Visual Basic Support in Mac 2016

I take it you are not liking the latest version of Excel for Mac very much.

If you haven't updated lately, then do so. The current update 15.26 is 64-bit and runs noticeably faster than the 32-bit version. It's no speed champion, but it is a definite improvement. My recommendation for using Excel on a Mac is to have a minimum of 16 Gig of actual RAM (double that if you are using Parallels or if your workbooks are large and/or laden with objects). Macs that don't have video cards and rely on INTEL graphics rendering use the CPU to manage the screen and screen RAM. This is hopelessly slow. A mac with a fast video card with dedicated video RAM will work much better.

Microsoft has a free version of Microsoft Excel to compete with Numbers, LibreOffice, and other free products. It's a stripped down version on line at docs.com and onedrive.com. It's sharing component is very good. I like the survey feature. But it's targeted toward the same markets as the other free apps - light duty users such as housespouses, students and teachers. Like the other free spreadsheets the free version is feature sparse.

For my own purposes, Excel for Mac has about 1/3 of the features of Office for Windows. When the VB Editor finally comes around I'll boost that up to about 1/2. Where the 2016 Mac version really falls down is data analysis. It lacks all of the power tools and has no SQL editor except for a text editor that replaced Microsoft Query. Very sad, indeed.

With regard to extensibility - none of the free alternatives offer much in the way of extensibility. You get completely broken VBA in LibreOffice and no security at all for VB code. Mac Excel supports VBA, AppleScript and Javascript. Windows Excel supports VBA and Javascript but not AppleScript. Microsoft has promised to restore the 2011 VB Editor to Excel 2016 some day - a day which has not been specified. There are more bugs in VBA on the Mac than in Windows, but the actual number of crashes and bugs does not seem to be terribly large is my conclusion based on the relatively few problem reports I've seen here in the forums. If you're getting a crash from VBA code, then I suggest posting a question that addresses your crash - include code snippets and steps to reproduce. Always be sure you're including the version and build number in your questions, as Microsoft is actively fixing VBA bugs and each update comes with its own unique set of bugs.

As for Excel 2016 for Windows, I think it rocks. It's fast. It has a whole lot of features missing from any other spreadsheet product. I agree with your assessment about chart formatting in Excel for Windows. I often make charts in Windows Excel, format the charts in Mac Excel, and then return to Windows Excel for most everything else. You can format just about every aspect of a chart, so if you have an ugly chart, I point my finger at you, not Excel.

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!

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"