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Microsoft Office Online (Excel) It is a Microsoft Office suite (Including Excel online) that is just online with minor addition of features, and lacks some power user features of the desktop app such as, macros, mail merge, Format Painter, shading, borders and the ribbon, etc. If you want something within the world of Microsoft Word and Excel, the best choice is to get the Microsoft Office for Mac. It is far the best word processor for Mac. I have tried many, including Pages what is more of a joke and not a word processor. You may try OpenOffice or LibreOffice as well. Both look like Microsoft Word old style and are free: 1. Excel, Word, and PowerPoint on Mac (version 13.329 or later) Specify an equivalent COM add-in in the manifest To enable compatibility between your Office Add-in and COM add-in, identify the equivalent COM add-in in the manifest of your Office Add-in.
- Given all the open source office projects out there, including OpenOffice and KOffice, as well as Gnumeric, I don't understand why Apple users should be deprived of a quality standalone Free spreadsheet app.
That was my point.Quote:Originally Posted by Chucker
Never said that.
Of those, only QuickTime Pro is commercial, so you don't have much of a point. And yes, I use iChat as well as Yahoo! Messenger, despite having previously used Adium for years. And yes, I use Terminal over iTerm. And yes, I use QuickTime Pro over MPlayer. Heck, while in Windows, I often even use Internet Explorer 7, which is perfectly fine and unlike Firefox actually has proper interface elements, thankyouverymuch. I'm sorry if I suck in your view.
Never said so.
If you don't want to pay for something, no matter what, that's your choice to make, but it's nothing short of ignorant. Sometimes commercial software is superior. Sometimes open source software is superior. It has nothing at all to do with the license or the price tag.
(edited unnecessary statement) - Quote:Originally Posted by JavaCowboy
And you missed my point as well. Given that Microsoft is an evil company, why should I use their software?
Because to brush tens of thousands of people as single-handedly 'evil' is insulting and unfitting. Some, perhaps even most, of Microsoft's projects are 'evil', and perhaps have all sorts of other problems. Some, on the other hand, are perfectly fine. Microsoft is organized in hundreds of little teams (with far too many layers of management), so the monolithicism you accuse Microsoft of simply does not apply.Quote:
That's cute, but if they help get my work done quicker right here, right now, I couldn't care less.
Not to mention, of course, that MS Office is moving away from proprietary formats, so your criticism only applies to the aging Office 2004.Quote:
More often than not, commercial software sucks. More often than not, open source software sucks.
More often than not, any software sucks, regardless of price tag or licensing.Quote:
Still, commercial software vendors don't give you the ability to fix the software yourself, effectively holding you hostage.
And open source projects tend to have awful code documentation, effectively making it prohibitively impossible for you to fix the software yourself without doing a crash course of several weeks to try and figure out the absurd source code structure.
Or you could end up in a situation like the Gimp, where the oh-so-non-proprietary file format isn't actually documented much at all, and where forked projects fail to be completely compatible for lack of documentation and standardization.
Don't assume that open source necessarily makes things easier for you. Yes, it theoretically enables you to fix things. But the reality is extremely far away from that, because at the end of the day, very few developers actually enjoy focusing on maintaining, documenting and restructuring code when they feel they don't have to because it's just about good enough for them ?*after all, they're already familiar with it.
That's true of Mozilla.org code, OpenOffice.org code, Gimp code, GNOME code, whathaveyou. It's a universal problem. Your idealism of 'I can fix it myself' is just a few inches short of a pipe dream.Quote:
A commercial software vendor will be strongly motivated to provide as many features as possible to win as many customers as possible.
Not necessarily. Typically, yes, but not always. Some vendors instead focus on having few features, but trying to implement them rather well. Funny that we're on the topic of Office software, in fact, since iWork is a great example of that. It doesn't do a lot, but what it can do is generally implemented in a much better way than offered by any competitor, regardless of licensing or price tag.Quote:
Open source software has an important advantage in that it's made by people who use it
Nonsense. Eating your own dogfood applies to commercial software just as much.Quote:
I'm looking forward to KOffice getting ported to OS X, starting with version 4.0. When that arrives, that's what I'll use.
