External data in Excel 2016 for Mac. We examined how we could improve external data for Excel 2016 for Mac and made the following changes: Excel 2016 for Mac comes with a pre-installed and integrated SQL Server ODBC driver, which we worked hand-in-hand with Simba Technologies to provide. Excel For Mac 16. The new update has disabled the functionality of Developer tab features: 'Check Box' cannot be selected with checkbox, 'Combo Box' pulldown cannot be selected, 'Scroll Bar' and 'Option Box' do not work.
One of the advantages of doing the last Office 2016 product review is that I can leverage work others have done to save you, the reader, some redundant explanation. So if you haven’t yet, check out the reviews of,. Much of what you’ll read about in those apps applies to, too: Mac-specific features like multi-touch gestures, full screen support, Retina graphics, a cleaned-up and easily-hidden ribbon, a fixed task pane that replaces floating palettes for formatting, integrated support for OneDrive, and excellent cross-platform file compatibility. You can read more about these features in the above-mentioned reviews; they work just the same way in the new Excel. (As with the other apps, you can only presently get Excel 2016 if you’re an Office 365 subscriber.) What else is new When you launch Excel 2016, you’ll be greeted by Excel’s clean new appearance. You can choose from a colored header (new in 2016) or the usual gray header from previous releases.
Workbooks with multiple tabs get a much cleaner tab bar, losing the fake 3D appearance. Colored tabs are now colored with a thin bar, instead of a gradated fill on the entire tab, making it easier to read tab names. Overall, I found the new interface pleasant and easier to use than in older versions of Excel. Excel includes the Smart Lookup feature found in other Office apps.
Smart Lookup uses Bing to show contextual information for a highlighted word—while this is undoubtedly useful in Word, I didn’t really find myself using it much while working on spreadsheets. But if you suddenly need to look up everything there is to know about the word “amortization,” Smart Lookup is ready for you. So what’s new and unique to Excel 2016? Quite a few things, starting with the removal of the Standard and Formatting toolbars.
While you could hide these in Excel 2011, they’re completely gone—replaced by the task pane—in Excel 2016. I don’t miss them at all, as they were redundant and took up screen space. Also new is greatly improved sharing.
Save your file to OneDrive, and you can then use a sharing button to invite people via their email address, copy a link you can then email to others, or send the workbook as either a PDF or native workbook attachment. Recipients can (assuming you grant permission) edit your file, even if they don’t own Excel, through Microsoft’s web-hosted Excel app. Fans of pivot tables will find a new slicer tool that greatly increases the usability of pivot tables. A slicer is a way to limit the data you see in a pivot table.
In a pivot table showing years of sales by salesperson, for example, you can use slicers to restrict the table to one or more years, or to one or more salespeople. Slicers let you limit what you see in a pivot table; you can add one or more to really refine what you see. Here, only data from 2012, 2013, and 2015 is visible. Another “new” feature is the inclusion of the Analysis Toolpak add-on. I say new in quotes because while new to Excel 2016, long-time Excel vets will remember the Analysis Toolpak from the pre-OS X days.
If you need to do complex statistical and/or engineering analysis—think Anova, Fourier Analysis, Regression, etc.—you’ll find the Analysis Toolpak invaluable. Also included are a number of formulas that were previously found only in Excel 2013 for Windows, improving cross-platform compatibility. Again in the interest of cross-platform compatibility, many Excel for Windows shortcuts now work on the Mac, which is quite useful if you regularly work on both platforms. Excel also makes charting easier by analyzing your data and letting you select a recommended chart from a convenient drop-down menu. Select the data you want graphed, click the Recommended Charts button, then browse the mini chart previews to find the one that best matches what you’re trying to say. Excel 2016 helps you pick the right chart by analyzing your data and presenting a list of charts you can use to visualize that data.
What’s gone If you’re a serious user of Excel’s macro facilities, you are in for a big letdown: Excel’s 2016 support for macros is. While you can create and record macros, the macro editor is crippled: there’s no way to insert procedures, modules, etc. About all you can do is hand-edit a recorded macro. Further, you can’t create custom menu commands, as you could in prior versions of Excel.
(Microsoft details is Visual Basic support in a ). In short, if you need macros, stick to Excel 2011.
After the great progress made with macros in the 2011 release, this is a real letdown. Assuming the macro issue doesn’t affect you, the only other real problem I have with Excel 2016 is the loss of customizability of keyboard shortcuts and menus. In older Excel versions, you could easily customize which commands show on which menus, and even create entirely new menus containing just the commands you specify. This dialog in Excel 2011 allowed you to easily customize Excel’s menus and commands—even adding a new menu to the menu bar, if you desired. You could also assign one or more keyboard shortcuts to any Excel command, including commands that you can’t program via OS X’s keyboard shortcut interface.
The dialog that handles all of this customization is missing from Excel 2016; if you don’t like what Microsoft gave you for menus and certain shortcuts, you’re stuck with them. A related issue is that some familiar—and useful—shortcuts are now changed or gone. Control-I and Control-K used to insert and delete rows or columns; now you must use three fingers (Shift-Command-Equals) to add a row, and Command-Minus to remove a row.
You also used to be able to Option-click a row or column to quickly add a new blank row or column; this no longer works. If you use the keyboard a lot, you’ll want to open Excel’s help and search “keyboard shortcuts,” where you’ll find a huge list of shortcuts. Bottom line If you’re an Excel user who doesn’t rely on macros, and doesn’t need to customize your menus and commands, Excel 2016 has a lot going for it. The new interface is pleasant, the cross-platform features are a welcome addition, the performance is very good, and the Mac-specific features make Excel feel as native as any other Mac app.
