Q. Can Exl-Plan be used
with Excel 2007?
Yes, all existing versions and editions of Exl-Plan run very satisfactorily
in compatibility mode with Excel 2007. There should be no problems
even if you are using a very old release of Exl-Plan and/or upgrading from
an elderly version of Excel. However, certain procedures and commands work
differently in Excel 2007 on account of its new file types, security features
and interface. These are fully explained in the Checklist and FAQs below
for the benefit of new and established users of Exl-Plan. For FAQs on all
other matters, see FAQs
for Newcomers and FAQs
for Users.
If new to Excel 2007,
review the Checklist immediately below as it addresses
issues in a logical sequence. For answers to specific questions,
refer to the appropriate FAQs further down.
Fast
Facts
Name: Exl-Plan (nine versions and US/Can & UK/International
editions).
Function: Excel template for multi-year
income, cashflow & balance sheet
projections with Word template for business plan.
Uses: Business plans, budgets, raising finance & strategic
planning.
This comprehensive checklist may look intimidating but most of the tasks
need to be performed just once and the rest will be instinctive once you
have used Excel 2007.
Stages
Issues
Guidance
After installing Excel and before using
Exl-Plan for firs time.
Check that Visual Basic for Applications was installed when Excel
was installed. (Some versions of Excel 2007 do not do this by default)
1. Load Excel, click the Developer tab and
check the status of the Visual Basic button.
2. If the Developer tab
is not visible, click the Office button,
select Excel Options, ensure that Show
Developer tab in the Ribbon is ticked in the Popular set
and then click OK.
3. If the Visual Basic button is greyed-out, you need to install Visual
Basic - see this FAQ below for more help.
4. If the Visual Basic button is not greyed-out,
advance to the next issue.
Check that Excel’s Macro Settings within
the Trust
Center have been set to Disable all macros with notification.
1. Macro settings can be viewed or changed by pressing the Office button,
clicking Excel Options (at bottom of the Office
menu), selecting Trust Center from the list
of Excel
Options, clicking Trust Center Settings… and,
finally, selecting Macro Settings. 2. Change the macro settings to Disable
all macros with notification (second
option). See this FAQ below for more help.
3.
Exit the dialogs, close Excel and reload Excel.
Existing Exl-Plan users should convert any important Exl-Plan XLS files
saved with the Excel 5.0/95 file format to the Excel
97-2003 Workbook (*.xls) file format.
1. Use Excel 97, 2000, XP, or 2003 to load these XLS files.
2. Save them
using the File > Save as menu
option and selecting the first format
option in the drop down list. After doing this, you will be asked whether
you want to keep the file in the Excel
5.0/95 format. You should click No and
then save the files in the Excel Workbook (*.xls) format
(first option in the drop down type list).
Loading Exl-Plan for first time.
Enable macros when loading Exl-Plan.
1. Look out for a message Security Warning - Macros have
been disabled and
an Options.. button immediately below Excel's Home tab.
Note that this warning is much less evident than that used in earlier
versions of Excel.
2. Click the Options… button, specify Enable
this content in the Security Alert – Macro dialog
and wait a few moments for Exl-Plan’s macros to run. See
this FAQ below for more help.
Loading Exl-Plan on subsequent occasions.
Enable macros when loading Exl-Plan.
Follow the instructions immediately above on each occassion
that you load an Exl-Plan file.
Alternatively, consider designating the folder where you save all your
Exl-Plan files as a “trusted location” so as to allow their
macros to run automatically on loading. For more information, search for “Create,
remove, or change a trusted location” within Excel 2007’s help.
Using Exl-Plan
Accessing Exl-Plan's menu and toolbar buttons.
Exl-Plan’s menubar (*Assumptions, *Protection etc.)
and toolbar are located in the Add-Ins tab.
For ease of identification, the Exl-Plan menus all start with an asterisk
(*), e.g. *Assumptions. Note that by design
the toolbar does not appear for every Exl-Plan worksheet.
Saving Exl-Plan files using compatibility mode.
1. Avail of Excel 2007’s compatibility mode to ensure
that your Exl-Plan files are always accessible by Excel 2007 and earlier
versions of Excel.
2. If you have previously saved Exl-Plan as an Excel 97-2003
Workbook (*.xls) file, then Excel 2007 will automatically
use compatibility mode and no special actions are
required. Do not use
the *.xlsx or *.xlsm formats. See
this FAQ below for more help.
Adding frequently-used Exl-Plan macros to Excel's Quick Access Toolbar.
You can add buttons for Exl-Plan’s most commonly
used macros to the Quick Access Toolbar to make them accessible irrespective
as to whether the Add-Ins tab (where Exl-Plan’s
special menus and toolbar reside) is open or not. See
this FAQ below for more help.
Accessing Exl-Plan's online help when using Vista.
If using Microsoft Vista, you must download and install the WinHlp32.exe
program from the Microsoft
Download Center to access the Exl-Plan help files. Alternatively,
use the supplied manual in PDF format
which covers the same material as contained in the help files. See
this FAQ below for more help.
Error messages
"Cannot run the macro xxxxxx. This macro may not be
available in this workbook or all macros are disabled."
"Excel was able to open
the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content. This workbook
has
lost its VBA Project, ActiveX controls and any other programmability -related
features."
Q. Why do I only see a single introductory
worksheet saying "Important
Notice" when I load Exl-Plan? This is because Exl-Plan's macros have not loaded. See question
below about running macros.
Q.
What should I do if, when loading or accessing Exl-Plan, a message advises
that “Cannot run the macro '..........'. This macro may not
be available in this workbook or all macros are disabled”?
See question immediately below.
Q. How do I run Exl-Plan's macros?
Exl-Plan uses hundreds of macros to drive its
tools and menus and these are critical to its operation. For security
reasons, Excel 2007 will normally disable these macros when
loading an Exl-Plan file. When this happens, you should see a message Security
Warning - Macros have been disabled and an Options..
button immediately below the
Home tab (as illustrated
below). Note that this warning is much less evident than that used in
earlier versions of Excel.
To
run Exl-Plan's macros, click the Options… button,
specify Enable
this content in the Security Alert – Macro dialog
(shown below) and wait a few moments for Exl-Plan’s macros to run.
Once done, you will be able to access tabs for Exl-Plan’s reports
and use its menus and toolbar via the Add-Ins tab
(illustrated below).
Here is more detailed information about running
Exl-Plan's macros with Excel 2007:
The above procedure for running Exl-Plan's macros
needs to be followed every time an Exl-Plan file is loaded. It assumes
that Excel 2007’s Macro
Settings within the Trust Center have
been set to Disable all macros with notification (the
default and recommended setting).
If you don't follow this procedure and try to use Exl-Plan, you
may encounter the following message:
Excel 2007's macro settings can be viewed or changed by pressing the Office button,
clicking Excel Options (at bottom of the Office menu),
selecting Trust
Center from the list of Excel Options,
clicking Trust Center Settings… and, finally,
selecting Macro Settings (as shown below). You can
also get to Macro Settings by selecting the Developer tab
and clicking Macro Security within the Code section.
Warning: If
you select Disable
all macros without notification you will not be given
the option to enable Exl-Plan’s macros and if you select Enable
all macros Exl-Plan’s macros will run automatically but
you may expose yourself to any dangerous code inside Excel files that are not
as safe or trustworthy as Exl-Plan. The best setting to use is Disable
all macros with notification even though you will have
to explicitly enable macros each time that you load an Exl-Plan file.
If you use Exl-Plan very frequently, you could consider designating
the folder where you save all your Exl-Plan files as a “trusted
location” so as to allow their macros to run automatically on
loading. For more information, search for “Create, remove, or
change a trusted location” within Excel 2007’s help.
If you load Exl-Plan and see its introductory worksheet saying Important
Notice but do not see the Excel message Security
Warning - Macros have been disabled, it is probable that
the Macro
Settings in the
Trust Center are set to Disable
all macros without notification.
To run Exl-Plan's macros, you should change this setting to Disable
all macros with notification and
then close Excel and reload it for the change to take effect. Other possibilities
are:
Exl-Plan was saved as the new Excel Workbook
(*.xlsx) file type which strips out all macros.
If this happens, you should load a backup copy of Exl-Plan using
the Excel
97-2003 Workbook (*.xls) file
format. For more information, see File Types & Saving
Exl-Plan.
Visual Basic (needed to run the macros)
was not installed when Office 2007 was installed. This could
happen as Visual Basic is an optional component. To establish whether
it was installed, click the Developer tab
and check whether the Visual
Basic button on the Code group
is "greyed out". If it is, you need to install the
Visual Basic components using the Office 2007 installer. If you
cannot see the Developer tab,
click the Office button,
select Excel
Options, ensure
that Show Developer tab in the Ribbon is
ticked in the Popular set and
then click OK. See this FAQ for more
information about installing Visual Basic.
If you have an Exl-Plan workbook and other Excel workbooks all open
at the same time, the Exl-Plan workbook must have focus to use its menus,
toolbar buttons or macros. Otherwise, you will get a message "Cannot
run the macro 'calccheck'. The macro may not be available in this workbook
or all macros may be disabled".
Q. What should I do if I encounter this message when loading Exl-Plan:
"Opening the VBA Project in this file requires a component that
is not currently installed. This file will be opened without the VBA
Project."?
This message appears because you are trying to open a copy of Exl-Plan which had been previously saved using the Excel 5.0/95 file
format. This format is not fully supported by Excel 2007 (it will only
open Exl-Plan's worksheets and ignore its macros etc.). If you continue
to load the file, you'll get the message "Excel
was able to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content.
