Microsoft caught a lot of flack for it’s decision not to include VBA support in Office 2008, but apparently it would have put them too far behind schedule to get it in.

How long will Office users have to wait? Probably two to three years, if Microsoft follows their normal release schedule.

. . . restores chart formatting options available in previous versions of Office and improves the spreadsheet program’s ability to alert you to potential compatibility issues when you save the workbook in a file format compatible with previous versions of Excel (including Excel for Windows). Changes made when you move or resize the formula bar will now be retained. Microsoft also improved support for secondary displays.

I fired up Office last night and checked for updates, but none were found. I’m not sure if they are slowly rolling this out through automatic update, or maybe they are requiring early adopters to download the Service Pack manually for right now.

Alternatively, some people are experiencing problems after they install the Service Pack, such as extended periods of CPU usage. Vincent Noel, the author of the "Bloody Fingers" blog, tracked the problem down to Spotlight attempting to index areas where the Service Pack was installed.

So, if you are an Excel power user, you may want to go ahead and download this Service Pack, otherwise, you may want to give Microsoft a little time to work the bugs out.

Highly recommended.

Create good queries in Spotlight

Rob Griffiths, writing in Macworld, has a side be side comparison of Excel 2008 and Numbers ‘08. He created the same project - a sales-tracking spreadsheet - in each program, in order to test their individual strengths and weaknesses.

In the end, he found Excel to be superior to Numbers in most aspects, with the exception of the ablilty to create attractive layouts in Numbers.

In general, I found it much simpler to work with Excel in all phases of my sample project. Although Numbers has some stunning templates, its shortcomings make it more difficult to use when you leave template-land. Those failings include its inability to simply show a formula’s variables as you enter it; its lack of keyboard support in selecting ranges when you’re entering formulas; its lack of custom number and date formats; and its limited conditional formatting abilities. There’s no doubt that I can create a prettier spreadsheet in Numbers, but Excel offers more formulas, features, and tools to help with actually building the spreadsheet.

I agree that for most power users, Excel is the way to go for day to day “functional” spreadsheet use. I also agree that Numbers is the way to go if you wish to present your data in the most appealing manner.

Strangely, Macworld only rated Excel 2008 three mice, while giving Numbers ‘08 three and a half mice. Normally, I would think this was due to the natural variance of reviewers opinions, but in this case Mr. Griffiths was the reviewer each time!

Regardless, I think it is important to remember that Numbers ‘08 is the “version 1″ software, whereas Excel has been under constant development for many years. Numbers ‘08 does an adequate job for what it is: a consumer grade spreadsheet program.

I just found this great Numbers tip on Fury&Frost.com:

You can use the INDEX() Function to transpose data to another table.

Read the post for a full explanation, but use the following function to get the results shown in the screen shot above:

=INDEX(Prefs::$A$1:$E$15,COLUMN(),ROW())

Good one!

I put together a short screen cast demonstrating how to place an image behind a table in Numbers. I also demonstrate the different options available to display your image: Scale to Fit, Scale to Fill, Stretch, Original Size, and Tile.

You can watch the video below:

Forum member Allmec has posted a cool example of how to create waterfall charts in Numbers.

You can check out his post on the Numbers Template Forums.

How much is all the electrically powered junk around your house really costing you? Remember that you keep paying for appliances after you buy them through the energy they consume.

You can use a cool tool called the Kill-A-Watt to find out exactly how much electricity your appliances are using, and how much they are costing to operate.

Another method is to use this template (adapted from an Excel sheet here) to roughly calculate your energy consumption and costs.

Usage:

Plug in your cost per kilowatt-hour (you should be able to find this on your utility bill). According to to information I found on this page, the average cost per kilowatt-hour in the US is $0.115.

Then, enter the name of your appliances in the lower table, with their watts used per hour. If you can’t get the information from the appliance’s manual, you can get an approximate value from this online guide.

Next, enter the number of hours per day you use each item.

The sheet will then calculate the cost per year to operate the appliance.

Enjoy!

Download: Home Electronics Cost Calculator Template for iWork Numbers

However, while you cannot rotate text in-cell, you can use a hack that will give you the same visual experience when the document is printed.

As a first on Numbers Templates, I recorded a short video demonstrating how to rotate a text box. It was a fairly easy process to create, so if the reaction is positive, I will record and share more tutorials.

I found this detailed, single page, household budget template for Numbers on the iwork templates blog. The author states that it was converted from an Excel file, so it doesn’t display a lot of the Numbers formating flash. Still, if you are looking for a simple budget, this template may be just what you are looking for.