Has Excel 2016 for Mac gotten better?

[Warship]

Hello Everyone,

All reviews I have found, say that 2016 for Mac is a disaster, specifically with regards to VBA.
VBA is an area of great concern for me as all of my work is done there.

I also ran across some "promises" from MicroSoft to fix the VBE. Has this happened?

I have been avoiding Macs for years but now find myself with a unique and lucrative opportunity I'd rather not pass on.
After seeing the reviews however, I'm now wondering if it will be more trouble than it's worth.

Please share your thoughts.

Thank you,
Roy

 

[RoryA]

Put bluntly, no. The VBE is about as developer friendly as notepad. No intellisense or object browser, you can't insert a user form, and it's still not all compatible with Windows by a long shot. You also can't protect a project.

 

[Warship]

Thanks Rory.
Appreciate the input.

I doubled my bid and quoted hourly only.
So, if I get it fine - and if not, fine as well.
In my world, pain and suffering is gonna cost ya!

If I wrote my code with the same "minimum but adequate" attitude as the Big Guys, I'd have been out-of-business long ago.
Too bad they are too big to fail.
Whatever happened to "protect the user from himself" and good ol' delivering "reasonable expectations"?
Nothing but speed-to-market now and who cares if code ever needs to be edited in the future.

No doubt I'm preaching to the choir here.
You probably know the pain...

Thanks again!

 

[RoryA]

Update on the VBE - it's coming back soon on Insider Fast: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-for-mac/d634d60b-3fd8-4389-a13e-2abdeb24b454

 

[Warship]

thanks for the update!

 

[Warship]

Rory

So I was able to procure a license for Office 2011 Mac.
Infuriating is the word that describes it.

After three failed installs, the fourth finally took hold.
With the first three installs, the VBE would only work for a short time.
Very shortly into using Excel, any project, regardless of origination, i.e. one created new on the Mac, an existing one from the Mac or one migrated from Windows, launching the VBE would lockup Excel. After launching the VBE, with focus on Excel and the VBE now visible, the Apple Menu and VBE would strobe and Excel was completely non-responsive. macOS (10.12.5) was not affected - I could activate other apps and they ran fine even though Excel was experiencing lockup in the background. The only way out was to force quit Excel. Once this locking behavior started, the VBE would never properly launch again thus the uninstalls. The uninstalls were complete, including Libraries, plists, etc.

However, I digressed.

The VBE has not locked Excel in about two weeks.

I found some helpful posts of yours (THANK YOU!) regarding VBA on the Mac.
In particular, the post about declaring a Worksheet as an Object to access Sheet Control values.
I never would have tried that!

My current SNAFU is how to resurrect the ability to drag Controls on a UserForm.
This seems to be a somewhat common occurrence for me and others.

I have FFFA with it in all ways I can think of.
When I have a "non-dragable" UserForm:

I have added new Controls which won't drag either.

I have tried adding a new UserForm.
While the new UF's Controls will drag, the other remains not dragging.

I have Quit Excel.

I have restarted the Mac.

I tried exporting the UF to re-import it, but always get an out-of-memory error.
A 4KB file is created but unusable. One would think 16GB of RAM should suffice.

Occasionally dragging ability returns, but I am clueless as to which action may have caused it, if it was in fact, something I did or just happened on its own.
Changing my Tops and Lefts is tiresome business.

So I ask ye Rory, oh Master of Office for Mac, any ideas?

 

[RoryA]

Unfortunately, I'm on holiday with no computer of any sort (for the first time in a very long time) so can't attempt to replicate what you're describing, but had generally found 2011 reasonably stable, unlike 2016. Also, I pretty much never build anything on a Mac, for reasons that are probably becoming very obvious to you...

I'd suggest you check out Ron de Bruin's site for Mac tips or hope that @mikerickson pops in as he has far more Mac experience than I do.

 

[mikerickson]

About the un-dragable controls (I presume you mean during design time in the VBE) I've run into it once or twice.
The only fix I've found is to open a new workbook, insert a UF in that book, copy/paste all the controls from Bad uf to New uf, copy paste code from bad to new and close/trash the old workbook. Anoying but v. infrequent. I suspect our different experience may be because I have not switched to Yosemite OS.

 

[Warship]

...never build anything on a Mac, for reasons that are probably becoming very obvious to you...

You are certainly correct there!
`
`
`
`

open a new workbook, insert a UF in that book, copy/paste all the controls from Bad uf to New uf, copy paste code from bad to new and close/trash the old workbook.

Thank you for your suggestion, however, as I have numerous of each, UFs, Modules and Worksheets, changing Tops and Lefts is less painful.
`
`
`
`

Much obliged gentlemen,
Roy

 

[RoryA]

Just as an update, the latest Insider Fast build has a much improved VBE. Still missing a userform designer, but many other features like intellisense, autocomplete, and the object browser are all back.