Determining Your Version of Excel

The instructions for some of the tips you see featured in ExcelTips vary depending on the version of Excel you are using. If you are a relative newcomer to Excel, you may not know exactly how to determine which version you are using.

There are a couple of ways you can figure out which version you are using. The first is to watch Excel as you start the program. Depending on the speed of your system, you may notice the version in the splash screen that appears as Excel starts up. (I say that this depends on the speed of your system because I've seen some systems that are so fast, the splash screen is gone before anyone can fully see everything that is on it.)

Once you have started Excel, how you determine your version depends on the version of Excel you are using. (That sounds rather circular, doesn't it?)

Take a look at the top of your screen. Assuming you can see the ribbon up there (it has words on it like Home, Insert, Page Layout, etc.), you can take a first pass at determining your version by looking at the left end of the ribbon. If you see a File tab, then you are using either Excel 2010 or Excel 2013. (More on that it a moment.) If you, instead, see a round Office button at the top-left corner of the screen, then you are using Excel 2007.

Assuming you see a File tab, you can further narrow down your version by clicking that File tab. If you continue to see the ribbon tabs at the top of the screen, you are using Excel 2010. If the ribbon tabs disappear and you instead see (at the upper-left corner of the screen) a round circle containing a left-pointing arrow, then you are using Excel 2013.

If you want to get even more detailed information about your version—information that includes the specific build number of your version—then how you find that out varies widely depending on your general version of Excel. (You might need the detailed build information to provide to Microsoft technical support, for instance.)

Excel 2007

If you want to determine more detail about your version number, then you should follow these steps if you are using Excel 2007:

1. Click the Office button then click Excel Options. Excel displays the Excel Options dialog box.
2. At the left side of the dialog box, click Resources.
3. Click the About button. Excel displays the About Microsoft Office Excel dialog box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The About Microsoft Office Excel dialog box.

Note that near the top of the dialog box you can see the version number you are using. When you are through reviewing the information, click OK to close the dialog box.

Excel 2010

If you want to determine more detail about your version number and you are using Excel 2010, getting to the info is much easier than in Excel 2007. Start by clicking the File tab of the ribbon and then click Help at the left side of the screen. You'll see all the version information appear at the right side of the screen.

Excel 2013

In Excel 2013 Microsoft again moved where the version information is located, and it can be a bit tricky to locate. The reason is because this version is delivered electronically, via download, instead of from physical media like a CD or DVD.

Click the File tab of the ribbon and then, at the left side of the screen, click Account. (Yes, Account. Go figure!) At the right side of the screen you'll see a large heading that says Office Updates. Under this heading you can find the version information for your copy of the program.

Finding Information in a Macro

If you need to know the version number and build number in a macro you are creating, you can use the .Version property (for the version) and the .Build property (for the build number). Both properties should be used with the Application object, in this manner:

sVersion = Application.Version

sBuild = Application.Build

In these examples, sVersion will contain the version number and sBuild the build number. The version number will be "12.0" for Excel 2007 "14.0" for Excel 2010, or "15.0" for Excel 2013.

The build number will be a string of numbes interspersed with periods; the string corresponds to what you see if you follow the steps described earlier in this tip. For example, if you follow the instructions for Excel 2013, earlier, and you see a version number of "15.0.4551.1512", then when you execute the above code, sVersion would be "15.0" and sBuild would be "4551.1512".

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8938) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Determining Your Version of Excel.