Visual Basic Support in Mac 2016

Question

Hi

Am I missing something? I've been periodically using the Excel 2016 for Mac updates but quickly abandoned them because my sheets rely so heavily on VBA and support for that seemed to be missing. 

I've updatd to the production version today (15.2)...and it still seems to be the case? The Visual Basic editor is..ahem...extremely basic with no menus, right click functions or anything. No ability to insert new modules either. Shortcuts don't work (breakpoint, run etc). 

What's going on? Is this it? Please tell me there's some security setting i need to switch or something...please tell me there's basically no way to create macros enabled spreadsheets in Office for Mac 2016?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi Roberto,

You're not missing anything. UserForm support is being built right now and should be available in a few weeks. I don't expect userform support to arrive during the holidays, but I hope we have it before spring.

Thanks Gordon for the answer. I will wait after the holidays the microsoft present for christmas. 

I take this opportunty to wish to everyone a my particolary Merry Christmas. 

Roberto

Answer 2

Despite Yesterday being Official Release of 2016 is still very much a work in Progress. and Components will be included as the are finalized and there may be a period of bug fixes. But with the new model system they are using there are going to be glitches. How once 2016 is perfected though have many of the same controls as the PC version Gone are the days of using 30-40 year old binary code that has been patched so many times that the patches were held together with patches.

2016 is now using apple system code top to bottom. 

If your favorite thing isn't working Click on the smiley face button on the Ribbon and click on What can be done better and let them know. 

_________

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Answer 3

What's going on is that Microsoft cut the Visual Basic Editor from Office for Mac down to practically nothing at all, as you have noticed. The Microsoft expectation now is that you will use Office 2011 for Mac or Office 2013 or 2016 for Windows as your development platform and use that sorry excuse you see in Office 2016 as a tool to tweak your code and if you're lucky get it to actually run in Office 2016 for Mac desktop.

Microsoft does not have any plans that I am aware of to provide a Visual Basic Editor for Office for Mac desktop equivalent to the Windows version of Office, or even previous versions of Office for Mac.

Note: Microsoft has changed since I originally posted this answer. They have now said they will bring a full VB Editor to Office for Mac. No ETA was announced, which means probably a very long wait.

Answer 4

Thanks Jim and Phil - yes the VBA editor is in a (very) sorry state. On the one hand its tough to believe that MS could release something so non-functional (as compared to previous release)...and yet, given recent efforts, i somehow have no trouble believing it at all.

It would be nice to get some official word from Microsoft about this. I do a lot of VBA on my Mac on my commute. Is MS really expecting me to keep two versions of office on, or switch between Windows and OSX whenever i want to do something like add a module!? The old version of the VBA Editor was also very horrible (and incredibly slow) but it was at least functional.

So frustrating.

Answer 5

Your official notice is that Office 2016 is now released to market. It isn't going to change.

Yes, Microsoft has convinced itself that you are willing to use two or three versions of Office to do any serious coding. You can add a module in 2016, but after that you're on your own.