Since the release of Excel 2016 for Mac, customers have given great feedback about its ease of use and the benefits of the new features. We want to highlight the Excel 2016 for Mac features that customers rave about and share some tips and tricks that could save you a ton of time using the most powerful spreadsheet and data analysis tool on the Mac platform.
Choosing a chart type to best represent your data is often challenging. Let Recommended Charts take some of the pain away. This feature allows you to see how selected data would be visualized on a variety of chart types before committing to one in particular. To see a collection of suggested chart types, select a cell in the range of data you want to visualize, and then on the ribbon, under the Insert tab, click Recommended Charts.
2. Formula Builder
If you’ve ever had trouble remembering Excel functions or syntax, the new Formula Builder makes it easy. With the Formula Builder in Excel 2016 for Mac, building formulas just got simpler. It allows you to search and insert a function, add data to defined function arguments, and get help on any function. To access the Formula Builder, simply click the fx button on the Formula bar or press Shift+F3.
3. Chart Formatting task pane
Consider building your data entry form using the InsertUserform feature in the VBA Editor. You will need to write some code, but you can use it to validate the completeness and accuracy of data entered by the user before writing the results to a. Load and activate the Analysis ToolPak. Click the File tab, click Options, and then click the Add-Ins category. In the Manage box, select Excel Add-ins and then click Go. If you're using Excel for Mac, in the file menu go to Tools Excel Add-ins. In the Add-Ins box, check the Analysis ToolPak check box, and then click OK. If the Data Analysis command is not available in your version of Excel, you need to load the Analysis ToolPak add-in program. These instructions apply to Excel 2010, Excel 2013 and Excel 2016. Click the File tab, click Options, and then click the Add-Ins category. In the Manage box, select Excel Add-ins and then click Go. If you’re looking to work Excel on mac, here’s a course that goes over exactly that. It’s main focus in on pivot tables, but the course also covers sorting, filtering, graphing, and more.
Excel 2016 for Mac offers a rich set of features that make creating and customizing charts simpler and more intuitive. One part of this fluid new experience is the Formatting task pane. The new Formatting task pane is the single source for formatting—all of the different styling options are consolidated in one place. With this single task pane, you can modify not only charts, but also shapes and text in Excel!
To use the Formatting task pane, on the ribbon under the Format tab, click the Format Pane button or press Cmd+1 while a chart element is selected.
4. PivotTable slicers
Slicers enable you to filter the data in a PivotTable report. It contains a set of buttons allowing you to find the items that you want to filter without the need to open drop-down lists. Creating a slicer is easy—just select the PivotTable you want to filter, and then on the ribbon, under the PivotTable Analyze tab, click the Insert Slicer button. To filter the PivotTable data, simply click one or more of the buttons in the slicer.
5. Data Analysis ToolPak
Still looking for the Data Analysis ToolPak in Mac Excel? It’s finally here! Data Analysis ToolPak is an Excel add-in that helps develop complex statistical or engineering analyses. You provide the data and parameters for each analysis, and the tool uses the appropriate statistical or engineering macro functions to calculate and display the results in an output table. Some tools generate charts in addition to output tables.
To enable this add-in, under the Tools menu, click Add-Ins, select Data Analysis ToolPak and then click OK. The Data Analysis ToolPak is now on the ribbon under the Data tab.
6. More (or new) keyboard shortcuts
When building Office 2016 for Mac, one of our key objectives was to make it as easy as possible to transition from using Office for Windows to using Office for Mac and back again. That’s why you’ll notice an interface consistent with Office 2016 for Windows and why we added support for virtually all of the Windows Excel keyboard shortcuts. Windows users will rejoice that Windows key assignments like Ctrl+O for Open, Ctrl+F for Find and Ctrl+C for Copy now also work in the Mac version—no need to remember to press Cmd instead of Ctrl. If you want to clear the content of the selected cell or range, just press the delete key. This even works on your Mac laptops, where delete is actually the backspace key. Some popular shortcut keys are listed below; a complete list can be found here.
Note that if a function key doesn’t work as you expect, then press the fn key in addition to the function key. If you don’t want to press the fn key each time, you can change your Apple system preferences:
Go to Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard.
On the Keyboard tab, select the Use all F1, F2, etc. as standard function keys
If you want to customize a keyboard shortcut, you can refer to the steps in this article: Create a custom keyboard shortcut for Office 2016 for Mac.
