Visual Basic Support in Mac 2016

Anonymous
2015-07-10T19:25:34+00:00

Hi

Am I missing something? I've been periodically using the Excel 2016 for Mac updates but quickly abandoned them because my sheets rely so heavily on VBA and support for that seemed to be missing. 

I've updatd to the production version today (15.2)...and it still seems to be the case? The Visual Basic editor is..ahem...extremely basic with no menus, right click functions or anything. No ability to insert new modules either. Shortcuts don't work (breakpoint, run etc). 

What's going on? Is this it? Please tell me there's some security setting i need to switch or something...please tell me there's basically no way to create macros enabled spreadsheets in Office for Mac 2016?

Thanks

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2017-11-22T18:12:09+00:00

Hi Roberto,

You're not missing anything. UserForm support is being built right now and should be available in a few weeks. I don't expect userform support to arrive during the holidays, but I hope we have it before spring.

Thanks Gordon for the answer. I will wait after the holidays the microsoft present for christmas. 

I take this opportunty to wish to everyone a my particolary Merry Christmas. 

Roberto

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

66 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2016-09-13T19:00:09+00:00

    I just can't believe i went out to buy a new PC ---  I bought a decent one hardware wise..   It came loaded with Windows 10  ---   and It's just awful.  

    I can't believe i have to go searching around eBay for a 2003 era windows loaded Excel loaded refurbished POS from a decade and 3 years ago..

    YOU KNOW WHY?   Because it's the last time EXCEL WORKED!

    It seems like you all spent a lot of time making OFFICE a cloud based utility.

    Selling this OFFICE Cloud.  

    Listen.   I have Dropbox.  And even if I pay for it..  it's cheap!

    It works well..  and it's not exclusive to MSFT files.  

    It works with anything you put in the drop box folder.   

    What do I need OFFICE 365 for?   What does anyone need that for?

    We all have DROPBOX and it's competitors.

    *(I use dropbox).   

    Ok.     So..  Why am I buying EXCEL again?   it's horrible -- the numbers crash when you try to add or sum. or transpose or do anything useful!   

    The graphics of the INTERFACE take up 95% of the memory of the power hungry app itself.   the numbers come out slow ---  but the icons are ram hungry..

    MAKE A CHART?    Sure..   in10 minutes.. after it loads..   and the graphics?   They're ugly!   Like have you seen the charts in  Python?    Or the charts in R?

    they make Microsoft charts in comparison. seem like just ugly!   and both of them are free.   And yet.   Excel was easy to use back in the day.  Just plug in the numbers on the screen..  just press the button.  and shazam!   

    It worked.   We all used it --- because it was easy!  

    Now.   it's more complex (and less useful).   it's buggy.. and it SHAZAM it doesn't work..  crash!  

    Apple made this horrible Excel clone --- HORRIBLE!   It's called numbers..  

    I think Apple sat around looking at one another saying, "This app is so bad we can't even charge people for it..  it's just that bad!"  

    And they made Numbers free!  

    and it's probably what MSFT should do.  Because the reasons to buy it become less every single day!

    Make this product better..  or just give it away for free --- it's silly to charge at this point!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-13T18:10:07+00:00

    I'm sorry for being borderline abusive or negative here.  

    **I'm truly just FRUSTRATED today!   Why wouldn't you make a version of excel where VBA worked?   PLEASE TELL ME!!!This is supposed to be the FUTURE!**since you started a little company.   EXCEL was your edge.   

    because we all needed it to use for business and finance and other science related things.  

    No one back in the 80s was interested in pretty graphics.   Apple had them ---  PC had no graphics or pretty fonts.   

    But people bought PC's right?    Because they needed excel. 

    NOW..    Excel just sucks!    It sucks --- it doesn't work well with numbers..  VBA is useless..  it's slow..  it's buggy.. it crashes all the time.. and the graphics *(CHARTS) are so ugly and uninspiring.

    I'm not mad at people at MSFT.   I'm not hater of you all.  

    I'm a hater of the product itself!    I use it all the time!  

    It makes life so much harder than it should be.   So hard, in the sense I have to go vintage computer hunting on eBay and garage sales now to find a stable version of this horribly updated app!    Some  'used' or 'refurbished' 2003 pentium 3 chip CPU tower is actually faster with excel than my brand new MACINTOSH and high speed desktop windows PC..   So,  yeah.   that's something that i'm not exaggerating about.

    ****??     Am I alone in noticing this?

    I want this product to be useful for me!    It's not even about the money I shelled out for it.   

    (I will hesitate to shell out the money in the future though).  

    But like I said.   It's not about the money I shelled out for this product.   It's the fact that it's actually become less stable, very slow and processor hungry, and almost unreliable in the sense that whenever I open this app.   I'm greeted by bugs.   How am I supposed to trust that a more complex computation I've built a sheet in here is going to be mathematically accurate?  

