Differences between PC and Mac versions of Excel 2004

[stoic65]

My son uses Excel on a PC at work but uses Excel 2004 for Mac at home.
He's been having a lot of trouble getting the Mac version to do what he
normally does with the PC - especially using keyboard commands to avoid
the mouse. He says so many of these commands don't seem to have
equivalents on the Mac version.

His comments to me were "I can't get anything done on the Mac - PC
Excel is much more functional and complete." Most of his work is
constructing very large financial data models for securities analysis.
He uses Excel extensively.

Might anyone know of a book or some online source doing a fairly
complete comparison of Excel 2004 Mac and current PC version - what's
the same and what's different - or just missing from on or the other
verions?

And help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

MartyP

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Marty,

Have your son use the Help feature in Excel. Have him type the word
shortcuts into the search box.

Two topics that will be of interest will appear:
Microsoft Excel keyboard shortcuts
Customize shortcut key assignments

Keep in mind that MacOS also lets you customize keyboard shortcuts,
particularly via the accessibility features and Expose. If MacOS has
been configured to use keyboard shortcuts MacOS will intercept the
keyboard command so Excel will never know what was pressed. Adjust MacOS
settings appropriately for your desired result.

-Jim

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Marty-

Jim's suggestions re kybd shortcuts should prove very helpful, but the fact
is that the Mac & XK versions do differ more than many people think. The
significance of the differences varies depending on which features you need
or are accustomed to using. The argument on both sides has been going on
forever.

I don't know of any direct comparisons, because that would depend a great
deal on which version on each platform is being compared to the other. If
you can be more specific with what your son can't seem to find in the Mac
'04 version maybe someone can offer more suggestions.

Good Luck |:>)

My son uses Excel on a PC at work but uses Excel 2004 for Mac at home.
He's been having a lot of trouble getting the Mac version to do what he
normally does with the PC - especially using keyboard commands to avoid
the mouse. He says so many of these commands don't seem to have
equivalents on the Mac version.

His comments to me were "I can't get anything done on the Mac - PC
Excel is much more functional and complete." Most of his work is
constructing very large financial data models for securities analysis.
He uses Excel extensively.

Might anyone know of a book or some online source doing a fairly
complete comparison of Excel 2004 Mac and current PC version - what's
the same and what's different - or just missing from on or the other
verions?

And help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

MartyP

-- (e-mail address removed)

 

[Harald Staff]

Hi Marty

I'm a long time Pc user and Excel MVP that just recently bought an iBook as
my computer #3. And I must agree, "I can't get anything done on the Mac", my
feelings exactly.

For Excel this is a combination of two things I think. One is that the
desktop manager, Exposé, hijacks a lot of shortcuts. I'm used to press F9
and have my spreadsheet recalculate. Now I press F9 and my spreadsheet will
just go away. Neatly animated though.

And worse, keyboard shortcuts in Mac Excel 2004 seem to be a totally
different set of shortcuts than I'm used to. That is awful. Help in the
programs covers what happens, and it may be possible to reprogram one
computer to mimic the other. But as is, I doubt that one can be "bi-lingual"
in an efficient way.

HTH. Best wishes Harald

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I'm a long time Pc user and Excel MVP that just recently bought an iBook as
my computer #3. And I must agree, "I can't get anything done on the Mac", my
feelings exactly.

For Excel this is a combination of two things I think. One is that the
desktop manager, Exposé, hijacks a lot of shortcuts. I'm used to press F9
and have my spreadsheet recalculate. Now I press F9 and my spreadsheet will
just go away. Neatly animated though.

You can change Exposé's keyboard shortcuts in the System Preferences
(under the Apple menu).

And worse, keyboard shortcuts in Mac Excel 2004 seem to be a totally
different set of shortcuts than I'm used to. That is awful.

I agree. When XL was ported to Windows, I complained bitterly about
their breaking compatibility with an established Mac product, but they
didn't listen...

Help in the programs covers what happens, and it may be possible to
reprogram one computer to mimic the other. But as is, I doubt that
one can be "bi-lingual" in an efficient way.

I speak WinXL with an accent, but I can generally do OK when I'm forced
to use it. As long as I don't have to deal with XL03's Help system or
the Task Pain.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

His comments to me were "I can't get anything done on the Mac - PC
Excel is much more functional and complete." Most of his work is
constructing very large financial data models for securities analysis.
He uses Excel extensively.

Might anyone know of a book or some online source doing a fairly
complete comparison of Excel 2004 Mac and current PC version - what's
the same and what's different - or just missing from on or the other
verions?

I don't know of any books detailing differences - on-line help has some.

As for "much more functional and complete", I guess I don't know what he
means - all of the functions in WinXL exist in MacXL. There's very
little that WinXL can do that MacXL can't, and vice-versa.

I've constructed large financial models in both WinXL and MacXL, and
modules created on one platform run on the other without any problems.

Certainly if he's used to using ActiveX controls, he won't find them on
the Mac.

As far as UI goes, it's generally a matter of experience. I can't stand
to use the Alt-menu method in WinXL, since I generally customize my
environment and rearrange menus - it's a pain to use a stock
installation. I much prefer being able to assign keyboard shortcuts for
just about everything. I realize however, that other's, especially those
that learned XL on a WinTel machine, have a different comfort zone.