XL7: Contents of Xlreadme.txt

• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Office for Windows 95, version 7.0

SUMMARY

Xlreadme.txt is a text file that contains supplemental information about installing and using Microsoft Excel 7.0 for Windows 95. The "More Information" section of this article contains the complete text of this file (which is shipped with Microsoft Excel version 7.0 and Microsoft Office version 7.0).

In Microsoft Excel version 7.0, Xlreadme.txt is located on Disk 1 of the Setup disks; in Microsoft Office version 7.0, it is located on Setup Disk 10 in the Msoff10.cab file.

Xlreadme.txt is located in the EXCEL folder after you install Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Office.

MORE INFORMATION

[To view this file in Notepad, click Word Wrap on the Edit menu.]

MICROSOFT EXCEL for WINDOWS 95 Supplemental Information

 CONTENTS

 Setup
 Setup on Windows NT 3.51 (or later)
 Using Help on Windows NT 3.51 Without Service Pack 1
 Installing Visual Basic Help Topics
 Context Sensitive Help in a Visual Basic Module
 Removing Earlier Microsoft Excel Version's Help Files From Path statement
 Using Disks with Distribution Media Format (DMF)
 Printing Gridlines
 Network Drive Connections
 Font Differences in Custom Dialog Boxes
 Case Sensitive Sorting
 Editing Data Map
 Lotus cc:Mail or Lotus Notes
 Important Note for Delrina WinFax Pro 4.0 Users
 Updates to Getting Results with Microsoft Excel for Windows 95

Installing Microsoft Excel for Windows 95 on a machine running Windows NT will corrupt a previous installation of Microsoft Excel 5.0 for Windows NT (32-bit). Microsoft Excel 5.0 for Windows (16-bit) installations can be preserved and will run fine.

You cannot run the two 32-bit versions of Microsoft Excel, version 7.0 for Windows 95 and version 5.0 for NT both on the same installation of Windows 95 or Windows NT. These two versions are incompatible because of changes that were made to the OLE automation object library and to the DLLs for Visual Basic for applications. The solution is to upgrade from Microsoft Excel version 5.0 for Windows NT to version 7.

When you install Microsoft Excel, the Setup program will not be installed on your hard disk.

The default settings for the Typical and Custom Setup options for Microsoft Excel for Windows 95 are the most commonly used components of Excel. To install a complete set of all of the components, select the Custom setup option, and then click on the SELECT ALL button in the lower right hand corner of the dialog.

[Setup on Windows NT 3.51 (or later)]

If you are installing on Windows NT 3.51, you will need to obtain an updated version of an NT 3.51 system file named WINSRV.DLL. This file will be contained in Service Pack 1 for NT 3.51. The Service Pack will also address some issues with the Help on Windows NT 3.51 and contain other enhancements. Once the Service Pack is available, NT 3.51 users will be able to access it the following way: This file can be obtained by

For Internet Access:

 ftp ftp.microsoft.com
 logon anonymous
 cd bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/nt351
 bin
 get <Latest Service Pack for NT 3.51>

If the Answer Wizard is launched from the Help menu when a Help topic or Help dialog is open, Help may not function.

When you are working in a Visual Basic Module in Microsoft Excel, you may not be able to use context sensitive Help. To use Help in a module, use the Answer Wizard or the online Help index.

[Installing Visual Basic Help Topics]

When you do a Typical installation, and then rerun Setup to install the Visual Basic Help, the Visual Basic Help topics don't show up in the contents that's displayed when you click Microsoft Excel Help Topics on the Help menu. However, the files have been installed and registered. To get the Visual Basic Help topics to display in the table of contents, display a Help topic using context-sensitive Help.

For example, in a Microsoft Excel Macro module, type a Visual Basic term such as "activewindow". Put the cursor anywhere in the word and press F1. The appropriate Help topic will display and the table of contents for Visual Basic Help will be rebuilt. After this, the topics will display correctly in the Help table of contents.

[Context Sensitive Help in a Visual Basic Module]

When you are working in a Visual Basic Module in Microsoft Excel, you may not be able to use the Help On Keyword command. To display contest sensitive Help, use the F1 key.

[Removing Earlier Microsoft Excel Version's Help Files From Path statement]

On a machine with both Microsoft Excel 95 and a previous version of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel 95 may load the previous version's Help files. To correct this, edit the Path statement in AUTOEXEC.BAT to remove the reference to the previous version's directory location.

[Using Disks with Distribution Media Format (DMF)]

With the exception of the Setup disk (Disk 1), your Microsoft Excel disks use a new format called DMF (Distribution Media Format). DMF increases the capacity of a 3.5-inch floppy disk, which reduces the number of disks needed to install your application and speeds up installation.

