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.

Thanks Jim.  I agree with your perspective.  I will keep this positive as much as possible --not really even all that sporting to critique the Mac version which has such obvious shortcomings.

I'm using both Office versions on my Mac.  The Windows version is running under Parallels.  The only Mac-native program I use routinely is Outlook, which is at least adequate.

It sounds like the top priority for Microsoft should be to get VBA working on the Mac version, but they are acting very resource-constrained in getting this done --focusing on O365 etc.  I can't understand the mindset of not developing aggressively for the Mac platform which has generally been growing in market share and which is disproportionately used by students and a population of high end professional users for whom hardware cost is not a barrier.

A second priority for Microsoft should be cleaning up obvious UI shortcomings and bugginess in really basic tasks.  One example is ability to insert and resize pictures in Outlook emails.  This is a "many times a day" task that barely works in Outlook 2016 for OS X.

One thing that I have always wished for (and which keeps me in the PC version) is the brilliant shortcut key user interface in the Windows versions of the programs.  Why has Microsoft missed the chance to build something like this into the Mac version?  It is a true competitive advantage of Office for Windows IMO.

 I'm referring to the ability to execute any Office command with a combination of Alt-keys and also the ability to populate and execute dialog boxes with keystrokes only.  What I find particularly compelling about this is that you don't need to memorize the keystrokes like you do in any Mac program and particularly in Office for Mac.  Memorization happens naturally from looking at the prompts (e.g. In Excel, you type the Alt-key and immediately see than "M" takes you to the Formula tab and "N" selects the Name Manager in Excel.  After doing this about 5 times, you naturally memorize the keystrokes, and you can perform tasks much faster than by using a mouse to select things on the ribbon.  I would go so far to say that shortcuts and ability to fly through tasks in their software is the one area where Microsoft has built a superior user interface.  However, this has always been a Windows-only feature that is one reason nobody gets that attached to Office for Mac.  I could no more give up working with these shortcuts than I could go back to working entirely in a command line environment.

After having used Excel 2004 for all my spreadsheet and plotting needs for the last 10 years (because it works), I finally jumped into Office 2016 a few weeks ago because it was becoming apparent to me that 10.6.8 was finally being left behind for many important applications.  I had assumed that with Office 2016 being out for over a year, that it would be reasonably mature and not lacking any major features.  So I was very confused when I jumped into VBA yesterday to edit a macro and found basically a text editor in front of me.  I'm totally amazed that VBA is essentially MIA with no promised arrival date.  As someone else said, why isn't Microsoft throwing all its resources at making 2016 at least have feature parity with prior versions of office.  While "patiently" waiting, I guess I'll have to reinstall Office 2011 so I can tweak VBA code...