By Richard Lane
Richard Lane shows how to get up to speed on Office Open XML File Format quickly by using the Working with Office Open XML File Format: Microsoft Office Excel webcast.
You can watch the video any way you choose, either right there on the web page, or by downloading it in one of several formats for viewing on your desktop.
Presenter Matt Hester is an enthusiast both for Excel and for OOXML, and that comes across in this presentation.
The webcast kicks off with a look at the benefits of Open XML. There is a host of reasons to prefer the new format.
TIP: Along with various technical benefits, the new formats are smaller and will save disk space.
Next, there is a look at all the different elements that make up a typical Excel workbook.
It is easy to take the power of Excel for granted, but after a quick tour through core features I was reminded of how capable it is. I also learned some new things about how Excel handles formulas, all done to maximize the reliability of the results.
The major part of the webcast is a walkthrough of creating a workbook and modifying it as XML. It starts with a demo of how to create a workbook. I picked up one or two Excel tips along the way. In a fun aside, Matt reminds you of the maximum size of an Excel 2007 sheet. Clue: huge.
The webcast next reveals the secret of how to get at the XML source. We get to see the several different XML files that make up a workbook, and how to drill in and find which one to edit.
Next, Matt walks through opening and editing an OOXML file in what might be the oldest application in Windows – Notepad! In real life you would use an application or script, but there’s nothing like Notepad for showing you the raw text of the XML.
There’s also a demo of how to inspect XML in Internet Explorer, where it looks a bit prettier.
After making the edit in Notepad, the webcast shows how to re-open the document in Excel. It turns out that there is a deliberate error, though the presenter makes the point that Excel still opened the document and did not reject it completely.
You can guess what comes next. We go back into Notepad, fix the error, and reopen the document in Excel to prove that all is now well. Cool. It is a simple demonstration that proves a vital point: thanks to OOXML, you can successfully edit an Office document even in an application as simple as Notepad. Try that with Office 2003!
Working with Office Open XML File Format: Microsoft Office Excel