Cell formulas are equations that perform calculations or logical operations. In Excel in Office 2011 for Mac, you can enter a formula on your own, or you can use the Formula Builder. When learning to type your formulas in manually, you can start with a very easy example to show the structure of a formula and that Excel treats numbers as values within a formula:
In really large Excel 2016 workbooks that contain many completed worksheets, you may want to switch to manual recalculation so that you can control when the formulas in the worksheet are calculated. You need this kind of control when you find that Excel’s recalculation of formulas each time you enter or change information in cells.
Start with a blank worksheet.
Type =1+1 in cell A1 and then press Return, Enter, Tab, or an arrow key to exit the cell.
If you select the cell again, you see that Excel displays the value (2) of the formula in cell A1 and displays the formula (=1+1) in the Formula bar.
The cell’s appearance changes while you type. Observe and see how the cell appears while you type and after you exit the cell. You can use the value represented in a cell and refer to it in a formula in a different cell.
Here’s another example. This time, use values from cells in the worksheet instead of using numbers in the formula. This gives you experience figuring out various ways to refer to cells and cell ranges in formulas:
Start with a blank worksheet.
Type 1 into cells A1 and B1.
The value of 1 displays in cells A1 and B1.
In cell C1, type =A1+B1.
Excel color-codes the cell references within your formula to match the referenced cells A1 and B1, which are now highlighted to match the color code in the formula. Your formula now displays in the Formula bar.
Click the green Enter button when done.
Excel displays the value of the formula in cell C1 and displays the formula in the Formula bar.
The moment you start typing in a cell or the Formula bar, the red Cancel and green Enter buttons become activated. You can click Cancel to erase your cell entry or click the green Enter button to accept your entry. These buttons are new for Excel 2011.
Excel 2016 for Mac brings lots of welcome improvements to the workhorse spreadsheet but also leaves out useful tools.
Pros
Moving to the cloud: Like the other apps in the latest Mac Office suite, Excel 2016 lets you store, sync, and edit files online, via Microsoft's OneDrive cloud storage service. You can also save Excel files to your Dropbox account.
Collaborate: Excel 2016, through OneDrive, lets you share documents with colleagues and collaborate in real time. You can chat online as well, either through a document chat window or through Skype.
Modern design: The redesigned ribbon for the Mac version of Excel borrows the look and feel of its Windows counterpart, presenting tools and formatting options in much the same way as Excel for Windows does. Excel also recommends appropriate charts based on spreadsheet data.
Moving across platforms: Excel 2016 supports many of the Windows keyboard shortcuts and most of the Excel 2013 for Windows functions, which should make it easier to use the tool across platforms. The update also includes an Analysis ToolPak add-in, PivotTable slicers for analyzing data, and an improved formula builder.
Cons
Macro limits: Prior to Office 2016, you could build macros in Excel for Mac. The 2016 edition offers what Microsoft calls a 'simplified' Visual Basic Editor (VBE), which allows you to debug existing macros. But if you want to build new macros, you need to do that on the Windows side or use an earlier Mac version. For those who built macros in preceding Mac editions, this is a big loss.
Bottom Line
Manual Excel Macros
Excel 2016 is probably worth the upgrade just based on its ability to take advantage of OneDrive. The new analysis tools and formula builder help keep Microsoft's spreadsheet an essential tool. Hobbling its macros tool, however, diminishes a bit of the attraction for serious users.