Mac Mojo: The Office for Mac Team Blog

When MacBU shipped Excel 2004, we included a wonderful add-in for doing data analysis, called Analysis ToolPak (ATP).

ATP offers 19 different statistical and math functions, including analysis of variance, linear regression, histograms, t-tests and Z-tests. These functions are incredibly useful for folks who need to perform statistical operations on their data - customers in science, operations, marketing, higher education, and so on.

Figure 1 - Analysis ToolPak in Excel 2004

Unfortunately, Analysis ToolPak didn't ship with Excel 2008; like Solver, ATP is based on Visual Basic, and, when VB was removed from Office 2008, ATP was removed, too.

Since we shipped Office 2008, we've been hearing from customers that they need good data analysis options that work with Excel - and wanted to know what we're planning to do about it.

I'm here today to announce that we absolutely hear you, and we are working on a solution.

The Mac Excel team has been hard at work on a solid, Office 2008 data analysis solution for the past few months. Today, we are very close - recent builds are very promising - and we feel confident enough in our progress to share the news with you.

Once we have something that's ready for the general public, we will be posting the news here. The plan is make our solution available as a free download over the Web.

When we've got news, we'll post it here first. Promise. Watch this space for details.

(PS - If you're an Excel 2004 user and want to experiment with ATP, you can turn it on by going to your "Tools" menu, selecting "Add-Ins..." and checking the box next to "Analysis ToolPak". Click OK, and, the next time you visit the "Tools" menu, you'll see a menu item called "Data Analysis..." That's what you want. Go crazy!)

Posted by: Gavin Shearer in Announcements, excel, Excel 2008, Office, Office 2008

10 Comments

Comments | Who's Blogging This

[robg]

robg

Mar 13, 2009

1:00pm

That's all well and good, but ....

When can we expect you to bring Visual Basic back, so I can use those spread sheets I have that use macros?

[ivan_future]

ivan_future

Mar 21, 2009

8:33am

Disappointment and Slight Relief

I recently bought Office for Mac 2008 for university and I was really disappointed when I realized that Analysis Toolpak had been stripped off. I agree with Barry about the "gotcha" factor which I certainly didn't appreciate. It was essential for the subject I was doing.

However, after reading this post, I'm glad something is being done about it. I really do hope it will be available as a free software update to current users and not just included in the next major release.

[jodihamann]

jodihamann

Apr 11, 2009

9:29am

Any timeline?

I'm actually in a college statistics course that relies pretty heavily on the functions provided in the analysis toolpak. I was wondering whether the release is imminent, or whether I should track down a copy of 2004 for the time being.

Any information would be appreciated.

[Shearer, Gavin]

Gavin Shearer

Mar 13, 2009

1:01pm

Microsoft reply to robg

Thanks for your question, Rob. Visual Basic will return to Mac Office with our next major release. We're hard at work on that one, too.

[katileigh]

katileigh

Mar 13, 2009

2:31pm

Thank you!

Feedback to the Excel Team--Yea!
I am looking forward to the reappearance of the add-in.

[sunshine23111]

sunshine23111

Mar 14, 2009

10:08am

Analysis Toolpak

Will the analysis toolpak allow the ability to create formulas using sumproduct, networkdays, etc.?

[Shearer, Gavin]

Gavin Shearer

Mar 14, 2009

10:10am

Microsoft reply to sunshine23111

Sunshine23111 - SUMPRODUCT and NETWORKDAYS are both functions that are native to Excel 2008 - they are in the product already. You don't need Analysis ToolPak to make use of them.

[Ezell, Barry]

Barry Ezell

Mar 18, 2009

8:36am

Excel 2008 and Lack of VB

To be honest, had I known in advance that VB and all the capability it provides was being stripped out of Excel 2008, would not have purchased Office 2008. I have a serious issue with macros and cross platform compatibility. What this experience has taught me is to read very carefully before I purchase because there seems to always be a "gotcha" factor with MS software for Macs. -- Barry

[ladymeouw]

ladymeouw

Apr 01, 2009

10:01am

To Barry Ezell

I totally relate. The good thing for me is that I figured out about the lack of VB before taking a decision to buy the package. Needless to say, I postponed my purchase until VB is put back into Excel in some point in the (hopefully) near future.

[Shearer, Gavin]

Gavin Shearer

Apr 11, 2009

9:31am

Microsoft reply to jodihamann

Jodi,

We don't have a timeline to share just yet, so if you need ATP functionality now (and you have Excel 2004 handy), you'd do better to go that route.

Rest assured we'll post details on progress and availability when we can.
Thanks for your comment!