    I guess I shouldn't complain.   Pythagoras, Archimedes, Leibniz,  Laplace, Lagrange, Dirac, Schroedinger, Einstein, Planck, Maxwell. 

    All those guys above had no need for Microsoft Excel.   If they had it, they'd be happy to have it!   

    I think Einstein would say (in german), "Why is this potentially useful application, so BAD?!    We have Kardashian video games on our cell phones with more power than the math app we all desperately need to use for our prospective work and future!

    Yes.  Einstein,  you're not wrong.    It beats paper.   (but only for computation tasks).     And If it's crashing on you?   Then you're just like the rest of us!    It doesn't matter that you're a genius or not!    We're all stuck with spinning ball of death on the mac and the hourglass icon on the PC ---   and then..  "ERROR"

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-13T17:56:39+00:00

    Please keep in mind that I do not work for nor do I speak for Microsoft. Nor did I sell you the software, so I can't give you your money back.

    Office 2011 for Mac has a reasonably complete Visual Basic Editor along with ODBC data analysis tools that actually work. Perhaps you can exchange 2016 for 2011.

    I have stated that I think Office 2016 is not only the worst version of Microsoft Office that has ever been released, I think it is the worst commercial software I have ever used. 

    That said, Microsoft seems to be trying to address Office 2016 shortcomings one feature at a time. Earlier in this Q&A I noted that the Visual Basic Editor wasn't working at all in El Capitan. Now the totally worthless piece of **** editor is working in El Capitan, but it is still a sorry thing to see.

     I do not work for Microsoft.   If I did.  I would feel that every update to Windows core PC products (Windows, Office, etc).  has considerably gotten worse in a shockingly downward trajectory.

    I often find myself going to the library to use the Windows 2003 PC with Excel 2003.   

    Note:  I have 3 macs, one with OFFICE 2011 (I think?),  the new 2016 OS X version,  and I have a personal windows 10 laptop with Office on that.

    I will say this.    I couldn't agree more with your comments.   Excel is supposed to be a very useful program in comparison to say, 80's era HP 12C or TI-84 Calculators.    I find it the opposite.   I end up using the brick like 1984 style HP12c vs. Excel anyway for the most simple tasks.  

    That's telling.    No doubt Excel is a powerful calculator.  I was reading a story about MIT's early 60's Fortran computer lab.   And the mathematics crunched through that beast.     Yes.   Excel has enormously more power than that beast 1960's era MIT super computer.

    Fair.    It has some impressive power upgrade to 1980s era brick style calculators.    HP12C  HP10BII or similar types of calculators *(without the ease of use or quickness or reliability).


    This leads me to my final point.     I can't tell if the Windows 10 version of Excel 2016 is significantly worse than the OS X 2016 version of excel  --  which is in general the worst software I've ever used for the mac.     In fact, the bugginess of the app itself is so incredible.  I can't tell you how many times I consistently crash a spreadsheet by clicking on a formula tab by accident and then --- CRASH!!!!

    I can't tell you how USELESS EVERY VBA code ever written is within the framework of excel on all the versions I've used.  

    I can't tell you how UGLY and completely uninspiring the graphics of the charts are.   How incredibly unworkable the editing of those graphs are..

    I can't explain how MEANINGLESS and USELESS VBA code is in any respect to the new Excel.    FORGET THE VBA code if you're using anything beyond 2009's version of OFFICE.  

    It won't work.   and you will crash and reboot constantly or just waste your time.  

    The idea behind excel was it was supposed to be powerful, quick, reliable, and useful. 

    It is SLOW!    VERY SLOW!    Processor speed aside.   This Application on both operating systems are POWER HUNGRY bug ridden monsters.    You need a literally super computer (a cluster array of servers in the basement) to use this app without banging your head on the wall.

    AT THE VERY SAME TIME?    

    I USE IT A LOT!   UNHAPPILY!

    I have not switched to Matlab, Mathematica, R, or Python entirely.    

    But I am planning to one day kibosh Excel altogether and go to R and Python.  

    This product is the worst updated product in all of Microsoft's catalogue.    

    I think the programmers who made these apps are smoking FLAKKA and literally inhaling nitrous while they code this like -- I imagine the worst coders of the company in the basement of the corporate offices of MSFT --- with one red stapler..   so uninspired and unhappy with their lives --  they take their frustrations out on the software itself..  because it's bludgeoned to death by mediocrity!


    I need to get on EBAY now.   and buy myself a WINDOW'S 2003 computer with Excel 2003 on it.    because it's the last time this app was useable to any reliable degree.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
    2016-05-29T03:59:38+00:00

    Very soon Microsoft is going to switch Office for Mac from 32-bit to 64-bit. This should have been done more than a decade ago IMHO. Whether or not they will do the right thing and go multi-core multi-threaded at the same time remains to be seen. In any event, there should be some performance improvement in Office for Mac when they make the switch.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments