From MacWorld: (http://www.macworld.com/article/133393/2008/05/vba.html):
> Microsoft on Tuesday announced it would restore support for Visual Basic
for
> Applications (VBA) to Microsoft Office for Mac, a direct result of
complaints
> from users about the removal of the suite's cross-platform automation
> functionality.
> Microsoft will return VBA to the next full upgrade to the Mac version of
> Office, the company said. While Office 2008, which was sharply
criticized for
> omitting VBA, will receive bug-fix updates (such as Service Pack 1, also
> announced Tuesday), it will not be updated to add VBA support.
> "We know [VBA] is important to a section of our user base who needs
cross
> platform compatibility," said Kurt Schmucker, Mac Business Unit group
product
> manager and lead evangelist. "And we're bringing that back."
> VBA is a programming language used with Microsoft Office applications,
making
> it relatively easy to add automation (macros) and customization (menus,
> dialogs, and so on) to Office documents.
> VBA was part of Office 2004, but Microsoft announced in August 2006 that
> Office 2008 would not have VBA support. Schmucker explained that VBA on
the
> Mac was "uniquely designed for PPC architecture" and thus difficult to
carry
> over to the Intel-native Office 2008. Diverting resources to do so, he
said,
> would have required delaying Office's 2008 release even longer, or
> significantly cutting back on the product's features. Microsoft has
since
> added resources to work on getting VBA support ready for the next major
> version of Office for Mac.
I've upgraded to the latest version of Office on every release for quite
a few releases now. But I haven't bought Office 2008, precisely because
it doesn't have VBA macros. I use VBA macros all the time in Excel. I'm
really glad to hear that the next release of Office will have them.
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