Why is Excel 2016 for Mac so bad?

Office 2016 is another new interface on top of the same old code. As in the past, mostly reliable unless things get too big or complex, and still required when you exchange or collaborate on files, since .docx and .xlsx files are used by everyone else.

I don't know whether or not you've seen other discussions, but in the latest Insider Fast build the code base was bumped up about 10 year's worth from version 14.0 to version 16.6. That's a giant step forward.

Yes, it is very bad.

Had to say it, sorry.

A close friend of mine, an engineer, told me that Excel 2016 for Windows has many of the same usability problems as Excel for Mac. I've found the same thing.

I've used Excel since the original Office for Mac 1998. It has always had fewer functions, so I'm used to that. Excel for Mac meets the vast majority of my needs, which are pretty extensive all in all: I've adapted to what's available in the Mac versions over the years.

Since I'm registered for Office 365 which allows me 5 installations, I have Office for Windows installed as well, running under Parallels, but I make little use of it.

I find Office for Mac's use of both ribbon and standard Mac pull down menus is a major benefit of the Mac version. I don't have the time to look for what I need in the ribbon: if I know where to find it, the ribbon works great, but I know where everything is in the pull down menus so I don't waste time searching. And menus have keyboard shortcuts, which are the fastest way to work. The ribbon is also harder to use as it relies on many small icons and tiny fonts - harder to read than the menus. 

I've found Microsoft is not responsive to bug reports. I've reported and carefully described over the last year a few bugs that cause crashes, but I don't believe any have been fixed. Most of the patches are either cosmetic or for security problems.

Office 2016 is another new interface on top of the same old code. As in the past, mostly reliable unless things get too big or complex, and still required when you exchange or collaborate on files, since .docx and .xlsx files are used by everyone else.

@ Mabi

My first Mac was an Apple ][+ 

I've been using Microsoft Office for Mac since 1985 when it first came out. I have also used Microsoft Office for Windows.

When Microsoft released Office 2016 for Mac I thought it was the worst commercial software I had ever used in my life. It knocked Netscape version 6 off that perch in the abyss. That was 2 years ago. In the intervening time, Microsoft has worked diligently to debug Office 2016 for Mac. It is no longer the worst software I've ever used. With the release of the new Visual Basic Editor and the thousands of bug fixes and feature enhancements made over the past two years, I now consider Office for Mac (the Office 365 rendition) a very good software suite. Is it perfect? Far from it. Is it the best available? Yes, it is, and by a long shot.

The only feature in Excel 2016 for Mac that currently has some troubles is the Solver add-in. Microsoft is working to fix Solver. Some fixes have come with each of the most recent updates: 15.37  15.38  and 15.39. The work on Solver is not finished as of this writing, but I do expect Solver to be glitch-free within a few weeks.

The object model for Office for Mac is version 14 (approximately Windows Office 2010 object model). The object model for Office for Windows is version 16. The Mac version is two full versions behind. While everything we have in Excel works, we don't have everything the Windows version has. Microsoft is on track to deliver the same code base as Office for Windows. No time-frame has been announced. It's a major undertaking. It is my hope they can pull this off sometime late this year or early next year. When this will happen remains to be seen. When it happens, Mac users should have a nearly identical feature set with Office for Windows.

To the best of my knowledge, all of the features that are in Excel 2016 do work. The problem I find is that not all of the features of Excel for Windows are in Excel 2016 for Mac.

In my humble opinion, you cannot seriously be a Mac-user, are you? All features that are in Excel 2016 work? That might be true in a literal sense, but HOW they work, HOW LONG they need to do their job and if their results are reproducible (now talking about Word) seems COMPLETELY random and far off from being mature!

I do agree with the previous posters that this product is NOWHERE close to being worth the money they ask for it! We pay it, because we HAVE TO, because we simply cannot use any of the great, functioning softwares that in fact are out there, just because MS Office still (and probably will be for ever) a de facto standard, bad as it may be. 

I also deeply disagree with your judgment that "the problem [...] is that not all of the features of Excel for Windows are in Excel 2016 for Mac". Please, please, please, Microsoft, do not even try to put more features into the poor Mac Office suite, before you have not figured out how to write decent software for this platform! Office already has too many features, that I feel MS developers simply have lost control over (not even on Windows")!