But if you do need macros and customizability, then you’re going to have to stick to Excel 2011and that’s too bad, because Excel 2016 is a solid release in every other regard.
Microsoft has released Office 2016 for Mac – a full set of Office programs for Macintosh OS X computers. There’s updated programs for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote.
All the new programs support Mac goodies like Retina display, Full Screen and Multi-touch. Overall, there’s little surprising or truly new in Office 2016 for Mac. The ‘new’ features boasted by Microsoft are really features from Office for Windows that have finally made it to Office for Mac. For example the Design tab, threaded comments in Word. Excel’s formula builder, external data connections and ‘new’ PivotTable Slicers. Outlook’s push mail, conversation view and mail preview. All these things and more will be very familiar to users of Office 2010/2013/2016 for Windows.
Also brought ‘Into line’ is the interface which is more consistent with Office for Windows and the various phone/tablet apps. Office 2016 times two There’s now two ‘Office 2016’ products. One for Mac and the upcoming Office 2016 for Windows. That’s a nuisance because, until now, we’ve been able to tell Mac and Windows versions of Office apart simply by the ‘year’ – for example Office 2011 always meant the Mac version because there was no ‘2011’ Office for Windows. Install Office 365 customers (personal, student or organization) can go to their My Account page, choose Office 2016 for Mac. There’s a 1.1GB download, then installation. Stand-alone, single purchase Office 2016 for Mac will be available in September.
One advantage of the Office 365 subscription/rental is that you can switch between Windows and Mac without cost. If you’re thinking of switching to a Mac computer, you can simply download and install Office for Mac without paying more. Ribbon comparison The Word Home ribbon looks much the same in Word 2016 for Windows (top) and Word 2016 for Mac (bottom) The Styles gallery is a little different in Word 2016 for Mac. There are left/right buttons to scroll through the styles plus a down arrow to display a full list.
Quick Access Toolbar There is no Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) in Office 2016 for Mac. At least not like Office for Windows. You might think those buttons above the tabs are a QAT. Unlike the Office for Windows QAT, the Mac equivalent isn’t configurable at all. There’s no way to add more buttons or menus. Cloud connections No surprise that there’s direct connections to OneDrive and OneDrive for Business accounts, but disappointingly not Dropbox or Box.
To enable an OneDrive connection, click on the ‘File’ button on the top row. Click on your account icon at the top of the File menu, then the plus sign next to ‘Connected Services’.
Then choose OneDrive or OneDrive for Business. Hopefully more on this list in future. There’s always the option to include other cloud storage options by installing the sync software separately then opening documents from the synced copy.
Here’s a look at some of the ribbons in Office 2016 for mac a more detailed view than Microsoft is providing. Note that the top buttons (File, Save, Undo, Redo) aren’t customizable like the Office for Windows equivalent ‘Quick Access Toolbar’. Word 2016 for Mac The Design tab, familiar to users of Word 2013 for Windows is now available for Mac users.
There’s a Developer Tab and tools for Word and Excel. Turn on from Preferences View Document Compatibility Office 2016 for Mac is almost fully document compatible with Office for Windows and other Office apps.
For many common purposes, you can open an Office document, worksheet or presentation in any Microsoft Office program. If the program strikes something it can’t deal with (like the Equation Editor) then it should ignore that part but still save it back to the edited document. Microsoft calls this ’round tripping’ of Office documents. Like many Microsoft promises, ’round tripping’ was dynamite in demos but less than perfect in the real world. Over the years ’round tripping’ has gradually become more reliable. Font embedding still missing There’s one missing part of Office 2016 for Mac that makes document compatibility very difficult.
We regularly hear complaints about Word for Mac documents that look wrong when opened in Word for Windows. They are complaints that Microsoft does hear with convenient selective deafness. We’ve talked before about – or rather the lack of it in Word for Mac.
Word 2016 for Mac still lacks the essential ability to include fonts within the document. A document formatted in Word for Mac can look quite different when opened in Word for Windows because the same fonts aren’t being used. Word for Windows users can avoid that with the Save option ‘Embed fonts in the file’ but that’s missing from Word for Mac.
Excel 2016 for Mac PowerPoint 2016 for Mac PowerPoint 2016 for Mac gets it’s own Animation pane, just like it’s big brother Windows program. Outlook 2016 for Mac Unified Inbox Outlook 2016 for Mac has a ‘unified’ Inbox where the contents of multiple email accounts can be merged into a single view.
This defaults on and might suit you. Others will want to turn the unified Inbox off because the email accounts are for different parts of your life (e.g.
Personal, Work, Hobby etc.). Go to Outlook Preferences General Group similar folders, such as Inboxes, from different accounts.
Outlook 2016 for Mac also has Conversation view. It’s not as compact as Outlook 2013/2016 for Windows, taking up the reading pane.
Some people don’t like and Office-Watch.com was once among them. However we’ve come around and now use the view constantly.
Corporate users will greatly miss the Ignore button – still missing from Outlook 2016 for Mac. Ignore tells Outlook to send past and future Conversation messages to the Deleted Items folder. A handy way to skip past in-house email exchanges that you can live without. OneNote 2016 for Mac OneNote for Mac has most of the features you’ll need. But it can’t embed videos and searching isn’t as complete at Windows users will be used to.