• Display of typesetting and formatted output in Excel. • Creating Mathematica - based macros. • A suite of Mathematica functions to interact with and automate Excel. • Start/End Link button is now an Evaluate button. This button can be used to interrupt current evaluations and re - evaluate the workbook once changes have been made. To end a link, hold down the Shift key and click the Evaluate button. • You can now use the Function Wizard to edit existing formulas, select and assign options more easily, and browse for built - in functions by category. • Standard packages are automatically declared by default and can be browsed directly within the Function Wizard. This functionality replaces the Libraries Dialog. • Data Copy and Paste commands are now available from a Mathematica Context Menu. You can now see the data you are copying and pasting using the Mathematica Clipboard window. • Kernel Dialog has now been incorporated into the Mathematica Clipboard window. You can type Mathematica expressions directly into the Clipboard window, evaluate them, and paste the results somewhere if you choose. • Messages are now displayed and stored to a nonmodal window. Using the window you can scroll through multiple messages, find the source of a message, and even save the messages to a log file. • Formula Activate/Deactivate/Recalculate commands are available from the Mathematica Context Menu as a Comments toggle and Recalculate command. • Increased worksheet function speed. Worksheet functions now calculate up to 8 times faster. • Increased worksheet function reliability. Worksheet functions are now robust enough for the most demanding spreadsheet applications. Automated tests have performed billions of continuous evaluations without errors. • Improved worksheet function error handling. Dependent evaluations are now suppressed through the use of native Excel error codes. • To share workbooks with others, you can unlink the workbooks' formulas and macro buttons using the Unlink button in the Mathematica Options  Workbook tab. If colleagues have the link, they will be automatically prompted to relink formulas when they open the workbook. • Strings and floating - point numbers can now be specified using the DATA worksheet function. The MATH worksheet functions provided in Version 2 have been superseded by a more flexible set of functions in Version 3. The MATH worksheet functions still work in Version 3. However, there may be slight differences in how results are returned. If you would like to convert your existing formulas, here are examples of how they can be mapped. Version 2 | Version 3 | =MATH("Inverse",A1:B2) | =EVAL("Inverse",A1:B2) | =MATHEXACT("Inverse",A1:B2) | =EVAL("InputForm",EXPR("Inverse",A1:B2)) | =MATHVOLATILE("Random[]") | =CALC(EVAL("Random[]")) | =MATHDEFINE("m",A1:C3) | =EVAL("Set","m",A1:C3) | =MATHCODE(B1:B10) | initialization code lives is a code box, no formula required | MATHFORMULA & CELL functions | experimental functions no longer supported |
MATH function mappings. The ReadExcel function has been superseded by a new suite of Excel functions. Here is an example of how an improved ReadExcel function could be defined using the new Excel functions. ReadExcel[file_,sheet_,rng_]:=
Module[{book,data},
If[Not[ExcelCheck[ExcelBook[file]]],book=ExcelOpen[file]];
data=ExcelRead[ExcelRange[file,sheet,rng]];
If[ValueQ[book],ExcelClose[book]];
data
] This ReadExcel function checks to see if the required file is already open in Excel. If not it opens the file, reads the required data, and closes the book if it was not already open. |
