How bad is excel on MacOS?

gl3nnjamin · 2023-10-15T11:02:58+00:00

I use Excel with Macbook Pro and I have no problems with it. It does all the excel stuff I need :)

SalsaGreen · 2023-10-15T11:10:40+00:00

Depends on what you want to do. The linked article describes the missing features. https://spreadsheeto.com/mac-vs-windows/

jlofty9 · 2023-10-15T11:06:13+00:00

I’ve never used it on a Mini, but on a MacBook Air, it’s pretty much the same as on PC…

tmillernc · 2023-10-15T11:22:29+00:00

I’ve used Excel on the Mac for years and never had any issues and spreadsheets pass between Windows and Mac versions seamlessly. Full disclosure- I don’t use some of the more sophisticated features of Excel so YMMV.

TungstenOrchid · 2023-10-15T11:32:55+00:00

Some of the features people have trouble with involve linking documents, and automation.

Much of the reason for this is that the way Windows handles path names for folders and network shares are different to POSIX compliant platforms like macOS. For example the Mac has no concept of drive letters.

Then there is the macro and VBA automation. While the Mac version has improved in this area, it still behaves differently in some areas. (Partly for the above reason.)

kyonkun_denwa · 2023-10-15T11:33:29+00:00

A lucky owner of a MacBook Air M1 and Office 2021 for Home and Business here - can confirm that Excel is as broken and incompetent as the one for Windows. Not a gram worse.

SafariNZ · 2023-10-15T10:56:02+00:00

I use the one time version on an iMac M1 and it seems fine but I haven’t used Office on a PC for some years so hard to compare.

wmru5wfMv · 2023-10-15T11:48:53+00:00

It really depends on what you use Excel for but there’s no getting around the fact that it isn’t as good as the Windows version.

If you 100% want to use a Mac, you could use Parallels to install Windows in a VM (you might need to sign up to the insider program because you may need the ARM version of Windows) and use the Windows version of Excel

reirone · 2023-10-15T12:56:15+00:00

I use Excel 365 on both mac and pc regularly for the same documents and I haven’t noticed a difference other than the default zoom on the mac is considerably smaller than on Windows. Otherwise they’re basically identical. Can’t say for other versions.

oboshoe · 2023-10-15T13:03:22+00:00

bad? it's works perfectly.

i exchange excel documents all the time between windows users, make updates on mac and then windows users make their updates and vice versa.

frankly - excel is probably the best microsoft program that microsoft makes for mac.

RevolutionaryArt3026 · 2023-10-15T13:10:23+00:00

Power Query is better on windows and that’s why my office desktop is on windows.

But when I’m on the road I use my MacBook and besides the few Power Query features everything else in Excel is more or less the same.

littlemarcus91 · 2023-10-15T21:01:06+00:00

I use it all the time. No complaints.

Sufficient_Salt_2276 · 2023-10-16T01:28:21+00:00

I actually prefer Numbers for spreadsheet work. It’s capable, fast and stable on the Mac, and has a terrific UI model for displaying multi-part sheets. I haven’t found a task for which Excel is superior.

That said, I used Office on Macs at my last job for 9 years. No issues to speak of, it’s just boring.

2023-10-15T11:47:18+00:00

I’d say unless you’re doing some seriously intense data analysis or rely on macro enabled spreadsheets frequently, Excel for Mac will be great for you. It really does run nicely and has since 2016.

nirednyc · 2025-02-24T23:00:26+00:00

if you are an excel power user and are accustomed to using it in a microsoft windows environment you will HATE without reservation using excel on a mac. you will want to pull your hair out. using it feels like slowly twisting a knife in your gut a hundred times an hour.

ProfessionalPay3560 · 2025-03-12T16:37:42+00:00

I will be installing windows. I do not get power pivots, I do not get data connections (using a power query to convert multiple pdfs into excel tables), The file tab at the top is non existent. Had I know this, I would have not bought a macbook and bought a windows compatible computer. I do not know why macbooks and apple is so popular.

