Excel for Mac Logo History

37 years ago to the day (30th September 1985), the inaugural Microsoft Excel 1.0 was released. What’s perhaps surprising is that Macintosh users were the first to experience it.

Minus the early years, Excel for Mac has always had an inferiority complex over its Windows counterpart. Too many niggles, too many omissions, and too many shabby equivalents.

The Name Manager, Conditional Formatting window, VBA editor, Power Query, Power Pivot…I could go on, and on, and on.

It’s not exactly surprising, however. After all, Microsoft has a vested interest in keeping users immersed in its ecosystem. Why would they want the Mac version to have parity?

To be fair, the gap has been closing. The new Name Manager released earlier this year is a marked improvement on the last. A majorly stripped-down Power Query has also appeared recently, so Microsoft hasn’t given up on it. To say it’s got much catching up to do though, is an understatement.

Excel for Mac is fine for rudimentary use (that’s a little harsh!). Many of its users won’t be aware of its shortfalls because they don’t know any different. Inevitably their demands will increase over time though, and that’s when they should consider their choices.

If you are a macOS user and frustrated by the limitations — don’t feel restricted. Purchase Parallels Desktop, install Windows 11 and Excel, and you will soon feel liberated as you discover all the upsides you never knew about.

I’ll leave you with Excel for Mac’s logo history…