[griffman]

odaiwai: I'm not running Boot Camp on my Mac Pro any longer, so I can't answer that question. However, the improvements in calculation speed in this version from the old are very noticeable -- going from about six seconds to zero seconds is a great change. Not sure how the Windows version could be any faster than zero seconds for a recalc .

For the GUI stuff, I imagine the Windows version still feels faster -- the last time I used it, there was clearly no throttle on the scroller, for instance. But in terms of actual performance, it's my educated guess that this version is the closest we've had to matching Windows -- I actually re-ran my calc tests many times, just to make sure I wasn't imagining the speed increase.

-rob.

[technologist]

The biggest issue I had with Excel's scrolling was the way it jumped to columns or rows. One tap of the scroll ball, or one click on the scroll arrow, would move you down a whole row or across a whole column. No matter how high the rows were. There was no way to scroll halfway down a row.

Is this any different in 2011?

[duncantho]

A couple of questions re the ribbon:

I regularly open about 70 .csv files (each with minimal data) at a time. Will a ribbon now be loaded with each .csv window, resulting in a possibly huge memory hit?

Also I'm concerned that, according to the review, with regular ribbon-based windows Excel no longer remembers custom size/shape settings. That's in the paragraph about themes, so perhaps I'm reading out of context. Does it really mean that I'll have to resize my various custom-sized workbooks each time I activate them?

[mylesg]

griffman, on 28 September 2010 - 08:38 AM, said:

GregoryPiercexd09 and fstop808: The Analysis ToolPak is not included in Excel 2011. Microsoft recommends using the free StatPlus:mac plug-in for such functionality, including regressions, histograms, ANOVA, t-tests, etc.

I don't know if StatPlus:mac will be updated to run using VBA, now that it's available again. The current version uses AppleScript, as I understand it.

-rob.

Correct- no math or stats add in on this version. Frustrating. They have you go to outside third parties- which only do some of the things the old math and add-ins did. If you want everthing- get ready to pay a $100. For example- a T-test is only available on the paid version. Also, these third party add-ins are not near as intergrated into the program as were the former (and PC) stats add-ins.

[ipsyd]

One thing that made Excel 2008 utterly absolutely completely unusable for me was the auto-bold display of all existing formula bar content whenever you clicked to edit it.

I often edit long formulas, and I would click EXACTLY where I wanted to put the insertion point, but (unless near the beginning of a formula) it most often would end up two or three characters to the left of where I wanted because of the increased character width of the auto-bolding -- which always kicked in just before the click itself registered. Drove me (and I presume plenty of others) absolutely nuts! I complained repeatedly to the MBU about this ridiculous interface behaviour, with exactly zero response.

PLEASE tell me this doesn't happen any more! If it does, it's a no-brainer - I'm sticking with Excel 2004.

This post has been edited by ipsyd: 28 September 2010 - 07:31 PM

[rlav]

Thanks for the nice review.

Once the software is on general sale, any chance of a tutorial on pivot tables?

[rlav]

griffman, on 28 September 2010 - 08:38 AM, said:

GregoryPiercexd09 and fstop808: The Analysis ToolPak is not included in Excel 2011. Microsoft recommends using the free StatPlus:mac plug-in for such functionality, including regressions, histograms, ANOVA, t-tests, etc.

I don't know if StatPlus:mac will be updated to run using VBA, now that it's available again. The current version uses AppleScript, as I understand it.

-rob.

Available at http://www.analystso...ts/statplusmac/

[fstop808]

griffman, on 28 September 2010 - 08:38 AM, said:

GregoryPiercexd09 and fstop808: The Analysis ToolPak is not included in Excel 2011. Microsoft recommends using the free StatPlus:mac plug-in for such functionality, including regressions, histograms, ANOVA, t-tests, etc.

I don't know if StatPlus:mac will be updated to run using VBA, now that it's available again. The current version uses AppleScript, as I understand it.

-rob.

Thanks for the tip!