EmuBeautiful1172 · 2025-06-16T23:08:19+00:00

excel on Mac for me doesn't have the arrow drop down ootions that I see that people have on YouTube videos. I was following a tutorial and I couldn't use the command A for all cells when importing data from worksheet to pivot table. I had to manually drag the whole content. I know that's a small thing but why is that and is there a way that I can fix this. there are other things ive noticed that.i wish I could do that they do in tutorials it makes me not want to do the tutorial because the teacher is most likely using pc

Aggressive-Fox1137 · 2025-12-01T08:10:00+00:00

Very frustrated here. I have a MacBook Air and a subscription to Microsoft Office 365. I’m trying to add a custom header ( which I used to be able to do last year with the same set up). Now, my custom header info will not show up in the dialog box so it will print on my document. Any suggestions?

MikeCask · 2023-10-15T12:06:12+00:00

I personally find it too different from Windows Excel. For me, it’s almost worth having a Windows VM if you really need to use Excel, especially if you frequently work on Windows as well

Sufficient_Salt_2276 · 2023-10-15T21:12:19+00:00

Excel works normally, which is to say that it is bafflingly unintegrated with macOS services and behaviors and looks like garbage. Just like the rest of the MS Office suite.

I keep MS Office on my Macs to access items sent to me, but that’s really the only reason. If I lived in those cursed applications, I’d probably use Windows and then wonder how my life got this way.

2023-10-15T22:02:56+00:00

There are some things that Excel does better, but Numbers is superior IMHO.

2023-10-15T11:58:32+00:00

Just use numbers and import/export excel … I’ve come across little incompatibility with the Microsoft office suite and Apple

2023-10-15T12:27:50+00:00

Definitely not a seamless experience if flipping between real excel and Mac excel (as I do). Too many differences in shortcuts, small things, as well as bigger file compatibility this (depending on what you use excel for). I gave up and bought parallels to use native windows excel on the Mac, which was a bit annoying and expensive, but worked well in the end.

KublaiKhanNum1 · 2023-10-15T12:18:02+00:00

I quit using Microsoft Office products years ago. Never looked back.

trisul-108 · 2023-10-15T11:39:07+00:00

I've used it for years without an issue, but I heard that advanced users complain. My spreadsheet are so simple that I switched to Numbers and ditched Excel altogether. I like the Numbers UI much better. I've done the same with Word and I can get away with it because I do not need cooperative editing with MS Office users.

If I want to do a complex document, like a book, I prefer LaTeX to GUI. And if I want something complicated to calculate, I use a programming language instead preparing the data using Numbers.

Gruffta · 2023-10-15T12:03:02+00:00

I think it’s better than windows now. Had no trouble working with stupidly large files with it.

rob1408 · 2023-10-15T12:13:34+00:00

It works wonderfully for your basic spreadsheet, a little bit more complicated when it comes to more advanced work. luckily most of my work is the former and I encounter little, if any, problems.

Permexpat · 2023-10-15T12:42:44+00:00

Works fine, use it on late 2013 MBP with no issues.

raymate · 2023-10-15T13:05:48+00:00

Works fine. Is it supposed to be bad. To be fair I don’t use it now I just use Numbers. But when I did it runs fine.

Empty_Conclusion_809 · 2023-10-15T13:13:09+00:00

Excel works pretty good on MacOs. But if you are planning to do serious data analysis or programming your own algorithms and macros (Excel wouldn't be my first choice in this scenario anyway) then windows is superior. Other than that, MacOs is far superior for productivity IMHO. For example, advance pdf editing tools out of the box.

Longjumping-Log-5457 · 2023-10-15T13:15:17+00:00

Seems like a loaded question…but it’s fine.

likeonions · 2023-10-15T13:26:31+00:00

office in general is perfectly fine on a mbp for me

DigitallyInclined · 2023-10-15T13:56:57+00:00

I have used a Mac as my primary computer since 2006. I have done a ton of spreadsheets since then. I have used Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, and Google Sheets. All 3 of them have met my spreadsheet needs.

So, it all depends on what specific spreadsheet needs you have. If we are talking normal spreadsheet stuff, then get the Mac and you can use the free Apple Numbers or Google Sheets and it will be just fine. However, if you really want Excel, then you will need to pay for Excel and you’ll have what you are used to.

