# Excel for Mac question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-for-mac-question/439220>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 26, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-for-mac-question/439220 "2008-02-26T15:07:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-for-mac-question/439220/1 "2008-02-26T15:07:57Z")

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I tried to open a file with Excel for Mac. I get the ‘beach ball’ and the file does not load. I can’t cancel out of it, nor Force Quit. I logged onto VPN and opened the file successfully on my office PC. I tried opening another Excel file on the Mac and I was successful. The file that failed to open isn’t very large. What would cause it to not load?

(Since I can open it remotely on my PC via the VPN connection, it’s not that big a problem; but it’s still strange I can’t open it locally.)

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**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-for-mac-question/439220/2 "2008-02-26T15:31:13Z")

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What version of Excel for Mac are you using? I believe that Office 2008 for Mac does not support Visual Basic for Applications code in files, so if you’re using 2008 and the file was created on a PC and includes VBA code, it would not work. But that’s just a guess; I have never used Office on a Mac.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-for-mac-question/439220/3 "2008-02-26T15:59:42Z")

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It’s Excel 2004 for Mac, version 11.0

Although I’ve discovered there’s an update to 11.3.5, which I’m installing now.