Yes, KOffice is an interesting contender, because unlike OpenOffice.org, it doesn't blindly emulate virtually everything Microsoft does.Quote:
I'm not sure why Apple doesn't offer a stripped-down spreadsheet as an equivalent to TextPad, which has everything I could possibly want in a work processor.
Perhaps because they simply aren't done developing it? - Quote:Originally Posted by JavaCowboy
Given all the open source office projects out there, including OpenOffice and KOffice, as well as Gnumeric, I don't understand why Apple users should be deprived of a quality standalone Free spreadsheet app.
That was my point.
AbiWord does run natively on OS X, so the sister project Gnumeric (as part of GNOME Office) might move into that direction as well, hopefully. - Quote:Originally Posted by Slewis
There is a time and a place for all Applications, but you nearly killed me when you said IE7 was better then Firefox.
I laugh, because you see, that is a REALLY good joke. No I'm serious, that has to be the funniest thing I ever read. With it's UI being as inconsistent as it is, and the simple little matter that Microsoft pretty much owns the internet now, if you were serious you would have to be locked in a rubber room.
Wait?? Microsoft owns the Internet?
1 Word: ActiveX.
The internet is still not Purged of this disease and a lot of Web Developers are still using it. I have no idea why.. but the good news is Microsoft appears to be phasing it out.
Another reason why IE sucks as much as it does: If you try to uninstall it you pretty much screw up your entire OS (if you use Windows) because a lot of Apps rely on it. Taking all of that into account IE7 is the WORST Microsoft product one can possibly imagine.
That's enough ranting on about all the ways IE is the WORST product Microsoft ever came out with. I think It's time for me to get Firefox back because I'm going insane using only Camino, and Safari has that horrendous UI..
Your ActiveX argument is about third parties being too incompetent to implement it and alternative technologies properly. ActiveX is essentially just as proprietary as its alternative, namely the Netscape/Mozilla plug-in format. It just happens that the latter is more commonly supported, but that doesn't really make it non-proprietary. Neither is standardized by an independent body.
And your uninstallation argument applies just as much to WebKit, so by your own account, all WebKit browsers, such as Safari, Shiira, OmniWeb, whathaveyou, must be awful. They're not. - Quote:Originally Posted by Slewis
And what does this have to do with the Netscape/Mozilla Plug-In format?
It's the competitor.Quote:
No.Quote:
There is no W3C standard for plug-ins. Please learn to read my posts as I have already stated all this. - It's fairly obvious to anyone who's been with the Mac a long time that iWork was deliberately hobbled to keep Office on the platform.
There's really no other explanation why Apple provides free software with consumer Macs that allow me to shoot and edit a movie and then burn it to DVD, but won't provide a spreadsheet to count how much the darn project will cost me.
Jobs is no fool. He is fully aware of the need for a consumer spreadsheet, and he's also aware that such software is trivial for Apple to build. Sabotage from Redmond is the ONLY reason not to bundle a spreadsheet with the Mac.
This will be the seventh consecutive MacWorld that I have asked for a modern spreadsheet for the Mac. I still use AppleWorks for many quick projects, but every time it's launched one wonders why such basic functionality hasn't been updated for so long. (For an interesting history on Appleworks, read this.)
I am hopeful that whatever deal Jobs struck to protect Office development has expired, and that iWork will be significantly updated with a fix for line spacing in Pages and the addition of a spreadsheet finally. Given that Office won't be coming for a year (and iWork doesn't really directly compete with Office anyway), I hope this is the case.
Forget the iPhone or even new hardware, the best thing that could happen for the platform this MacWorld would be a Mac spreadsheet.
It's about time. - Quote:Originally Posted by tonton
Chucker, website developers don't write code specifically for Netscape/Mozilla plugins. There are no websites out there that work only on Firefox because they require these plugins.
That's the problem with ActiveX.
They are not comparable.
Yes, they are very much comparable. ActiveX is the plug-in standard used by Internet Explorer; the Netscape/Mozilla plug-in format is the one used by Safari, Firefox, Opera and dozens of others.
Now,
1) the latter is clearly more common if you count the amount of browser implementing it
2) the latter is more openly documented.
But they're both proprietary. - Quote:Originally Posted by Kickaha
Well, unless you want to transfer to Excel on Windows.
Or previous versions of Excel for Mac.
Or later versions of Excel for either.
Or..
