Why is Excel 2016 for Mac so bad?

re: CUT AND PASTE

I have the same problem with Excel v. 16 and it's been around for what seems like a long time. The secret is to pause for about 2 seconds after "copy" before you paste, that usually works without the beachball delay. Unfortunately, it shouldn't require this, and when like me you're concentrating on work and getting things done, you may often just copy/cut and paste quickly, as we're accustomed to doing with most Mac applications. 

Word used to have a similar problem with cut and paste, and still does in limited situations, when you paste "too quickly", especially the first cut and paste after you've opened Word. Until a few years ago, cut and pasting too quickly in Word was almost guaranteed to crash it.

Only Office apps seem to have this elementary problem. Most developers have long ago mastered this seemingly simple function. My guess is that Microsoft uses its own code instead of the OS X built in interface tools. (sorry I don't know the technical way to describe some of this). And the reason for that is probably that Office for Mac is a port of the WIndows code for Word and Excel, with the one exception that the drop down menus remain in place. Microsoft kept the menus so that they could describe Office for Mac as "unmistakably Mac", when in fact it's not at all.

As a side comment, the most obvious problem with the ribbon (and with the Office for Mac drop down menus which are separately included in every window instead of appearing in a proper menu bar) is the workflow interruption that results when you don't have the Word or Excel window at full width. This is another Windows interface feature. Some of the ribbon functions and menus disappear and can't be found until you realize what a "mistake" you've made by using slightly narrowed windows. Just another way to interrupt your workflow.

re: CUT AND PASTE

I have the same problem with Excel v. 16 and it's been around for what seems like a long time. The secret is to pause for about 2 seconds after "copy" before you paste, that usually works without the beachball delay. Unfortunately, it shouldn't require this, and when like me you're concentrating on work and getting things done, you may often just copy/cut and paste quickly, as we're accustomed to doing with most Mac applications. 

Word used to have a similar problem with cut and paste, and still does in limited situations, when you paste "too quickly", especially the first cut and paste after you've opened Word. Until a few years ago, cut and pasting too quickly in Word was almost guaranteed to crash it.

Only Office apps seem to have this elementary problem. Most developers have long ago mastered this seemingly simple function. My guess is that Microsoft uses its own code instead of the OS X built in interface tools. (sorry I don't know the technical way to describe some of this). And the reason for that is probably that Office for Mac is a port of the WIndows code for Word and Excel, with the one exception that the drop down menus remain in place. Microsoft kept the menus so that they could describe Office for Mac as "unmistakably Mac", when in fact it's not at all.

As a side comment, the most obvious problem with the ribbon (and with the Office for Mac drop down menus which are separately included in every window instead of appearing in a proper menu bar) is the workflow interruption that results when you don't have the Word or Excel window at full width. This is another Windows interface feature. Some of the ribbon functions and menus disappear and can't be found until you realize what a "mistake" you've made by using slightly narrowed windows. Just another way to interrupt your workflow. 

Thanks so much. That does seem to make a difference but it really shouldn't be necessary with an expensive ubiquitous program like Office 365. btw in response to another comment I switched on Activity Monitor during the minor operation of opening a tiny Excel file and it appears that this occupies more than 100% of the CPU: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8g73ygzy3qqyv2b/Activity%20Monitor%20Opening%20Excel%20File.png?dl=0

Regards

Joe Earle

Hi Joe and Kenneth

So far two culprits have been identified in slow copy/paste with Excel.

One problem is related to Mac OS HandOff

How to **Use Handoff** Between a **Mac** with **Mac** **OS X** and iPhone ...

A different problem with the same symptoms is an unidentified 3rd party menu management tool.

Very few people are affected by the problem, and so far it seems to be external to Excel where keyboard input is intercepted and acted upon before Excel receives the input from Mac OS, which is slowing things way down.

The jury is still out. We don't know all the causes. We do know very few are affected and so far the problem is external to Excel. The hunt for all causes continues.

.... and this just in.

A third culprit has been identified. It is corruption in the user account. See this thread

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/copy-and-paste-slow-in-excel-1620-on-mac/5014d977-f96e-4716-8133-3faa3dc29ce0

A fourth culprit has been identified - Zoom level. When zoom is 100%, Excel runs faster.

Microsoft Excel document very slow