My company sends out detailed reports on Excel Windows with complicated pivot tables. I use a Mac and could never use the reports on Office 2011 for Mac. I finally downloaded Office 2016 and applied all updates. However, In Office 2016 Mac still cannot maneuver thru the pivot tables. I get the message 'A PivotTable in this workbook will not work in versions prior to Excel 2007. Only PivotTables that are created in Compatibility Mode will work in earlier versions of Excel.'
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The problem is the spreadsheet is not older than 2007 nor was it created with a version of Excel older than 2007. Office 2011 for Mac will not open either. Did I just waste my money upgrading to the new version of Office for Mac? Any ideas how to get to work? I would rather use my Mac than my windows laptop.
Its frustrating to have to use the old Windows laptop just to open a monthly spreadsheet. The Mac's pivot table capability is significantly less than Windows. Many Windows pivot table features are just not supported in the Mac version. We are all hoping that someday they will be equal. The only thing you can do is wait to see if a feature got added in a future update. You will not be able to 'get it to work' on a Mac until Microsoft provides comparable features. If you must use a Mac, you can certainly use Parallels or some other vehicle to tun Windows and Windows Office on your Mac.
So what does it all mean? Yes, you can get Microsoft Office for Mac, so you can create Word and Excel files. BUT you can also get OpenOffice on your Mac, which is a totally free, and slightly less visually attractive office application, that lets you do all the same things as MS Office. Prices of Microsoft Office range from $149 to $399. Office 2019 is now available as a one-time purchase for commercial users. Office 2019 is available for both Windows and macOS, and includes classic versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The Windows version also includes Publisher 2019, Access 2019, Project 2019, and Visio 2019.
Just as a bit of further clarification. The message you're referring to is far less than explanatory. Many features have been added to or enhanced in the Windows versions of Excel starting with Excel 2007.
Unfortunately, most of those features/enhancements have not been added to the Mac versions - even those versions released more recently than Office 2007. In a nutshell, neither Excel 2011 nor Excel 2016 have the necessary machinery to handle those enhancements because their capabilities are limited to what was available '. Prior to Excel 2007'.
Please mark HELPFUL or ANSWERED as appropriate to keep list as clean as possible ☺ Regards, Bob J. Are you using the very latest update of Excel 2016? Go to the Excel menu and choose About Excel. Right now you should version 15.14. As far as I know you should not be getting error messages regarding PivotTables in this build. The latest build has support for PivotCharts.
The error message you are seeing would normally be caused by a PivotChart, but that should not happen with this build. If your copy of Excel is not up to date, go to the Excel Help menu and choose Check for Updates. Use AutoUpdate to install the updates. I am an unpaid volunteer and do not work for Microsoft. 'Independent Advisors' work for contractors hired by Microsoft. 'Microsoft Agents' work for Microsoft Support. The Mac side seems good.
Let's look at the Windows side. Are all the updates installed in the Windows version of Office? If you are certain Excel for WIndows is up to date, try Save As and choose a different file format. If your workbook is.xls or.xlsx try saving in Macro Enabled.xlsm or.xlsb and try opening those in Excel on the Mac. If you can narrow down what particular feature or object in your workbooks is causing Excel on the Mac to burp, please put an example workbook onto a shared drive like OneDrive or DropBox and share the link, or give a step-by-step on how to reproduce the problem.
I am an unpaid volunteer and do not work for Microsoft. 'Independent Advisors' work for contractors hired by Microsoft. 'Microsoft Agents' work for Microsoft Support. I'm in the same boat as you - creating complex reports in Excel using pivot tables.
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More and more of our folks are using Mac Excel 2016 with the expectation that the program can handle basic tasks; like pivot tables created in Win Excel 2016. I'm creating Excel reports using Win Excel 2016 and I can't get Mac Excel 2016 version 15.18 to work. I'm getting the same stupid error message. I'm disgusted with Microsoft and find this hugely ironic since Excel was originally created for the Mac.
Fix this Microsoft! Specifically addressing the alert (it is NOT an error message) about 'will not work in versions prior to Excel 2007.' This is just an alert that if you open a workbook having a PivotTable in an any version of Excel prior to 2007 the PivotTable will not work. Also, don't save a workbook in an old file format such as.xls or.xlt from olden days. Stick with (same in 2016 as 2011).
Are your files being saved in the old formats? Then of course they don't work. You simply have to use current file formats to avoid the problem. I am an unpaid volunteer and do not work for Microsoft.
'Independent Advisors' work for contractors hired by Microsoft. 'Microsoft Agents' work for Microsoft Support.
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