Good luck.

[alamedann]

I'd want to know your primary uses for the software.

Without that, I'll say that I've always used Excel, the personal edition.  I use it exclusively for all my financial information and it works well for those purposes.  I keep track of all my receipts (*bleep*, I know, but it has helped me look at my spending), analyze expenses by category, and have a running tally of how much money I have in my checking account.  I've used Excel in this way for 8 years without any problems.  Of course, my uses are pretty simple.

I know there are people who use it to manage mailing lists, for timesheets, and for databases with limited functionality.

[msmoneybags48]

I am a veteran user of Microsoft Excel.  I have never heard of the others.  I also have a laptop supported by Windows 7.  Lotus 123 was good back in the latter 1990's, but Excel is the way to go.  Just try it.  Or do what I did; I had the Microsoft Office 2010 installed on my laptop.  Good luck.

[demaina]

I personally have always used Excel and the other Microsoft products, though I've heard good things about Open office if you don't want to spend the money.  Having knowledge in using Excel is nice though if you ever have to use someone else's computer since it seems to be the norm.

[Phx0808]

MS Office is the way to go, but it is also the most expensive way to go. I use Open Office because it is free. I wish I could use MS Office.

[gaylasue]

I have been a happy Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.) for many years now.  I used Works prior to going to Excel.  I highly recommend Excel for spreadsheets.

[swogden]

Thank you all for your comments.  Clearly Excel is the one software that you are using and are happy with.

I downloaded Apache OpenOffice and have been trying out their Calc software for spreadsheets.  They say it is comparable with Excel -- not sure if that means it works the same way or that I could move their files into Excel and vice versa without a problem.

I was happy that I was able to read in certain of my Lotus 123 files into Calc, but naturally the format required considerable adjustment.  Took me awhile to figure out how to change things, but once I figured it out, it was pretty straightforward, but more awkward than Lotus.

But there were many missing options missing and I wonder whether they are also missing in Excel as well.

1.  Could not define Titles for the spreadsheets (that would lock in the first X rows and/ or the first y columns) so I could move up and down the spreadsheet or left and right and know what was in each column.

2. My "end" button didn't work.  (I'd click "end" and then the directional arrow and it would take me to the next empty cell in the direction I indicated)

3.  Lotus allows me to define coloring and line emphasis (light lines, bold lines etc) to highlight various cells.  Is this possible in Excel?

I haven't downloaded the instructions for using OpenOffice, but that's my next step.     (Old saying:  when all else fails, read the instructions.) 

Again, thank you for your comments!

[ricdsm]

I just don't think you can beat Excel when it comes to a spread sheet.

[mawhite63]

I use both Excel and Google Spreadsheets, depending on the situation.

If it's just a basic spreadsheet without a lot of data analysis needed, then I'll just use Google spreadsheets.

If I'm working on a database, or need to do pivot tables or work like that, then I'll use Excel.

[sak4kat]

I agree with everyone one here.  Microsoft Excel is by far the premier of all document related software.  Years ago I borrowed a friends disk and installed it on my desktop.  At the time Microsoft allowed up to 5 computers with the same key code.  Maybe you could find someone that has it to save you some $$$.  Eventually I lost computer and while transitioning to a new permanent one I used Google doc's.  Gosh I know how frustrating that is.  I used Microsoft money for years than they discontinued it and everything went to quick-books.  Darnedest thing I bought the contractors version of quickbooks and have no clue where it's even at now.  What a waste.

[lvstephanie]

Thank you all for your comments.  Clearly Excel is the one software that you are using and are happy with.

I downloaded Apache OpenOffice and have been trying out their Calc software for spreadsheets.  They say it is comparable with Excel -- not sure if that means it works the same way or that I could move their files into Excel and vice versa without a problem.

I was happy that I was able to read in certain of my Lotus 123 files into Calc, but naturally the format required considerable adjustment.  Took me awhile to figure out how to change things, but once I figured it out, it was pretty straightforward, but more awkward than Lotus.

But there were many missing options missing and I wonder whether they are also missing in Excel as well.

1.  Could not define Titles for the spreadsheets (that would lock in the first X rows and/ or the first y columns) so I could move up and down the spreadsheet or left and right and know what was in each column.

2. My "end" button didn't work.  (I'd click "end" and then the directional arrow and it would take me to the next empty cell in the direction I indicated)

3.  Lotus allows me to define coloring and line emphasis (light lines, bold lines etc) to highlight various cells.  Is this possible in Excel?

I haven't downloaded the instructions for using OpenOffice, but that's my next step.     (Old saying:  when all else fails, read the instructions.) 

Again, thank you for your comments!

I'm also an Excel user, although I've been thinking of trying out Open Office since it's free, and I too heard it's comparable to Excel. As to your questions, the short answer to all three is yes, Excel can do all of those things although it might not be exactly the same as with Lotus.

1. You don't define titles exactly, in that Excel would see the titles as any other piece of data (sort of). However you do have the ability to freeze certain parts of your spreadsheet into different panes so that as you scroll in one pane, the other pane stays at the same place. So what many people will do is to freeze the top row (their titles) and use the bottom pane to navigate around their data. You can have multiple panes as well, meaning you can also freeze the first column if that too holds titles. One of the nice things with the latest version of Office (starting with 2007, I believe) is that they already have freezing the first row and first column as a button on their "ribbon" (think of it as a menu of buttons) so that you don't have to specify those areas to freeze manually. The only issue I've had (and it's very minor) is that clicking the "Freeze the Top Row" button will freeze the top row of the current view, not the first row of the spreadsheet. So for example if you've been scrolling down your spreadsheet and thought it'd be nice to see the titles, you can't just hit the freeze button or else that top row of data will freeze; rather you must scroll back up to the top of the spreadsheet and then hit that button. BTW, the reason why I said that Excel "sort of" sees the titles as any other piece of data is that there are some other functions in which Excel gives you the option of specifying that the top row is your titles (or headers). For example if you want to sort your spreadsheet based on certain columns, the sort function has a check-box that states "My Data has Headers" which will use the first row as the titles / headers for each column, and you can then use those titles in your sort criteria (so instead of sorting by "Column E", you can sort by "Last Name" instead).