[seberkuhn]

No Analysis Pack? I can't believe it! What about the "Solver"? The only reason I was so frustrated by the loss of VBA in Excel2008 is that I keep using the analysis pack and the Solver ALL THE TIME. If VBA is back but neither of these features is available, Excel2011 will be another complete loss for me. (Plus the slow scrolling - which I definitely would hate - and the non-Mac-like features...)
Once again MS decided to "please the (slow?) masses" with eye candy and promises of Windows compatibility (we'll see about that) and blow off the people who really use the powerful features of Excel. Can anyone give me a SINGLE reason why I shouldn't stick with Excel2004, perhaps augmented by iWork?

[kbomb]

odaiwai, on 28 September 2010 - 08:27 AM, said:

In terms of the performance, how does it compare to Excel 2010 on Windows on the same hardware?

Traditionally, Mac versions of Excel have been dog-slow on OSX when compared to running under Windows, even on identical hardware. I've often found it better to sometimes keep Windows running in a VM just to not get frustrated by Excel.

There is no doubt that Excel runs much slower on OSX than on Windows. Since the performance loss isn't hardware based, is this "tradition" built-in by Microsoft, or is there a software explanation?

[batchtaster]

seberkuhn, on 04 October 2010 - 05:47 AM, said:

No Analysis Pack? I can't believe it! What about the "Solver"? The only reason I was so frustrated by the loss of VBA in Excel2008 is that I keep using the analysis pack and the Solver ALL THE TIME. If VBA is back but neither of these features is available, Excel2011 will be another complete loss for me. (Plus the slow scrolling - which I definitely would hate - and the non-Mac-like features...)
Once again MS decided to "please the (slow?) masses" with eye candy and promises of Windows compatibility (we'll see about that) and blow off the people who really use the powerful features of Excel. Can anyone give me a SINGLE reason why I shouldn't stick with Excel2004, perhaps augmented by iWork?

These have always been provided by third-parties, on both Windows and Mac platforms, from the very beginning, and they are both available for Excel 2011. Try here and here.

So the Chicken Little routine isn't necessary.

griffman, on 28 September 2010 - 08:38 AM, said:

GregoryPiercexd09 and fstop808: The Analysis ToolPak is not included in Excel 2011. Microsoft recommends using the free StatPlus:mac plug-in for such functionality, including regressions, histograms, ANOVA, t-tests, etc.

StatPlus:mac IS the Analysis Toolpak; It's always been provided by AnalystSoft.

This post has been edited by batchtaster: 12 October 2010 - 09:45 AM

[spasecookee]

I just tried it with my accountant's spreadsheet. Now that VB Macros are back I thought, "Yay, I can finally ditch windows!" What a fool I was to buy the MS compatibility hype. The accountant's spreadsheet uses activex buttons which aren't usable AT ALL in Excel:Mac 2011.

[rfitz]

For those in the know:
1) Can the 2011 version add custom error bars in the "Format data series" tool? It was removed in some previous versions for some strange reason.
2) Are the ridiculous issues (link below) regarding the lack of "Category (X) axis labels" resolved. Is that function finally back??
Thanks all!!

http://www.mackb.com...zontal-category

[JackMacK]

Hi there all!

Just got a MacBook Pro and installed MS Office 2011 on it.

Now, from my previous experience with MS Office, you were able to go into excel, insert a few text boxes, a few images and a few shapes and then hold down CTRL and click each one to select them all (MS Office 2007 for Windows).

When I try to do this on a Mac, I hold CMD and click a shape, fine, it highlights and selects it, but then when I also click to select the textbox, instead of also highlighting that I've selected it, it gets rid of anything I've selected and wants me to type in the box... Really frustrating as I've looked around the keyboard shortcuts etc.. Just wondering if it's possible for me to be able to multi-select as it's quite a large part of my job as I create eShots and the like in excel, then paste them into GIMP, crop accordingly, and save as whole images!

If anybody out there knows please take 5 minutes out to help me I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks

Jack