Good bye to the SaveDBF addin

When we wrote the add-in in 2008 we could not have imagined the success it achieved over the last 6 years.

It provided a stable solution to saving and editing DBF files for thousands of users all over the world on every continent (even Antarctica!).

The add-in supported versions of Excel 2007, 2010 and now 2013. In 2012 we released the 64-bit version of the add-in which is one of the first 3rd party add-ins that supports the 64-bit version of Office!

Given the directions of Microsoft Office (Office 365 and beyond and the potential drop of Visual Basic for Applications) we decided to stop further development as it is taking enormous amount of time/resources in testing and development.

Current users on systems of Excel 2007/2010 on Win 7 and 2013 on Windows 8/8.1 will be able to use the add-in, however

as of January 1, 2015 the development and support of the SaveDBF addin on ALL future releases of Excel will cease.

It's been a great journey! Long live the DBF!

Finding the XLSTART folder for the SAVEDBF add-in installation

Steps to find the XLSTART folder for the SaveDBF addin installation:

1. Open Excel (2007 or newer)
2. Press Alt-F11 to get to the Visual Basic Editor
3. Press Ctrl-g to get to the "Immediate" window
4. Type in the Immediate window: ?Application.Path
5. Press Enter
6. The path will show you where the XLSTART folder should be located.

For example, Excel 2010 32-bit version on a Windows 7 64-bit machine shows:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14.

Office 2013

Just a quick note that the latest version of the add-in will work with Office 2013. Install path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\xlstart We have only done limited testing but many of our users switched to Office 2013 64-bit with no reported issues.

Update:
One user reported the Excel 2013/Win7 screen flickering issue described in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2790615?wa=wsignin1.0. The flickering stop if you scroll or change sheet tabs.
This issue appears to only affect certain systems and does not seem to appear on Win8/8.1 and Excel 2013. If you use Excel 2013, please use the demo version before you buy the software to ensure that your system is not affected!

64-bit version is READY!

Finally it is here! The SaveDBF Excel add-in is now compatible with both the 32-bit and 64-bit version of Excel. This means that the file size and memory limitation of the 32-bit version is no longer an issue if one is willing to use the 64-bit version of Excel.

Thank you for your patience!

UPDATE: 64-bit Office add-in

The 64-bit version of the SAVEDBF add-in is not yet ready...:-(

Unfortunately it is a bigger undertake than we originally estimated. Replacing/recompiling the standard VBA code is relatively straightforward. However, we replaced/rewrote the entire dBase database driver from scratch in the 2011 May release as Microsoft's ACE/OLE driver was way too buggy and unreliable. That part is using a lot of non-standard and more sophisticated VBA coding that is a bit more challenging to recompile/re-write for 64-bit.

We are getting there but there will be a few months of rigorous testing. Our software has been virtually bug free since its release and would like to keep it that way!...:-)

Thanks for your patience!

PS, Microsoft themselves advise people against installing the 64-bit version of office (even on a Win7 64 bit machine) as most developers need to re-write their 32-bit apps and unless they do very basic standard VBA coding, there are things to replace/rewrite (Office 2010 VBA is called VBA 7 with different syntax, and of course we need to write one add-in that works in both environments for now).

More on this can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681792.aspx

Gyula

Journey - Just beginning!

Over the last 2 years, quite a few people commented on the impressive qualities of the SaveDBF Excel add-in and its reliability.

I did a quick summary of my ever-growing customer list and I was surprised at the variety of industries and geographical diversity of the people who are using my software. The SaveDBF Excel add-in is used on every continent and over 80 countries.

My esteemed customer list includes researchers studying glaciers in Antarctica, students and professors from literally all universities in Europe and North America, Fortune 500 companies with multi-billion dollars of revenue and many government agencies in the US. I have non-profit organizations such as the Nature Conservancy Group, small business owners in South America, organizations supporting mine-recovery efforts in Afghanistan, some of the largest utility and forestry companies in the world, l and the list goes on...

If you are interested in the software and would like to evaluate it for your company or if you have a project in mind, please email me. 100% satisfaction guaranteed!

I have yet to find an Excel problem that I could not solve. Challenge me...:-)

Quick Note: 64-bit versus 32-bit Microsoft Excel 2010

The SaveDBF Excel add-in is a 32-bit add-in that will not run on a 64-bit version of Office under Windows 7.

There is no real advantage of installing the 64-bit version unless you are manipulating 2-GB+ files.

How can you tell if your version of Office 2010 will work with the add-in?

• If you have an XLSTART directory under C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ then you have the 32-bit version installed.
• If you have an XLSTART directory under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\ then you have the 64-bit version installed.

The merits of each system are described at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681792.aspx

I will be rolling out a 64-bit edition of the add-in likely by the end of the year.

SaveDBF Excel addin - New Version is Now Available!

In addition to bug fixes, here are the highlights of the new added features:

• Tested with the latest Excel 2010 on Windows XP/Vista and Win 7 (also with Excel 2007).
• Replaced the Microsoft database driver with my own that creates native binary DBF files. MS is slowly phasing out the DBF capabilities in its driver and this step had to be made sooner or later. No relying on MS database features anymore!
• Added the option to over-write the original DBF file (a backup is created).
• Added the option to auto-fix column names in an Excel file (this is limited to removing leading and trailing spaces automatically and replacing illegal characters with an underscore).
• Added the option to convert an Excel file to ALL TEXT fields based on the width of the columns. This is a great feature for labeling programs.
• There are no longer any issues with dashes/spaces etc in the file name or worksheet tab name! Any names are allowed.
• Excel files that contain error values are now converted and the error values are automatically replaced with a blank.
• Hidden columns are identified.
• Even more improved error handling and many more!

Many tireless weekends of development and testing went into this version so I hope you will like it!

Thank you for your patience!