Why is Excel 2016 for Mac so bad?

Anonymous
2016-08-27T19:22:32+00:00

I'm wondering what people think - Excel 2016 for Mac seems to be so bad that it must be intentional. Am I wrong? Is Microsoft still waging a low-grade war on Mac users by making their products subtly awful on a Mac? Is it just that they have really bad developers? Is it that the developers are good but the management somehow makes them do terrible work? Is it that whoever is in charge of designing Excel for Mac has an ex who uses it for his/her job and this person has devoted his/her life to making his/her ex's life bad in confusing ways? Has a nefarious actor infiltrated Microsoft in order to make their products just bad enough that companies will continue to use them but their awfulness will create a small long-term drag on the US economy? Answers would be appreciated. Thanks!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | MacOS

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  1. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP
    2018-10-10T14:50:26+00:00

    Office 2011 peacefully coexists with Office 2016. The installations do not interfere with each other in any way. The tech you spoke with is ignorant and wrong.

    All support for Office 2011 ended October 2017.

    Apple will be discontinuing support for 32-bit applications at some point in the future. Office 2011 is 32-bit. When Apple makes the switch to 64-bit only, you won't be able to run Office 2011 apps in those versions of Mac OS.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-10-09T14:04:04+00:00

    One of the Support Techs insisted that I delete Excel 2011 completely in order to properly install Excel 2016; I was told, after this was done, that it could not be restored (which I find hard to believe).  I was also advised that Microsoft is discontinuing support for Excel 2011.

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  3. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP
    2018-10-09T13:48:44+00:00

    Hi

    Please go to the Excel menu and choose About Excel. You should have one of the following versions on Oct 9, 2018:

    16.17

    16.18

    16.16.2

    16.16.3

    If you have any other version, please install updates, then test again. Go to Excel's Help menu and choose Check for Updates to launch AutoUpdate. If you continue to have the problem after updating and then restarting your Mac, please start a question in the forum so this issue can be addressed directly. Be sure to include the version number you are referring to when you post. If there are any other factors you think could be involved (for example: multiple monitors or an unusual hardware configuration), please be sure to mention those factors.

    Thank you.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-10-09T05:35:39+00:00

    I am having the same issue..the numbers end up in the wrong cell and it's nerve rattling trying to chase the cause down.I lose so much time I want to SCREAM!!   I'll will check out your header discovery. How lazy can their programmers be?

    Thanks for the tip... but this is really ridiculous.. the 2011 edition is luring me back!!

    Mike

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  5. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP
    2018-10-07T13:50:06+00:00

    Unfortunately, the VBA implementation in LibreOffice Calc is worse than in Excel for Mac. When they set up VBA in Calc, LibreOffice made some horrible choices. Instead of making userforms that work everywhere, they work ONLY in Calc! Userforms made in Excel don't work in Calc. Not only that, they chose to implement VBA only in Calc and not in Writer or Presenter. Within VBA you can't call one sub from another, there's no AutoOpen or AutoClose. These factors make VBA in Calc unusable, IMHO.

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