This workbook has lost its VBA Project, ActiveX controls and any other
programmability-related features." This means that Exl-Plan's menus, tools etc. will be unavailable and Exl-Plan will not run properly.
The fix is as follows:
Load the Exl-Plan XLS file using Excel 97, 2000, XP, or 2003 and
immediately save it using the File > Save as menu
option and selecting the first format option in the drop down
list. After doing this, you will be asked whether you want to keep
the file in the Excel 5.0/95 format.
You should click No and then save
the file in the Excel Workbook (*.xls) format
(first option in the drop down type list).
This message will appear
when you are use Save (with
Excel 2000) or Save
As (with
Excel 2000 or 2003). However, its
precise content (and your response)
may vary.
For example, when using Save with
Excel 97 or 2003 you should click the Yes button
to update (97) or overwrite (2003). The important
point is that you update the file's format.
Open this newly saved file using Excel 2007 and its macros will run OK. If you are new to Excel 2007 you may need to check the reply to the question above about running macros with Excel 2007.
Finally, save the file in compatibility mode using the Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls) file format. See below for more information about Excel file types and saving Exl-Plan.
If you are a registered purchaser of Exl-Plan and don't have access to Excel 97, 2000, XP or 2003, please contact us for help.
Q. What should I do if the Developer tab is visible but the Visual Basic button is greyed-out? Exl-Plan requires Visual Basic for Applications. A greyed-out Visual Basic button indicates that this was not installed when Excel (or Office) 2007 was installed. To install Visual Basic, you need the original installation medium (DVD or downloaded file) for Excel 2007 (or Office 2007) and to use the customize option to select and install Visual Basic for Applications which is located within Office Shared Features (see diagram).
Q. How do I see the Developer tab? To see the Developer tab within Excel 2007, click the Office button, select Excel Options, ensure that Show Developer tab in the Ribbon is ticked in the Popular set and then click OK.
Q. Why cannot I see Exl-Plan’s
menus or toolbar even though macros have been enabled?
Instead of appearing at the top of screen alongside the classic Excel
menu (File, Edit, View etc.), Exl-Plan’s menubar (*Assumptions,
*Protection etc.) is located in the Add-Ins tab
(see illustration below). For ease of identification, the Exl-Plan menus
all start with an asterisk (*), e.g. *Assumptions.
Exl-Plan’s
special toolbar also appears in the Add-Ins tab.
Note that by design the toolbar does not appear for every Exl-Plan worksheet.
Bear in mind that you must run Exl-Plan's macros to access its menus
and toolbars - see Running Exl-Plan's Macros.
Q. What should I watch for when saving
an Exl-Plan file?
The short answer is that you should
avail of Excel 2007’s compatibility mode to ensure that your Exl-Plan
files are always accessible by Excel 2007 and earlier versions of Excel. If saving
an Exl-Plan file with a new name, you should set its Save as type in
the Save
As dialog to Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls).
Do not (repeat NOT)
save it as either Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook (*.xls), Excel
Workbook (*.xlsx) or Excel
Macro-Enabled Workbook (*.xlsm) file types.
The longer answer about saving Exl-Plan files is this:
With effect from 14th August 2007, all versions/editions of Exl-Plan
downloaded from this PlanWare site or acquired
via SWREG are
based on the Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls) format
and will automatically use compatability mode. They will continue
to use that format and no special actions are required.
If you have previously saved Exl-Plan as an Excel 97-2003
Workbook (*.xls) file, then Excel 2007 will automatically
use compatibility mode and continue using that file type.
In this case, no special actions are required.
If you have
previously saved Exl-Plan as a Microsoft Excel
5.0/95 Workbook (*.xls), you will be asked
whether you want to keep the workbook in this (very old) format.
Say No on the
assumption that you no longer need to use Excel 5 or 95.
You will then be asked
in a dialog to change the Save as type.
It is is essential that you use the drop down list to select Excel
97-2003 Workbook (*.xls) which appears as the fourth
item on the list.
Do not select either Excel Workbook (*.xlsx) or Excel
Macro-Enabled Workbook (*.xlsm). If you select
the XLSX format, Excel 2007 will try to remove Exl-Plan’s
macros and if you select XLSM, Excel 2007 will seek to rename
a number of range names within Exl-Plan which will break some
of Exl-Plan’s
macros. For the next release of Exl-Plan, we will remove this
potential conflict so that files can be saved as XLSM. When this happens,
we'll update this FAQ.
Notes:
When selecting the Save As option
via the Office button, you may
be offered guidance on alternative formats for saving your document.
When using Exl-Plan, you should always choose the Excel
97-2003 Workbook format (fourth item).
