Q: Macros on Excel 2016 for Mac

Ask on the Microsoft Mac forums as it's their software you're having trouble with. There are MS appointed MVPs there to help.  This forum is for troubleshooting compatibility issues between Macs and Windows.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac

The tech didn't ask enough questions. There is now Office 2016 (which is for Windows) and Office 2016 for Mac. The Mac version has feeble support for VBA, though it is gradually improving with every update. You'll have much better luck with Office 2011, which has 99% of VBA supported.

It may be possible to downgrade through your Office 365 subscription. Please try this:

1. Close all Office programs.
2. Open a web browser and sign in to your Microsoft account at this page: https://login.live.com/login.srf
3. Click on Services & subscriptions.
4. Click on Office 365 settings.
5. Click on the red Install button.
6. Just to the left of the Install button, it should say Office 2016 for Mac. Hopefully, just below that, there will be a link for you to click on Install previous version. This displays on my page, anyway.
7. Choose your preferred language and click on the Install button. Office 2016 will be uninstalled and 2011 reinstalled. If there is no link, it's because MS is tracking whether you actually had 2011 installed through Office 365 previously.

If you don't have a link there, I'm afraid you'll have to buy a copy of Office 2011. Quite a few retailers still have stock, just Google for it.

Aah, I see. In that case the  presence of macros may be co-incidental and not the cause of the error message. That message can be triggered by things like the workbook including PivoTable report styles that are not available on Mac or using features that are not programmed for the Mac yet. Without actually looking at the file, it's hard to tell what feature that might be, and the error message is not specific at all. You might ask the sender to save the file as a PDF, so you can at least see what is supposed to appear in the blank area.

Same issue.  I have been praying for a new version of MS Office since 2011 when Microsoft nerfed VB in excel, just spent 3 days downloading updates (including OSX so I could actually upgrade office), and then the latest patch for office 2016 and same old issue.

This is so unbelievable... pretty much makes it so professionals can't use apple machines unless they run VMware fusion or parallels, which to my recollection, requires it's own installation of office -- so sometimes you have to work in OSX and othertimes in Windows on your Mac?! 

If Apple's Numbers spreadsheet could load the fancy windows based macro heavy spreadsheets with ease, would be workable... but numbers is a child compared to any version of excel for Mac -- even it is really pretty to work with for number driven presentation graphics and tables.

Is there no special package or add-on anywhere to give excel for mac the same VB macro capabilities as excel for windows?  A UNIX VB library that can be command line installed?

Can anyone at Apple please explain this?  Will try microsoft but I'm thinking that excel relies on core files & libraries that are included in windows but not in OSX, so excel is only available in VB nerfed form to OSX/Mac users.

Many thanks,

Tory

As already stated...I suggest you ask on the Microsoft Mac forums as it's their software you're having trouble with. There are MS appointed MVPs there to help.  This forum is for troubleshooting compatibility issues between Macs and Windows.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac

Excel 2016 is a complete rewrite of the Mac version of the program. In some ways, it's still a beta version and every update adds significant new features. Where VBA was completely unusable three months ago, now you can write simple macros. Microsoft has stated that the Mac version will have feature parity to the Windows version. We'll see.

In any case, the next update is due next week, so use Help>Check for Updates on Wednesday and see if your VBA compatibility improves.