2. End also works with Excel in that hitting End and then a directional arrow will bring you to where the "chunk" changes. What I mean by "chunk" is a line of contiguous cells that either all have data or all are empty. So if your spreadsheet has all of the cells filled out, you can hit End + Down Arrow to get to the next blank cell at the bottom of your spreadsheet. But this also works with blank cells as well. So what I've sometimes done is use both of these tricks to fill in some formula in a column. Let's say that I want an Average in Column C with Column A being the Count and Column B being the Occurrences (thus Col. C = Col. A / Col. B). I've already been filling out this spreadsheet, so I just need to update a few rows with the latest data. So in Col. A, I'll hit End+Down to bring me to the next blank row. I can fill in Col. A and B with the new data. And when I'm finally done, I can move to Col. C (which are all blank for the new rows I've added), hit Shift-(End+Up) to move up to the last row with data highlighting all of the blank cells below (because I held down shift while using the End navigation), and finally hit Ctrl-D to Fill Down the formula from the last row that had this formula to the last row of the new data I just added.

3. Excel has what is known as conditional formatting in which a cell can have a different format based on pieces of data in other parts of the spreadsheet. So you could set it so that cells in your Profit column will have a red, bold font if it's value is less than zero. Or you could extend it so that the entire row gets a pink background color as well. In the latest version, they also allow for color gradients (eg green is your high, yellow is your average, and red is your lowest, with the colors gradually changing based on how close they are to each level), or icon sets which has the same idea except that the cell gets an icon (thumbs up, thumbs sideways, thumbs down for example) based on the data in a given range.

[kapeh12]

Thank you all for your comments.  Clearly Excel is the one software that you are using and are happy with.

I downloaded Apache OpenOffice and have been trying out their Calc software for spreadsheets.  They say it is comparable with Excel -- not sure if that means it works the same way or that I could move their files into Excel and vice versa without a problem.

I was happy that I was able to read in certain of my Lotus 123 files into Calc, but naturally the format required considerable adjustment.  Took me awhile to figure out how to change things, but once I figured it out, it was pretty straightforward, but more awkward than Lotus.

But there were many missing options missing and I wonder whether they are also missing in Excel as well.

1.  Could not define Titles for the spreadsheets (that would lock in the first X rows and/ or the first y columns) so I could move up and down the spreadsheet or left and right and know what was in each column.

2. My "end" button didn't work.  (I'd click "end" and then the directional arrow and it would take me to the next empty cell in the direction I indicated)

3.  Lotus allows me to define coloring and line emphasis (light lines, bold lines etc) to highlight various cells.  Is this possible in Excel?

I haven't downloaded the instructions for using OpenOffice, but that's my next step.     (Old saying:  when all else fails, read the instructions.) 

Again, thank you for your comments!

I started using OpenOffice several years ago when MS changed to their docx/xlsx formats and my 2000 version no longer could read it (and I refused to spend the extra money on the overpriced software for the very basic stuff I use it for at home).

OO Calc does pretty much all the same things Excel does - the only things I've found is when opening a spreadsheet with functions defined, not all the functions work.  I'm sure Calc has a way to upgrade the commands, but I haven't done that as I didn't have the need.

As the above poster indicated, Calc will freeze panes to allow vertical and horizontal scrolling.  To get both simultaneous, highlight the upper left inside corner of the area you want to scroll, then select "Window" > "Freeze".  If you make the top row your column headers, and column A your row titles, highlight cell B2 and freeze - you'll see the axis highlight and that's where your scrolling will begin.  If you only want one directional scrolling, then select the row below or to the right of the scroll point and select the Freeze option.

For moving - I find it easiest to use Ctrl + one of the arrow keys - this will take you to the top, bottom, left, right ends of the data.  If there is a break (blank space) it'll stop at the blank space, then you hit it a second time to continue along whichever directional line you go.

For the highlighting - play around with the conditional formatting (also available in Calc).  That is found on "Format" > "Conditional Formatting".  Once set, you should be able to use the formatting brush (looks like a paint brush) to copy the cell with the formatting and paste it everywhere you want to apply that formatting (if that doesn't work, then it's a straight copy/paste function).  You can apply the formatting to multiple cells by highlighting them, or apply it to a single cell and paint or paste the formatting where ever else it's needed.

All the above functions are also available in Excel as well.

I've used both - I use Excel for work, and OO at home.  Personally MS's new ribbon menu bugs the heck out of me.  I've never liked it and even after years I still can't find common functions I use as they were put in the most illogical place possible.  I prefer the OO menus as at least I can still find everything I need to use regularly (but that's just me).  I also find I don't have to turn off all the MS "user-friendly features" to be able to use the product like I do on Excel each time I upgrade.

Plus OO is free.  Can't beat that.

If you are tight on funds, I'd recommend working a bit more with Calc to see if you can get comfortable with it.  You'll have the same learning curve with Excel - it sounds, so it's best to learn on the freeware.

OO does allow you to save your files in different formats including the Excel formats for various editions, so you'll be able to share your spreadsheets with people who don't use OO.

Good luck with your endeavor!

[o2bnocn]

I would recommend using Excel. That is the only one I have ever used.