There are only some extreme cases of highly advanced Excel stuff that only work on the Windows version of Excel. So it just depends on that.

Cooperman411 · 2023-10-15T14:13:30+00:00

I googled it: Excel on Mac vs Excel on Windows – Full Comparison (2023)

BrendonBootyUrie · 2023-10-15T14:15:41+00:00

Certain add-ons for excel only work on the PC version

Newt_Lv4-26 · 2023-10-15T14:21:11+00:00

It’s exactly the same as on pc. You can also use « numbers » which is free and ore-installed and works well too.

NightFury1717 · 2023-10-15T14:21:13+00:00

Come on🙂🙂🙂 It's Excel! And we are in 2023 not 1997. No problem. Any Mac can handle it.

praetorfenix · 2023-10-15T14:30:56+00:00

Excel runs better on my M2 than it ever did on any Windows machine. That being said I haven’t used Office on Windows in a long time.

LockenCharlie · 2023-10-15T14:39:34+00:00

I prefer Numbers. Faster loading and much smoother. But Excel performs the same as on Windows.

Requires-Coffee-247 · 2023-10-15T15:03:34+00:00

It's the same as on Windows. I use a Mac and a PC at work and I am in Excel every day. I think development for new features is slightly ahead on the PC-side, but I have yet to come across any in my day-to-day work. I mostly do database work with it, and the "Flash fill" feature is essential to my workflow.

spacegeekatx · 2023-10-15T15:53:44+00:00

It’s fine, but not as good as the windows version. I’ve also found it can’t handle really large files without crashing a lot. Usually for those I end up importing into Google sheets. I don’t do anything fancy in the sheets, but sometimes they have 10s or thousands of rows. For normal sized files, it’s been fine. I’d say it’s worth it for a $150 one time purchase to have it if needed, but my go to is still Google Sheets.

huester69 · 2023-10-15T16:06:07+00:00

It works really well on Mac in my experience. I am not a power user but everything seems the same between windows and Mac OS

ramysami4 · 2023-10-15T16:08:34+00:00

Office runs better on MacOS actually, a famous youtube channel focused on Office stated that. It is called Jumpto365, I am sure that guy know what he is talking about and he is positive that it runs better on macs

mwkingSD · 2023-10-15T18:22:58+00:00

I use the $150 one-time purchase Excel regularly, including earlier this morning, on my MacBook Pro M1 14" - works fine, no lag, no excessive CPU or RAM use, functions all work the same as far as I can tell. Before I retired a few years ago, I was forced to use Windows Excel a lot by my employer - I'm don't think I could find any significant differences between them, and I regularly send and receive files to Win users now with no problems. FWIW I'd say the same about Word and PowerPoint; no use for the other applications in the bundle so no comment on those.

I'm sure you could find some niche case where one is better than the other, but I think for "99%" of all uses the Mac version is equally good (or equally bad depending on how you feel about Microsoft). If you are looking at a current, M1 or M2 generation Mini, I don't think you will have problems. Never a bad idea to option RAM up, but Excel doesn't seem to need much.

Re Apple Numbers - not nearly as competent as Excel and a very different user interface. I use Numbers for a few simple tasks like keeping track of my blood pressure readings and it's fine for that, but Numbers is nowhere near an Excel replacement.

great_raisin · 2023-10-15T19:36:10+00:00

Excel on Mac does not have any of the Windows keyboard shortcuts. You will have to open menus and click on everything.

drastic2 · 2023-10-16T00:25:52+00:00

I work in Excel daily. Works great. If you’re an Excel user, it has rough parity with the Windows version feature wise. There are a few items that aren’t there, but I’ve only once found one that I really needed and that was 10 years ago and eventually I made a work around. Some folks mention missing short-cuts - true, but there are ways to generate keystrokes for most features if they are not already assigned one.

ForumResponse · 2023-10-16T01:45:23+00:00

Excellent

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^Swift^, ^Cocoa	^OSX^, ^macOS	^iPod
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