J-Walk & Associates, Inc.

Back To Work

Well folks, after a 2-year hiatus, I'm back to writing books.

Today was my first day working on the book revisions for Excel 2010. It took me a while to get into the swing of things, but it was actually kind of fun. Even though there aren't a lot of new features in Excel 2010, I'm doing my best to beef up the old books with new material.

I immediately discovered that the template provided by my publisher (Wiley) just doesn't work in Word 2007 or Word 2010. The template has lots of styles, with VBA macros that make it easy to apply those styles. It's all done in a very interactive toolbar which spawns other toolbars. And as we all know, support for those old toolbars pretty much sucks in Office 2007 (and 2010). So my first task was to install Word 2003. And that's what I'll be using to revise these books.

This is probably a very typical problem. Great new software arrives, but solutions that you've used for years stop working so you can't even use that great new software.

I must say that I like Word 2003 much better than the later versions -- especially the ability to load multiple documents in one window. When working with multiple documents, I really don't like having all of those separate windows cluttering my screen.

- Reader Comments -

Following are comments in response to this item.
The most recent comment is at the bottom.

1. By Jon Peltier. Comment posted 15 July, 2009 4:51am

   "Great new software arrives, but solutions that you've used for years stop working so you can't even use that great new software."
   
   That happened with much of my work when 2007 came. Only it wasn't even great, so the pains have not been worth the conversion.
2. By Fred Chidester Sr. Comment posted 15 July, 2009 7:14am

   I have the other problem, I learn the new material, but then having to remember back to versions '97 and 2000 when I'm doing the layouts an templates in 2007. Have viewed some of the items in 2010, I think I'll be good for a year or two.
3. By Toad. Comment posted 15 July, 2009 9:11am

   Can't Wiley lean on Herb Tyson to update the templates? What kind of show are they running?
4. By Dental Moreno Valley. Comment posted 21 July, 2009 12:14am

   Interesting post. It's true, having a great new software doesn't mean that it doesn't have any down side. It is still better to have the old one, but in the long run, you can't use it any more because almost all the people are using the "newest" software.