The reason why you cannot use the Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook
(*.xlsm) file type is because some of the range names used
by Exl-Plan, e.g. FIG1, conflict with cell references resulting from
Excel 2007's expansion to handle over 16,000 columns. If you try saving
as an XLSM file, Excel 2007 will seek to rename the conflicting range
names and this will break Exl-Plan's macros. These conflicts will be
eliminated in the next release of Exl-Plan.
Q. How do I use Word 2007 to unprotect Free-Plan, the business
plan template bundled with Exl-Plan?
Load the Free-Plan DOC file, select the Review tab and go
to the Protect group.
Click the Protect Document button and select the Restrict
Formatting and Editing option. Look at the bottom of the task page
for Restrict Formatting and Editing, click the Stop
Protection button and enter the password into the Unprotect
Document box.
Q. Can I use Exl-Plan with
Vista? Yes, but
see answer to the next question about accessing help when using Vista.
Q.
What to do if using Microsoft Vista and Exl-Plan's help files
fail to load and Excel indicates "There
was a problem running the macro (1037)."?
The initial release of Vista excluded the very widely-used Help program
(WinHlp32.exe) for use with the HLP format help files used by some versions
of Exl-Plan. To access these help files, you must download and install
the WinHlp32.exe program from the Microsoft
Download Center. If this link is broken, search the Microsoft site
for "Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) for Windows Vista".
For more information about WinHlp32.exe, see this Microsoft article.
An alternative solution is to disregard the help files and simply use
the comprehensive manual supplied in PDF format with all versions of
Exl-Plan. This covers the exact same material as the help
files. If doing this, you should not click the help-related buttons
within Exl-Plan's worksheets or within the *Exl-Plan Help menu.
Also, you should turn off Toggle Help for Calculation Errors within
Exl-Plan's *Tools or *Setup menu.
Q. Can I use Excel's 2007 new Page Layout
view with Exl-Plan?
If you attempt to
use the new Page Layout view with Exl-Plan,
you will see a message stating "Page Layout View
is not compatible with Freeze Panes. If you continue, the panes
on this sheet will be unfrozen. Would you like to continue?". If
you click Yes, you will see the selected
sheet in Page Layout view. If you return
to Normal view,
the easiest way to restore Exl-Plan's
preset frozen panes is to select the Add-Ins tab
and then either click the Freeze All Panes toolbar
button or select Freeze
Report Titles from
within the *Tools/Setup menu.
Note: If
you make changes to an Exl-Plan report within the Page Layout view
using options in the Page Layout tab,
these changes will be used when printing using Exl-Plan's
print menus and macros. For example, you could change headers
or footers, margins or orientation.
Q. How can I use the new Quick Access Toolbar with Exl-Plan?
By default
the new Quick Access Toolbar is located immediately
above the ribbon and adjacent to the Office button.
If desired, you could add one or two of Exl-Plan’s
most commonly used macros to this toolbar to make them accessible irrespective
as to whether the Add-Ins tab (where Exl-Plan’s
special menus and toolbar reside) is open or not.
The most frequently
used macro within Exl-Plan is undoubtedly calccheck. This is used to recalculate the Exl-Plan workbook and check for errors.
To add it to the Quick Access Toolbar:
Click on
the tiny down arrow to the right of the Quick Access
Toolbar to display the Customize
Quick Access Toolbar.
Select the More Commands… option
and then proceed as follows (see illustration opposite):
Select Customize from
the left hand list.
Select Macros from
the
drop down list in Choose
commands from.
Scroll down
the list
of macros and
select calccheck.
Click the Add >> button
to add it
to the right
hand
list, and click OK.
Only
use this new tool in the Quick Access Toolbar when
an Exl-Plan worksheet has focus otherwise you will get a message
"Cannot run the macro 'calccheck'. The macro may not be
available in this workbook or all macros may be disabled". Note
that all buttons in the Quick Access Toolbar are
inoperable when a worksheet is being displayed in Page
Layout view.
Q. What should I do when I get an error message
when using Excel 2007 and trying to upgrade a trial copy of Exl-Plan
to fully-operational?
This problem only applies when Excel 2007 is being used to upgrade a trial copy
of Exl-Plan to fully-operational and will be resolved in the next release of
Exl-Plan. In the meantime, you could use an older version
of Excel (if available) to make the upgrade and then use the upgraded
fully-operational file with Excel 2007. If this is not possible, contact
us explaining
the circumstances etc.
Q. Can you suggest any resources to help
me find the classic Excel menus options in the new Ribbon interface?
Search within Excel 2007's help for the interactive Excel
2003 to Excel 2007 command reference guide or get it
on-line (or as a download) from Microsoft here.
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of Page
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Q
The most frequently
used macro within Exl-Plan is undoubtedly calccheck. This is used to recalculate the Exl-Plan workbook and check for errors.
To add it to the Quick Access Toolbar:
