I can no longer save my spreadsheets on my new MacBook Pro?

Question

I can no longer save my spreadsheets on my new MacBook Pro?

Mark Castellani 40

I have Microsoft Office X and it worked fine until I got my new MacBook Pro recently with OS Tahoe 26.1. Now I cannot save Excel spreadsheet changes, nor can I change Word documents. I cannot figure out how transfer them to Apple Numbers or Pages. How do I solve these problems? Thanks.

Mark Castellani 40 Reputation points

2025-12-23T18:11:28.3833333+00:00

All Save functions are disabled on Excel, so I cannot Save As to Numbers.

Answer accepted by question author

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Mark Castellani 40 Reputation points

2025-12-23T18:11:28.3833333+00:00

All Save functions are disabled on Excel, so I cannot Save As to Numbers.

Answer 1

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.7K

Your additional Comment suggests that you do have Mac Office on the new Mac. It probably has not yet been activated. Launch Word then go to the File menu & select the Activate command. You also may need to sign in to Office using your account credentials.

Confirm that the vendor who sold you the Mac didn't simply install the trial version of Office & did provide the necessary information.

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Answer 2

Hi Mark,

On a new Mac, very old Office for Mac builds like Office X do not work properly and, if Office is not activated, the apps open files read-only so Save is greyed out. Try to install the current Microsoft 365 for Mac apps and sign in so they activate.

Quit Excel and Word.

On the Mac, open a browser and go to office.com, sign in with your Microsoft account that owns Microsoft 365 or a perpetual Office license, then choose Install Office and run the installer. When Excel finishes installing, open it and sign in when prompted.

In Excel, open one of your spreadsheets and verify you can use File > Save and File > Save As. If any of your files are in the older .xls format, once Excel is activated use File > Save As and choose Excel Workbook (.xlsx) so they are fully compatible going forward.

For moving a file into Apple Numbers you do not need Save As from Excel. Open Numbers, choose File > Open, select your Excel file, and Numbers will import it and make its own copy. You can also Control-click the .xlsx in Finder, choose Open With, and pick Numbers.

If after installing and signing in you still find Save disabled, tell me what you see under Excel > About Excel regarding license or activation and I will guide the next step.