new way to open .xls files without excel
mark
using excel?
Kevin McClement
search for an Excel file viewer.
tht
Kevin M
>-----Original Message-----
>Does anyone know of a way to open .xls files without
>using excel?
>
Ken Wright
such as the following apps; The following note that contains the list is from a previous post of
Harlan Grove's:-
Viewer:-
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/xlviewer.aspx
List of other apps:-
>As far as functionality goes, I believe that for the casual user, each will be
>more than competent, as probably also will OpenOffice, which is actually free
>and available from www.OpenOffice.org (50MB download)
That's a good point. I'd go further. Depending on the OP's needs, there are
several other freeware, shareware and cheap alternatives that are much smaller
than OpenOffice. These include
ThinkFree Office - http://www.thinkfree.com/
Ability Office - http://www.ability.com/
602 PC Suite - http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/
Easy Office - http://www.e-press.com/
ProPack - http://www.techmarc.co.uk/propack.htm
As-Easy-As - http://www.triusinc.com/
GS-Calc - http://www.jps-development.com/
Sphygmic Spreadsheet - http://www.ds.unifi.it/~stefanin/AGR_2001/SH/sssheet.htm
Note about Sphygmic: you can still download it (apparently legally), but
Sphygmic Software, which created it, seems to have gone out of business. Pity
because I thought it was the best of the small GUI spreadsheets for Windows.
These are all viable alternatives if the OP's needs are modest. If the OP is
going to be doing work at home, the only sensible answer is to buy and use
whatever is used at work. But if it's purely for personal use, then if only a
spreadsheet is wanted, either GS-Calc or Sphygmic are more than adequate. If an
entire suite is wanted, ProPack provides much more than the other alternatives.
BUT DON'T TAKE MY WORD. Many of these packages have online reviews. None measure
up to Excel, but if you haven't used a spreadsheet before and you aren't being
trained to use one at your employer's cost, then Excel, Quattro Pro (and 123 and
OpenOffice) are questionable choices because they're so large. If unsure,
download Sphygmic, and try it out. If it's bewildering, all the other
alternatives (save, perhaps, GS-Calc) would be worse. If it's inadequate, try
out ProPack or 602 Suite. If they're inadequate, you really do need one of the
full-blown spreadsheets, at which point it becomes a question of whom you'd
share files with.
>OpenOffice will open Excel files (Not sure about QP ones), and will also do
>word processing etc like Word.
It doesn't even support .WQ1 files, much less .WB? and .QPW files.
--
Regards
Ken....................... Microsoft MVP - Excel
Sys Spec - Win XP Pro / XL2K & XLXP
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"mark" <mnoel@apollomd> wrote in message news:0a1c01c352b5$1a3c6630$a401...@phx.gbl...
Harlan Grove
>Sure, use the free XLViewer from Microsoft, or download something that will
..
I only have FIRST HAND knowledge that ThinkFree, 602 and ProPack handle multiple
worksheet XLS files (one at a time, and they may not handle all functions and
array formula constructs that Excel provides). Ability and Easy may do so,
dunno. Unlikely As-Easy-As does, but I could be wrong. GS-Calc and Sphygmic
don't for sure.