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Is parallels the only way to run excel and word on a mac? It slows down the mac, is slow to open and is generally a cumbersome solution for switching from one system to the other. I've been told that the mac equivalent doesn't have the same degree of functionality as excel. I'm not the most IT savvy person but all suggestions welcome. Thanks
I have office 365 installed on my MacBook and desktop PC and surface pro and for my use there doesn't seem to be any difference on the two platforms
No, you can get a Mac specific version of Microsoft Office.
as above, Mac versions of Office have been around for years.
If you do need to use Parallels for something though, check out "coherence mode". It allows you to run Windows apps seamlessly alongside OSX ones. It depends what else you're using the Mac for, but if it's a decent spec with enough memory you shouldn't really experience any massive performance hits doing this IME.
Mac versions are not fully featured, eg (I believe) no macros in Excel. If big Excel sheets are required use a PC, if not Mac and learn Pages ?
Edit: as Zilog says how much memory do you have ?
https://products.office.com/en-gb/office-online/documents-spreadsheets-presentations-office-online
Or there's always LibreOffice:
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/?type=mac-x86_64
Thanks for the suggestions so far, the mac has got a 2.3Ghz intel core 17 processor and 16GB of RAM. I've read somewhere that I need to give 8GB to parallels for it to run well but i think we only have it set at 4GB. We do need macros, and where do I find coherence mode and how do I increase the ram ( if thats a solution ) ? Thanks
I run Excel / Office 2016 on MacOS without issue (Sierra and Yosemite), across a number of different machines of varying specification (from Macbook Air through Mac Pro). I don't know what level of VBA you'd need but it does the job with those sheets I've got that have various macros in them...
Alternatively - and depends on your setup - but have you considered having a dedicated (or virtual) Windows machine you can Remote Desktop onto? You can get a PC pretty cheaply and as long as it's on the same network you can remote onto it really simply. It's a low-tech and potentially easy way of doing things - especially if you've a PC or old laptop laying around. We have some v.lowly spec HP machines on the network for that reason...
#Jambafact - my Mac version of MS Excel has Macros. Very occasionally something I want to do is slightly different to Windows but I can't think of anything I have not been able to find out how with google.Mac versions are not fully featured, eg (I believe) no macros in Excel.
Libreoffice or Google sheets is fine of you are not a power user, you can still do most day to day stuff.
@poly my excel sheets with macros don't run properly on my wifes MBP, to be honest I haven't spent a lot of time investigating why. I won't out any MS stuff on my Mini
The latest (2016) version of mac excel is very similar to the windows version in function and appearance.
Its a lot more usable for someone coming from windows to mac than the 2011 version that I had before.
where do I find coherence mode and how do I increase the ram ( if thats a solution ) ? Thanks
[url= http://kb.parallels.com/4670 ]http://kb.parallels.com/4670[/url]
[url= http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v7/update2/docs/en/Parallels%20Desktop%20User%27s%20Guide/33645.htm ]http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v7/update2/docs/en/Parallels%20Desktop%20User%27s%20Guide/33645.htm[/url]
Excel for Mac is fine up to a point. But bearing in mind the point it's a bit crap is the point we're buying machines with 64Gb of RAM and the most powerful processors we can get for those same spreadsheets on Windows, it could just be because we haven't spanked out 6 grand on the equivalent mac pro to compare.