get XL for Mac to look like XL for windows

[lambert.vanderwalde]

I just converted to MAC, and am having second thoughts.

I use Excel, a lot, and have the Windows shortcuts hardwired into my
brain. The Mac has a whole slew of different short cuts, and it doesn't
help that they've flipped the alt and "command key" around.

Question: is there a setting where I can tell Excel for Mac to look and
behave like Excel for Windows? This would include being able to type
<alt f> and getting the File menu to pull down. (I don't see the first
letter of the pull-downs underlined letting me know what alt-key
shortcut to use.

Any help would be enormously appreciated!!!

-Lambert

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I just converted to MAC, and am having second thoughts.

I use Excel, a lot, and have the Windows shortcuts hardwired into my
brain. The Mac has a whole slew of different short cuts, and it doesn't
help that they've flipped the alt and "command key" around.

Question: is there a setting where I can tell Excel for Mac to look and
behave like Excel for Windows? This would include being able to type
<alt f> and getting the File menu to pull down. (I don't see the first
letter of the pull-downs underlined letting me know what alt-key
shortcut to use.

Yeah, I was rather upset when Excel was ported from Mac to Windows and
they screwed up all the perfectly good keyboard shortcuts that I had
used for years (I hated it too when Windows copied the modifier keys
that the Mac had, but switched them around)...

Due to the different OS's you can't make keyboard menu navigation in
MacXL work like WinXL. You can kind of use the Mac Universal Access menu
bar navigation (See "Full keyboard navigation keyboard shortcuts" in Mac
Help), but it's a rather poor substitute, requiring use of the arrow
keys to open the top-level dropdown menus.

OTOH, with MacXL you can customize the keyboard shortcut for nearly any
command. I find this much easier than having to memorize arcane menu
sequences (for instance, I've set CTRL-v to Paste Values, rather than
having to navigate the Edit/Paste Special menu - it's a single keystroke
rather than a sequence).

You'd likely have to change your memorized sequences with the next Win
version in any case, since the menus will be vastly different.

I use both platforms, and find that I can switch back and forth pretty
easily - I suspect you will too after not too long. Since I started on
MacXL long before Windows was ever released, much less WinXL, I tend to
like the Mac ones better: I use macros in my WinXL startup add-in to
change keystrokes to make them more like the Mac.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I just converted to MAC, and am having second thoughts.

I use Excel, a lot, and have the Windows shortcuts hardwired into my
brain. The Mac has a whole slew of different short cuts, and it doesn't
help that they've flipped the alt and "command key" around.

Question: is there a setting where I can tell Excel for Mac to look and
behave like Excel for Windows? This would include being able to type
<alt f> and getting the File menu to pull down. (I don't see the first
letter of the pull-downs underlined letting me know what alt-key
shortcut to use.

Any help would be enormously appreciated!!!

-Lambert

Like J.E., I also started on the Mac and was annoyed when the Win Excel keys
were different from what was obviously the pioneer and pace setter. Your
request has about as much of a chance as a windows Excel option to tell it
to work the same way as Mac Excel. If you use both platforms, you'll just
have to "reprogram" your self to use what works.