Two of my buddies, Office Zealot kingpin Chris Kunicki and Excel zealot (and always colorful) Charles Maxson, just finished a project for us (Microsoft), and they delivered a royal flush: Excel XML Toolbox.

If you remember, we released the Word XML Toolbox nearly two years ago, and it has been very well received. I do no Word XML development without it. It's indispensable. You must have it if you care at all about Word and XML. (see my article: Developing Word XML Using the Microsoft Office Word 2003 XML Toolbox.

The problem was, we didn't have the same kind of tools for Excel. I saw a few skunk-works projects here at Microsoft, but nothing ready for prime time. And, the in-house utilities I found were not developed with the Word XML Toolbox in mind.

I'll write more about the features later today or early tomorrow, but you can get started with this:

Using the Excel XML Toolbox for Microsoft Office Excel 2003

I found out we have a Web cast that helps users feature-compare Word 2000 to Word 2003. You can find it here:

My How You've Changed: Side-by-Side Tips for Word 2000 and Word 2003

 Rock Thought for the Day: UK band, Paradise Lost has a new self-titled release. Particularly meaningful to me was the track, "Accept the pain". The moody tracks need to be understood in the context of the band's opus since the late 80's. This album is the result of a band embrancing their early influences and finding their own voice.

Rock On