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. Anonymous
    2017-11-01T08:07:37+00:00

    I don't understand why rollover features that have been available on the Windows version for over 10 years are still not featured in the Mac version. You know, where you can see what the colour of the font/fill/line will be before committing to it. Big time waster on the Mac version.

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  2. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP
    2017-11-01T16:48:46+00:00

    It's called "milking the cash cow." Why spend money if you don't have to? Besides, the desktop is dead and everyone wants only mobile apps these days, right?

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-11-02T01:04:36+00:00

    Omg this post is so hilarious and spot on. Thank you for making my recent excel hell experience a bit more tolerable..

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-11-02T09:53:08+00:00

    This post should be renamed because Word 2016 for Mac is equally rubbish.

    I would suggest, "Why is Office 2016 for Mac so bad?" but I have no experience with PowerPoint 2016 for Mac. Outlook 2016 for Mac is just about okay, but I don't use it as much as I use Apple Mail, so I can't really comment.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-11-12T15:22:27+00:00

    I agree with the OP.

    This Office 365 version of Excel for Mac (version as of Nov 2017) has more bugs than a bait store.

    Glitchy screen motion, occasional freezes, a filter that doesn't work as advertised. These are just the things I can remember right now, as they've just happened to me - again.

    Yes, it's totally updated, yes my Mac is modern, running latest High Sierra. Everything's up to the minute.

    And yes, I've used Excel on Windows quite a bit, so I have firm expectations of how it should run.

    There are only two logical explanations for this infliction upon the Excel-using Mac community....

    1. MS really are trying to subtly pressure Mac users into giving up their machines and buying a M$ device.
    2. MS didn't want to spend the time and/or money to roll out a finished product, realizing that their Mac customers would serve as a hapless and increasingly frustrated bunch of beta testers for them. Why spend the money when the customers will test it for you, and pay you for it at the same time??

    Look - if you rolled out any non-software product with these bugs - a car, a table, a piece of computer hardware.....it would all be sent back, and the customers would go somewhere else.

    It may be time to find other office software.

    It may be time for MS to get off their laurels and actually do some work.

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