7. New functions in Excel 2016 for Mac
We worked hard to ensure your workbook is compatible and works seamlessly across platforms as often as possible. In Excel 2016 for Mac, we’ve added almost all new formula functions in Excel 2013 from the Windows platform. Why not have a try on the Arabic function (for example, try =ARABIC(“LVII”)) and see what you get.
Note that the WebService, EncodeURL and FilterXML functions are not available yet in Excel 2016 for Mac.
8. Get data using SQL Server ODBC
Say goodbye to having to use third party drivers before connecting to external data in Excel for Mac. Excel 2016 for Mac comes with a pre-installed and integrated SQL Server ODBC driver that supports ODBC data connections with SQL Server and Azure SQL Database right out of the box. It also has a brand new Microsoft Query (MSQuery) and Connection Manager to make creating and managing all of your data connections easier and more consistent with Windows. For more details, check out this blog post: Working with external data in Excel 2016 for Mac.
What do you think?
We just went through the basics of the new features available in Excel 2016 for Mac. Try them out for yourself and share your ideas for other features and improvements you’d like us to change or improve in Excel 2016 for Mac.
These days we all live and work in a multi-device, multi-platform world, and so when building Office 2016 for Mac, one of our key objectives was to make it as easy as possible to transition from using Office for Windows to using Office for Mac and back again. That’s why you’ll notice an interface that’s consistent with what you’d expect when using Office 2016 for Windows, and why we added support for virtually all of the Windows Excel Ctrl keyboard shortcuts. So when it came to working with external data, we applied that same logic: how can we make the experience great and working cross platform easier than ever?
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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 2016 for Mac has a brand new Microsoft Query (MSQuery) and Connection Manager to make creating and managing all of your data connections easier and more consistent with Windows.
Let’s take a deep dive into how each of these improvements can help you.
Native support for ODBC data connections
Excel 2016 for Mac supports ODBC data connections with SQL Server and Azure SQL Database right out of the box. This means several great things for anyone who works with external data:
When creating or refreshing data connections to SQL Server, there are no third-party drivers required—everything you need is included right in the app.
Connections made to SQL Server in Excel 2016 for Mac will work in Excel for Windows and vice versa. Have a workbook with ODBC data connections you’ve been using on Windows and never been able to use on your Mac? Well, now you can with cross-platform compatibility.
If you want to connect to something other than SQL Server, we still have several great partners offering third-party drivers to connect to any data source you can imagine.
In addition, all of the ways in which you interact with external data are now consistent between the platforms. Looking for that Refresh button? It’s on the Data tab just as you’d expect.
The Data tab in Excel 2016 for Mac.
A better way to work with external data connections
One of the biggest improvements to working with external data connections in Excel for Windows in recent releases has been the Connection Manager. It provides a central place to see all of the data connections in a workbook, see where they are used, and modify, remove or refresh each one individually. With Excel 2016 for Mac, you now have that same Connection Manager you are familiar with from Windows. All of your connections are displayed, and you can click any of them to see where they are used in your workbook and to perform any action.
The all-new Connection Manager in Excel 2016 for Mac.
The Connection Properties dialog has been streamlined as well to match Excel for Windows, so that you now only see the properties that apply to your particular data connection.
All of your connection properties are in one place and just like Excel for Windows.
However, what good is easier management of your data connections if it’s too hard to create them to begin with? With Excel 2016 for Mac, creating a connection to SQL Server is easier than ever. On the Data tab, simply select New Database Query > SQL Server ODBC, and you are presented with a simple connection dialog. Once it’s filled out, the newly redesigned MSQuery launches.
The all-new MSQuery in Excel 2016 for Mac.
The new MSQuery experience is very similar to the SQL Query Analyzer that many of you have worked with. On the left is a listing of the databases and tables in your database that you can explore. At the top right is a color-coded SQL editor, and at the bottom right are the results of any query you run. Simply enter a SQL statement, click Run Query to make sure it works. Once it does, click Return Data to drop your data right back into your worksheet. And that’s it; your data is now in your Excel workbook, live and ready to use in Excel 2016 for Mac or Excel for Windows!
Working with a third-party data provider works the exact same way. The only difference is that after installing the data provider, you select New Database Query > From Database and then select your data provider from the Apple iODBC manager.
How To Open Data Analysis In Excel For Mac
Now it’s your turn!
How To Get Data Analysis Tab In Excel For Mac
We think we’ve made huge strides in making external data easier than ever in Excel 2016 for Mac and we hope you do too. Give it a try and let us know of any questions or feedback you have in the comments!