MS can't ever seem to get file compatibility straight, so I'm not sure why it's so important for other apps to be 100% accurate all the time..
(They've gotten *better*, but they're not 100%, and traditionally, it's been a big lie.)
w00t!
I happen to use Excel on 2 PC's (desktop (Intel P4) and lappy (AMD
Turion) running XP SP2 Professional, Office 2003) and a Mac (OS X 10.4.8 (Quad G5), Office 2004) on pretty much a daily basis, and have moved 100's of Excel spreadsheets between these 3 platforms, and have never had a compatibility problem. And this includes extensive use of the Solver and Analysis toolkits.
AFAIK, Excel as a spreadsheet is the best there is at it's price point, on any platform. Most widely used, most feature rich.
If you (or anyone else) has suggestions for alternative spreadsheet software (<= Excel's price point), on any platform, please let me know, as I'm always interested in getting the most from this type of application (since I'm a heavy user of spreadsheets). - Quote:Originally Posted by Slewis
You are clearly not making any sense. The only Plug-In format I can think of is XPInstall which is for Extensions. There are other Plug-Ins for the Search Bar based on Sherlock but I doubt you are talking about those.
ActiveX is not so much a Plug-In as it is a script. Not a single website (save AOL Radio but that's another horrendous story altogether) requires an Extension to be installed except for those that set up an extension on their site to be used by Firefox (example: McAfee Site Advisor or Google Notebook) and even those don't really require the extension because you can still use the sites. However, if this Plug-In format is so openly documented, how about a name besides 'Netscape/Mozilla plug-in format' which clearly tells me you are referring to XPI extensions.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/plugins/ - Quote:Originally Posted by Frank777
It's fairly obvious to anyone who's been with the Mac a long time that iWork was deliberately hobbled to keep Office on the platform.
There's really no other explanation why Apple provides free software with consumer Macs that allow me to shoot and edit a movie and then burn it to DVD, but won't provide a spreadsheet to count how much the darn project will cost me.
Jobs is no fool. He is fully aware of the need for a consumer spreadsheet, and he's also aware that such software is trivial for Apple to build. Sabotage from Redmond is the ONLY reason not to bundle a spreadsheet with the Mac.
This will be the seventh consecutive MacWorld that I have asked for a modern spreadsheet for the Mac. I still use AppleWorks for many quick projects, but every time it's launched one wonders why such basic functionality hasn't been updated for so long. (For an interesting history on Appleworks, read this.)
I am hopeful that whatever deal Jobs struck to protect Office development has expired, and that iWork will be significantly updated with a fix for line spacing in Pages and the addition of a spreadsheet finally. Given that Office won't be coming for a year (and iWork doesn't really directly compete with Office anyway), I hope this is the case.
Forget the iPhone or even new hardware, the best thing that could happen for the platform this MacWorld would be a Mac spreadsheet.
It's about time.
At MWSF06, Microsoft announced a 5 year agreement with Apple for continued product development on the Mac platform (Microsoft Commits to New Versions of Office for Mac). I'd sure like to see a copy of that agreement! But whatever is in that agreement probably has wording that prohibits (or limits) Apple from competing directly with the Microsoft MBU, particularly WRT the Office suite. Given this agreement you may have to hold your breath until 2011 for an Apple spreadsheet that has a feature set comparable to Excel's (or the Office suite, in general).
I don't like MS any more than most Mac users, but when it appears that it's the only game in town, for business and technical users who want to use a Mac AND interact with Windows users frequently (like I do), you do what you have to do! - Quote:Originally Posted by Slewis
Any chance iWork will support the Office 2007 formats?
I've installed Office 2007 on my lappy, so I can look into compatibility issues with iWork 2006, however all versions of Office can open previous versions of Office files, and save in previous Office file formats. Also, Microsoft has released filters for opening Office 2007 files in the most recent previous versions of Office (including Mac Office 2004). The Office 2007 file format has a 4 letter extension instead of 3 letters, the 4th letter being an 'x' added to the previous 3 letter extension, and the format is 'Microsoft Office Open XML,' whatever that means (but methinks it's more than just a change in the filename format going on here).
I would expect Apple to update iWork at MWSF07, and would expect that version to be able to open the new Office 2007 files, we'll know in a few weeks. - Quote:Originally Posted by Slewis
Any chance iWork will support the Office 2007 formats?
In Leopard, any Cocoa app will support them.
Wouldn't surprise me if iWork will have it even before that. - Quote:Originally Posted by Slewis
Any chance iAs for your Spreadsheet App, well Office 12 is about a year away, iWork is about a month and a half away, and you need it immediatly I assume. Get a Mac now and do what I'm doing, just download NeoOffice as a filler. It doesn't matter if you don't need the other Apps in it (although if you need options for those then well, they are there) because you can always Purge your system of it later. And if you do like it then Congrats, you found an option for yourself to use, and it didn't cost a penny.
Microsoft has only commited to a 2nd half release for Mac Office 2007, so this means as much as 12 months (as you suggest) or as little as ~7 months. So the basic problem will be opening the new Office 2007 formatted documents in older applications. I'd suggest that if possible, obtain Office documents from anyone using Office 2007 over the next few months, in the older formats compatible with the current applications you are using. I think most people do this anyway with a new release of Office, given that not everyone will have the newest release. - Quote:Originally Posted by Mace27
Would you suggest I steer away from iWork all together and just go for Office?
Pages is not a word processor (although it will work as one if you really want to use it for that), it is a Desktop Publisher of sorts. So Word and Pages in my mind, are not mutually exclusive. Keynote really does KO powerpoint, and is most excellent. There is no spreadsheet App for iWork to date, but there *should* be at the MacWord San Fran Expo at the beginning of January. Also, there is suppose to be a new version of office for Mac next year, which should improve the UI of Office greatly.
You might want to consider using Open Office just temporarily until Office for Mac 2007 comes out or iWork 2007 comes out. - I am waiting for MWSF and hoping Apple updates iWorks to include a spread sheet. In that case we can dump AW completely. AW has been a band-aid solution until iWorks is complete. I will keep it on my Macs just to open old files quickly. If I intend to do work on the file, I'll convert it to Pages.
- Quote:Originally Posted by icfireball
Pages is not a word processor (although it will work as one if you really want to use it for that), it is a Desktop Publisher of sorts. So Word and Pages in my mind, are not mutually exclusive. . .
Pages may not completely replace MS Word, but it can completely replace AW word processor, which is what I use it for. For what most people use Word for, however, Pages will work just fine. It's great for that. My wife uses Pages to replace MS Publisher. - Quote:Originally Posted by Chucker
In Leopard, any Cocoa app will support them.
Wouldn't surprise me if iWork will have it even before that.
Anybody
If you're used to working with Excel on Windows, one of the most confusing aspects of using Excel on a Mac is shortcuts. Even basic shortcuts you've been using for years in Windows may not work as you expect.
After a few problems, you might wind up thinking that Mac shortcuts are 'totally different' or somehow 'broken'. In reality, Excel shortcuts on the Mac are quite capable, you just have to understand and adjust to certain differences.
In this article, I'll walk you through the key differences you need to be aware of to work productively with Excel shortcuts on a Mac.
Also see: Excel shortcuts on the Mac // 3 minute video
1. Special symbols
One of more confusing aspects of keyboard shortcuts on the Mac are the symbols you'll see for certain keys. For example, the Command key is abbreviated as ⌘, the Control key with ⌃, and the option key as ⌥. These symbols have a long history on the Mac, and you'll find them in menus everywhere.
The Mac Finder – abbreviations appear in all applications, not just Excel
You'll see these symbols in menus across all applications, so they're not specific to Excel. There really aren't too many symbols, so I recommend that you bite the bullet and memorize them. The table below shows some example shortcuts with a translation.
Command | Shortcut | Translation |
New workbook | ⌘N | Command N |
Save As | ⌘⇧S | Command Shift S |
Toggle ribbon | ⌘⌥R | Command Option R |
Paste Special | ⌃⌘V | Control Command V |
Select row | ⇧Space | Shift Space |
2. Function keys
Like their counterparts in the Windows world, Mac keyboards have function keys. These keys sit at the top of the keyboard and are labeled F1 to F12 on standard keyboards and F13, F14 and higher on extended keyboards.
Standard Mac keyboard with 12 function keys
As you know, function keys are uses for many shortcuts in Excel. For example, you can use F1 for help, F7 for spelling, and shift + F3 to insert a function. But if you try these shortcuts directly on a Mac, they don't work. Why?