Because DMF is a new format, many existing utilities such as Norton Disk Doctor, Microsoft ScanDisk, MS-DOS DiskCopy, and Microsoft Windows Copy Disk do not recognize DMF. You should NOT use disk utilities to examine a DMF formatted disk, as these utilities can corrupt the DMF disk. You cannot copy DMF formatted disks using MS-DOS DiskCopy or Microsoft Windows Copy Disk ( If you want to copy files from the Setup disks, see "Extracting Files from DMF Disks," later in this file.).

Windows 95, Windows 3.1 (or later), and Windows NT 3.5 (or later) support DMF.

If there is a chance that your system has a virus, you should run a recently updated virus detection utility such as F-prot before installing Microsoft Excel for Windows 95. Otherwise Disk 2 and higher may become infected with the virus.

Extracting Files from DMF Disks

If you need to copy the Microsoft Excel disks onto a network server or other permanent storage drive, you may use the copy switch (/C) with the EXTRACT.EXE utility on Disk 1 to copy the Microsoft Excel installation files to the target location.

For example, after creating a directory called C:\DISKS on your hard disk drive for the Microsoft Excel files, copy all the files on Disk 1 to that directory. (Since Disk 1 does not use DMF, you can use the standard MS-DOS Copy command, COPY A:\*.* C:\DISKS.) Switch to drive A and type the following command to copy the rest of the disks to the directory C:\DISKS:

   FOR %I IN (*.*) DO C:\DISKS\EXTRACT /C A:\%I C:\DISKS\%I

To list all files in a cabinet file:

   EXTRACT /D A:\<cabinet filename>

   EXTRACT /D A:\<cabinet filename> *.EXE

To extract ANY.EXE to the current directory:

   EXTRACT A:\<cabinet filename> ANY.EXE

   EXTRACT A:\<cabinet filename> /L C:\OFFICE ANY.EXE

In Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, gridline printing is turned off by default. To turn the option on for the current document, select Page Setup (File menu.) On the Sheet tab, check the Gridlines box. To have gridline printing turned on for all new documents, open a new workbook, make the change described above, then save the file as a template named BOOK.XLT in the \EXCEL\XLSTART folder.

[Network Drive Connections]

To connect to a network drive from the File Open dialog in Microsoft Excel, click on the rightmost toolbar button and select Map Network Drive. Alternatively, you can type the UNC path to the server in the File Name box.

[Font Differences in Custom Dialog Boxes]

Custom dialog boxes created in Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0 may not look the same when used in Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0. The fonts used in the dialog boxes s will take on a bolder appearance in Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0 and the font spacing may cause text labels to look misaligned from their original design. If it is necessary to run Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0 dialog boxes in both Microsoft Excel versions 5.0 and 7.0, you should design the dialog boxes with enough spacing between the labels and objects to compensate for the change in font type.

[Case Sensitive Sorting]

Case Sensitive sorting works differently in Microsoft Excel for Windows 95 than it did in Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0. In Excel 5.0, an ascending sort would sort Upper case letters before lower case letters. This has been corrected, and now Microsoft Excel 7.0 correctly sorts lower case letters first in an ascending sort.

[Editing Data Map]

When Microsoft Excel is an embedded object in another application such as Word and a Data Map is open, in order to insert data into the map you must deselect Microsoft Excel, and in the application in which Microsoft Excel is embedded, right mouse click Edit Open. Then select Microsoft Excel again. If you are working in Binder, in order to insert data into a Data Map, you must first click View Outside (Select menu).

[Lotus cc:Mail or Lotus Notes]

Microsoft Excel supports Vendor Independent Messaging (VIM) 1.0, which means that you can use the Send and Add/Edit Routing Slip commands (File menu) in Microsoft Excel to send or route Microsoft Excel documents with mail applications such as Lotus cc:Mail that support VIM 1.0. Lotus cc:Mail 1.11 users may get VIM support files from Lotus. In order for Microsoft Excel to use VIM mail applications the DOS PATH command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file must include the directory in which the mail application's VIM support files are stored. If the PATH does not include the directory containing the VIM support files then setup will not install VIM support for Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Excel will not function correctly when sending mail. The Microsoft Excel support files for VIM 1.0 are called MAPIVI32.DLL and MAPIVITK.DLL, and both are installed in the System subdirectory of the Windows program directory.

There are known problems with Lotus Notes 3.3 TCP/IP network protocol support which are being addressed in a future version of Lotus Notes. These problems will prevent Microsoft Excel from sending mail through the current versions of 16 bit Lotus Notes when Lotus Notes is using TCP/IP as its network protocol. Using a protocol other than TCP/IP solves the problem.

