Excel 2016 Archives - Peltier Tech

Today Microsoft officially releases Office 2016 for Windows. We’ve been able to preview it for some time, of course, and the Mac version has been out for a few weeks. But now it’s been let loose.

I have not personally devoted a lot of time with the Excel 2016 for Windows preview. It looks to me a lot like Excel 2013, and what I did confirmed that it behaved very much like Excel 2013, both in Excel itself and in VBA. I spent more time with Excel 2016 for Mac, which also looks a lot like Excel 2013 for Windows, but the back end (VBA) has a lot of differences and a lot of shortcomings which Microsoft is hustling to address. I’ve had to figure out lots of workarounds to make my programs work the way I want them to, and in fact, some of my programs don’t really work yet.

For Excel 2016, Microsoft has introduced several new chart types, described in Introducing new and modern chart types now available in Office 2016 Preview. Several of them are also included in Peltier Tech Charts for Excel, including waterfalls, histograms, Paretos, and box plots. Should I be worried that I’ll lose business to Microsoft? Well, maybe not too worried. I will keep these charts in my product, because people may prefer my chart styles and defaults, and they may have written their own VBA to use my add-in to create charts. And of course, Peltier Tech Charts for Excel has lots more than these few charts.

I did “get to” foray into Office 365, because that was the only way to get either the Mac or Windows preview of Office 2016. That was a little frustrating, because I felt like I no longer had control over my account (seems I have half a dozen accounts with Microsoft, and I never guessed the right credentials whenever I had to log in), and updates could be an adventure. Recently, though, things seem to work more smoothly.

Here are a handful of links to articles on Microsoft’s Office Blog that talk about Office 2106, including topics related to business analytics and some new charts introduced in Excel 2016.

Here are a few articles from users outside of Microsoft

Excel 2016: Ten Heartwarming Improvements in which Rob Collie describes improvements to Power Pivot and other data features
My three favorite things in Excel 2016 where my new colleague Gašper Kamenšek describes four new things in Excel 2016, that’s right, four, three of his favorites and one that everyone else seems excited by
Chris Webb’s What’s New In The Excel 2016 Preview For BI?
Excel 2016 for Mac review: Spreadsheet app can do the job—as long as you don’t rely on macros at Macworld

Microsoft is implementing a new development cycle. They’re going to move away from the 3- to 4-year new version cycle, and roll out more substantial updates monthly or so. This will help eliminate bugs and add features more rapidly. It also means they will make Office on all platforms increasingly compatible.

Microsoft has added a new communication feature. If you have a great idea for a new feature, you can suggest it at the Excel Idea Box at UserVoice.com. Other users can review, comment on, and vote on your ideas. I’ve posted Give us a proper NULL() worksheet function; please go and vote for it. I’ve also supported Bring VBA into the modern world, Link the min and max values of a chart axis to cell value, Make it easier to find external links, and Improve the Concatenate Function, among others, and they could also use your votes.

Note: This article was originally published on 13 July. I have made modifications on 17 July.

The big announcement from Microsoft last Thursday was Office 2016 for Mac is here! Ed Bott has a glowing review at New Office 2016 for Mac makes life easier for the cross-platform crowd.

We’ve known for months that Microsoft has been working on Office 2016 for both Windows and Mac. I’ve been playing a bit with the Office 2016 for Windows preview for a while, but I haven’t done much with the Mac preview.

Highlights

Mac Office 2016 User Interface

The Office 2016 for Mac user interface is very much like that for Office for Windows. It no longer feels like a toy program built by an 8th grader in shop class. This is a very good sign. Now Office looks and feels the same across all platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS.

New Charts (Windows only, so far)

Earlier, Microsoft Introduc[ed] new and modern chart types now available in Office 2016 Preview. The latest Office 2016 preview features a few new chart types, including some that were previously only available to users of add-ins like the Peltier Tech Charts for Excel. Microsoft has added waterfalls, histograms, paretos, treemaps, and sunbursts.

Lowlights

Office 365

The Windows Office 2016 preview has only been available through Office 365 (the kludgy online subscription service). I never can remember which of my umpteen Microsoft logins is valid for Office 365, and even when I look it up, the correct user ID and password don’t work the first time. Updating Windows Office 2016 preview versions has never gone without several major hitches for me, followed by complete uninstallation then reinstallation from scratch.

So far, Mac Office 2016 is only available via Office 365, which Microsoft treats as a good thing. In Windows, installing from Office 365 wipes out any older versions of Office, so you can’t run Office 2007, 2010, and 2013 side-by-side to support different clients. On the Mac, I was glad to see that I could install Office 2016 without wiping out the previously installed Office 2011. I did have to rebuild the LaunchPad links to Office 2011 and put the icons back onto the Dock, but that only wasted an hour.

Mac Office 2016 VBA

This is the painful one. Mac Office 2016 does still support VBA, of course, and Microsoft has rebuilt the VBA Editor from scratch, which was drastically. Unfortunately the VBA Editor is not really ready to use: you can’t insert new modules or UserForms, and while you can edit existing modules, you can’t even view the UserForms.

Microsoft is making small improvements to the VB editor, and these improvements will be part of the monthly updates. but they are not expecting to make the editor as functional as that in Windows. They encourage developers to build their add-ins in Windows versions of Excel or in Excel 2011, then test in Mac Excel 2016.

Mac Office 2016 Custom User Interface Elements

First, a little background…

In Office 2003 and earlier, developers and users could construct custom menus and toolbars to access built-in and custom functionality.

Starting in Office 2007, Office for Windows has had the ribbon. It could readily be modified for developers willing to delve into RibbonX, a variation of XML used to control and customize the ribbon. Since Office 2010, the ribbon could also be easily modified through the user interface. While custom menus and toolbars were no longer supported in Office 2007, any custom menu items were put into a special Add-Ins ribbon tab. Windows Office add-in developers, myself included, have migrated to custom ribbon interfaces, to great effect.

Mac Office 2011 introduced a low-functioning ribbon, which did not allow any customization programmatically or through the Office interface. However, the custom menus and toolbars that were discontinued in Windows Office are still supported in Mac Office 2011.

Mac Office 2016 has a better ribbon than 2011, but it is still not customizable by the user, nor can it be it controlled using RibbonX. Custom menus and toolbars are no longer supported in Mac Office 2016, but there is an Add-Ins ribbon tab to handle legacy menu items.

Microsoft is working on implementing RibbonX interface controls for Mac Excel, and it will be rolled out as part of a regular update. Until then a Mac Office add-in developer should still build legacy menu-type user interfaces.

Sandbox Mode

One more drawback is that Mac Office 2016 now runs in a sandboxed mode, so certain features are more difficult for developers to implement, features such as accessing folders and opening files. I don’t know the full ramifications of this behavior, since my code isn’t yet running properly in Mac Office 2016.

Bottom Line

Therefore, if you are using any add-ins to extend the features of Mac Office, you should not upgrade until you know whether these add-ins will work properly in Mac Excel 2016.

Peltier Tech Charts

Peltier Tech Chart Utility 2.0

Peltier Tech has taken steps to prepare for Microsoft Office 2016. The Windows version of the current Peltier Tech Chart Utility was designed for Office 2007 through 2013, and it can to run in the preview of Office 2016, but it will not work in the eventual commercial release of Office 2016. As always, there are a few minor changes that need to be made to accommodate new features and syntax of the new Office version.

Peltier Tech Charts for Excel 3.0

In addition, Peltier Tech is working on a major upgrade to the utility, called Peltier Tech Charts for Excel. This edition will work in Windows Office 2016, but also 2013, 2010, and 2007. It will also run in Mac Office 2016, when that has become capable of supporting add-ins, and of course, it will run in Mac Office 2011. The exciting part is that the same add-in file will work in both Windows and Mac, so users stuck between platforms will not need to license two separate add-ins.

The new Peltier Tech Utility will feature all of the old charts, including the ones that Microsoft is introducing in Office 2016, because some Peltier Tech customers will still be using older Office versions. New chart types are being developed, including grouped box plots and sensitivity tornado charts. If you have a favorite chart type that neither Microsoft nor I have made available, mention it in the comments below, and Peltier Tech will add it to the long long list of suggestions.

The new Utility will also offer some new features, including more powerful chart data manipulation tools. Again, if there’s a feature you can’t live without, let us know in the comments.

The new Utility will likely have Standard and Advanced editions like the current Utility, and these editions will likely be priced at the same levels as the current utility. Existing users of the current Utility will be able to upgrade at a 50% discount, and users of the older family of utilities will qualify for a 25% discount. In addition, bulk and academic discounts will be available.

Another exciting development is Peltier Tech Charts for PowerPoint, and in all likelihood Peltier Tech Charts for Word. These are still now in their infancy, but it will bring easier linking of standard PowerPoint and Word charts to Excel data, as well as at least a partial menu of Peltier Tech custom charts.

Peltier Tech Charts for Excel 3.0 Beta

So far the new utility is only in the alpha testing stage, meaning new pieces are being incorporated and tested in-house only.

In about a month a beta version will become available. Current and potential new users will be able to test and comment on it.

During the beta testing period, users of the current Utility will be able to lock in their upgrade at a discount of 60%, users of the older family of utilities at 35%, and new users at a discount of 10%.

More details will become available over the coming weeks.

Excel 2016

Microsoft Releases Excel 2016 for Windows

Office 2016 For Mac Is Here (well…)