By default, Function keys on a Mac control the computer itself, things like screen brightness, volume, video pause and play, and so on. This means that if press only the function keys in Excel, you'll end up controlling the Mac, and not Excel.
To make function keys work like you expect in Excel, you need to add a key: the function or fn key. How to make a bootable dvd for mac on windows 10. You'll find the fn key in the lower left on your keyboard. Here are a few examples:
Command | Windows | Mac |
New chart | F11 | fn F11 |
Calculate worksheets | F9 | fn F9 |
Open Spelling | F7 | fn F7 |
Evaluate formula | F9 | fn F9 |
If you really hate using the fn key, you can change this behavior by changing a preference at System Preferences > Keyboard. Here you can check a box that will that will change function key behavior to work like 'standard function keys'.
If you do this, however, note that you won't be able to use function keys for things like Brightness, Volume, etc. unless you hold down the fn key. In essence, this setting reverses behavior so that you need to use fn to control the Mac.
Personally, I like using the function keys to control the computer, so I leave this setting alone, and just the fn key when needed in Excel.
3. Missing keys
Another difference that may trip you up on a Mac is certain keys are missing.
Unless you're using an extended keyboard, keys like Home, End, backspace, Page up, and Page down are nowhere to be found. This is a problem, because many of these keys are used in Excel shortcuts. The solution is to use specific substitutions, as shown in the table below.
Windows | Mac equivalent |
Home | fn arrow left |
End | fn arrow right |
Page Up | fn arrow up |
Page Down | fn arrow down |
Screen right | fn option arrow down |
Screen left | fn option arrow up |
Move to Last cell | fn control arrow right |
Move to first cell | fn control arrow left |
Delete | fn Delete |
Backspace | Delete |
The substitutions let you perform the same actions you can do in Windows. However, They can make some shortcuts seem complicated on a Mac because you have to use more keys.
Note: If you're using an extended keyboard on a Mac, you don't need to worry about substitutions, since you'll have keys for Home, End, Page up, etc. Microsoft project alternative for mac.
Extended keyboards have all the keys
4. Ribbon shortcuts
In the world of shortcuts, perhaps the most painful difference on a Mac is a lack of ribbon shortcuts.
In Excel on Windows, you can use so called accelerator keys to access almost every command in Excel using only your keyboard. This doesn't matter much when you're performing an action that has a dedicated shortcut (i.e. Control + B for bold), since dedicated shortcuts are faster than ribbon shortcuts. But when you want to trigger an action that doesn't have a dedicated shortcut (like sort, hide gridlines, align text, etc.), it hurts a bit.
![Equivalent Equivalent](https://www.formule.download/wp-content/uploads/6j9Z54/freeze-cell-in-excel-formula-mac.jpg)
Excel Alternative For Mac Free
Excel ribbon in Windows with accelerator keys visible. No equivalent on the Mac!
5. Just different
Finally, some Excel shortcuts are just plain different on a Mac.
Microsoft Excel Equivalent For Mac
For example, the shortcut for Edit Cell in Windows is F2, and on a Mac, it's Control + U. The shortcut to toggle absolute and relative references is F4 in Windows, while on a Mac, its Command T. For a complete list of Windows and Mac shortcuts, see our side-by-side list.
If you want to see more Excel shortcuts for the Mac in action, see our our video tips. Whenever we use a shortcut, we show both the Windows and Mac version.
Apple Excel Equivalent
Excel 2016/Office 365
With the introduction of Excel 2016 on the Mac, Microsoft has started to adjust Mac shortcuts to be more aligned with Windows. As of February 2016, many Windows shortcuts can be used in Excel 2016/Office 365. For example, you can use fn + F4 to toggle between absolute and relative references, Control + Shift + L to toggle a filter on and off, etc. So far, all the shortcuts that have been adjusted to match Windows shortcuts remain backward compatible with previous Mac only shortcuts. For example while fn F4 toggles references on the Mac, the old shortcut Command + T still works as well.
More shortcut resources
- 200 Excel shortcuts for Win and Mac (online list)
- The 54 Excel shortcuts you really should know (article)
- Laminated quick reference cards (old school)
- Excel shortcuts course - (video training)