trying to open an Excel 2007 .xlsm files with Excel 2008 for Mac

[Libby1479]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) There was a previous question posted concerning .xlsm files and not being able to open in Excel 2008 for Mac. One of the answers mentioned that 2008 should be able to open the .xlsm files but not run the macros. Why can't 2008 run the macros? I am running into this exact scenario where the file was created on a PC and I am trying to open it and work with it but I am unable to do so.

Is there a work around?

Thanks!

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) There was a
previous question posted concerning .xlsm files and not being able to
open in Excel 2008 for Mac. One of the answers mentioned that 2008
should be able to open the .xlsm files but not run the macros. Why can't
2008 run the macros? I am running into this exact scenario where the
file was created on a PC and I am trying to open it and work with it but
I am unable to do so.

Is there a work around?

Thanks!

Excel 2008 can not, does not, never did, never will run VBA macros. This
was announced at least a year before 2008 was released and should not be
a surprise. There is no work around short of recoding the macros into
AppleScript or XLM macros.

 

[CyberTaz]

Macros are VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) based, Office 2008 has no
support for VBA, hence the macros won't work. This was a decision Microsoft
has lived to regret & VBA will return to Mac Office in the 2011 version but
that isn't scheduled for release before the end of the year. Until then the
only 'straight Mac' option is to acquire a copy of Office 2004, but it
depends on a few variables as to whether the macros will run as intended
without some amount of modification... There are different versions of VBA.

An alternative is to run Windows on your Mac using Parallels Desktop, VMware
Fusion, Cross Over or Boot Camp & install the PC version of Office.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac