I just wanted to quickly post on the Smart View vs Classic add-in situation. I am as happy as the next person with the progress we have seen in Smart View and feel it has finally become a complete product, especially one that we can be happy to get clients on to.
With all this talk of Smart View reaching 'classic' functionality parity though I feel like people have forgotten what it was like to use the add-in of old (or perhaps, using the addin pre Excel 2007). My gripe isn't the features, its the lack of simplicity and speed. I'm comparing to Excel 2003 and the add-in. I love using the classic add-in with 2003 as I can literally do what I want to do as fast as I can think (that's either an insult or my hands are lightning fast right?).
I have no doubt though that there has been numerous occasions where (as a developer/consultant) I have gone from a blank desktop to the answer to my query faster than you could drop 2 of your 10 dimensions from the point of view (yes I know the POV can be turned off in .102, its my new favourite button).
These days I use Excel 2010 (which I also love) with Smart View but can't help but stop and take a breath of fresh air every time I open up 2003 at a client site somewhere. It mainly comes down to the way Microsoft changed the ribbon I believe which made keyboard shortcuts more difficult. I also doubt it is on anyone's priority list either because it probably does affect the techy folk more than the end-users unfortunately (for us).
Note: There is a way you can link ALT-[1-9] to Essbase commands as written on the Essbase Labs blog but I don't really like this as I can never remember which number is what.
Summary: Smart View updates are great, I miss my keyboard shortcuts