[Important Note for Delrina WinFax Pro 4.0 Users ]

WinFax Pro installed two Microsoft Excel files for use with Microsoft Excel version 4.0 and Microsoft Excel version 5.0: MSEXCEL4.XLM and MSEXCEL5.XLS respectively. These files are incompatible with Windows 95, Windows NT, and Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0. If you installed Microsoft Excel for Windows 95 over Microsoft Excel 4.0 or 5.0, Setup removed these incompatible files from your \Excel\XLSTART directory. Removing them was necessary in order to prevent them from causing problems with Microsoft Excel 7.0, such as files being repeatedly opened until Microsoft Excel would run out of memory. These files were designed to work with Windows 3.1 and not with Windows 95. Contact Delrina for information about versions of these files that will be compatible with Microsoft Excel for Windows 95.

[Updates to Getting Results with Microsoft Office for Windows 95]

The following are changes that occurred after the book went to press. The page numbers listed are those in the Getting Results with Microsoft Office for Windows 95. For those who purchased Microsoft Excel as a separate package, the page number is in parentheses.

Graphics filters licensed from Henderson Software, Inc. are not part of the product and should not be on the copyright page.

The Btrieve driver, Btrieve Technologies, Inc., is not part of the product and should not be on the copyright page.

Pages 27 and 29 (pages 8 and 10): The correct online location of the Network Install Readme is in the Getting Help section of the Microsoft Excel online Help table of contents.

Page 28 (page 9): The name of the Remove button has been changed to the Add/Remove button. Therefore, step 5 should read, "Click the Office application (click Microsoft Excel), and click the Add/Remove button."

Page 29 (page 10): The correct procedure for starting Microsoft Excel is "click the Start button, click Programs, and then click Microsoft Excel."

Page 71: The name of the Blank Workbook button has been changed to New Workbook button.

Page 79 (page 32): The first tip should read "Print part of your worksheet - Select the area you want to print, click Print Area (File menu), and then click Set Print Area. Then click the Print button."

Page 79 (page 32): To find out how to save your workbook as a template look up "templates, creating" in the Microsoft Excel online index.

Page 198: To link templates to databases other than Microsoft Excel, you must have both Data Access Objects (DAO) and Open Database Connectivity drivers (ODBC) installed. If you need to install the Template Wizard, DAO, or an ODBC driver, rerun Setup. (This is correct in Getting Results with Microsoft Excel for Windows 95.)

Page 200 (page 69): The Btrieve driver is not part of the product.

Page 209 (page 38): The instructions for rotating text or data to fit into a cell should read, "Select the cell, click Cells (Format menu), and select orientation options on the Alignment tab."

Page 247 (page 106): The legend on the map should have an explanation that says "Double-click the legend to customize it."

Page 248 (page 107): For information on where to obtain additional maps, look up "Where can I obtain more maps?" in the Data Map online Help table of contents.

Page 249 (page 108) The Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons are located on the Data Map toolbar.

To activate your map, double-click it. The map will be surrounded by a thick border when it is activated.

Page 250 (page 109): The opening paragraph should read, "When you first create a map, the Data Map Control dialog box appears, and your map is activated. Each column of data in the selection appears as a button in the Data Map Control dialog box. The buttons in the lower-left corner of the dialog box represent available forms."

Page 251 (page 110): Your map must be activated to see the Data Map toolbar. The default legend for maps is the compact rather than the full format depicted in art.

To change the default text and appearance of the legend, clear the Use Compact Format check box in the Edit Legend dialog box. This enables you to change the legend title text and individual legend entries.

Page 252 (page 111): After you have added custom labels or symbols by clicking the Custom Pin Map button, to return to normal selection, click the Select Objects button.

Page 253 (page 112): To add a column of data from the same source, click Data (Insert menu).

To hide data currently displayed, click the Show/Hide Data Map Control button. In the Data Map Control dialog box, drag the button representing the data you want to hide out of the dialog box. To add a new column of data, it must be contiguous with the geographical region column. The example used shows a non-contiguous row being added. This is an error.

There are additional limitations to adding data to an existing chart. Use the Data command (Insert menu) to add only new columns or external data. To add a new row instead of a column, insert the row between existing rows. Then use the Map Refresh button to update your map with the new data.

Page 254 (page 113): You can add a map to documents in other applications by dragging and dropping across application windows or by using the Copy and Paste commands (Edit menu). To insert a new map into another application, click Object (Insert menu) in the application where you want to insert the map, and select Microsoft Data Map from the list. The last paragraph on this page should be deleted. For information on how to edit a map in another application, see "Editing Data Map," earlier in this readme.

Page 340-341 (page 155-156): Instructions for sharing a workbook on a network should read "Click Shared Lists (File menu), click the Editing tab, and then check Allow Multi-User Editing."

Page 434 (page 117): In order to enable the Query add-in you must click the Converter, Filters, And Data Access option, click Change option, click Data Access, click Change option, and then check Microsoft Query.

Page 552: The instructions for getting Visual Basic Help should be: Click Help Topics (Help menu), click the Contents tab, and then double-click Getting Started with Visual Basic. (This is correct in Getting Results with Microsoft Excel for Windows 95.)