[Solved] Opening Excel program

[ronfrank]

I am having a problem opening an excel budgeting program - the buttons won't work. I am not technically oriented but understand there are problems sometimes. I am wondering if I can do anything to make it work - or do I need to get excel
Ron

[hol.sten]

the buttons won't work.

OOo cannot execute VBA macros from excel.

Instead of using Excel you can first give the OpenOffice.org 2.4, Novell Edition e-Media Kit a try.

[ronfrank]

Thanks - I downloaded the Novell program but it ended up in a folder on my desk top. I am not to technical - can you tell me how to make it run like a normal program?
Ron

[Hagar Delest]

Don't you see any setup.exe file?
It may be a good idea to uninstall the current version of OOo because it's not really the same build, better avoid parallel versions.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[ronfrank]

Sure - like I said, I'm not too technical. I never downloaded a program that showed up as a file.

Now, my problem is opening the zip - it is huge and keeps stopping before it is completed. Any ideas?

[ronfrank]

I got it installed - 7-Zip makes a world of difference in Vista

But, my program still doesn't work. The buttons wiggle now but still don't function. The program I am using won't even work with Office 2007 - only 2003.
Does anybody know of any other options?

[Villeroy]

Think of two different looms (Excel, OOo). One can weave Persian carpets (xls), another one can weave Afghans (ods) and 95% of all Persian design pretty well. Both machines can be driven by hand (type, point and click) or by punch tape driven mechanics (VBA and UNO). Now it is one thing to improve Persian carpets on the Afghan loom (let OOo produce more compatible xls). But it is a completely different thing to feed the Afghan loom mechanics (OOo) with a Persian punch tape (VBA) and make the loom operate as if the tape were encoded for an Afghan punch tape reader(UNO). This is even more difficult if the manufacurer of the Persian loom (Microsoft) puts all the mechanics into an unbreakable black box (closed machine code instead of open sources).

[Hagar Delest]

I still don't understand how you've installed OOo. There is no need of any archive manager, just run the .exe.

For the new MS Office format, see here: MS Office 2007 file format (docx, xslx, pptx, ppsx).

[ronfrank]

Thanks everyone. I do understand more - but not how I installed it. Didn't I have to unzip it to run the setup? It is working.
I guess I will have to get one of those old Persian looms, though, for this rug.

[Villeroy]

Thanks everyone. I do understand more - but not how I installed it. Didn't I have to unzip it to run the setup? It is working.
I guess I will have to get one of those old Persian looms, though, for this rug.

The program I am using won't even work with Office 2007 - only 2003.

Yes, the old loom of 2003 seems to be the only option. I remember a particular week in 1998 when I spent the nights to work around the differences between MS Office '95 and '97. Most of my VBA code did not do exactly the same thing in the new version as it used to do in the old one.

A third party application can easily control an installed office application by feeding a VBA punch tape into the Excel application. But OOo can not digest arbitrary VBA command as if it where Excel itself.