Microsoft Excel for Mac is the world’s most famous and widely used spreadsheet editing application.Originally developed by the Microsoft in 1987, this software received numerous expansions of capabilities, making it the go-to source for spreadsheet editing, use of graphing tools, pivot tables, macro programming, and much more.
-->Note
Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.
Notice
Excel Viewer has been retired
Important
The Microsoft Excel Viewer was retired in April, 2018. It is no longer available for download or receive security updates. To continue viewing Excel files for free, we recommend installing the Excel mobile app or storing documents in OneDrive or Dropbox, where Excel Online opens them in your browser. For the Excel mobile app, visit the store for your device:
Summary
The Microsoft Excel Viewer is a small, freely redistributable program that lets you view and print Microsoft Excel spreadsheets if you don't have Excel installed. In addition, the Excel Viewer can open workbooks that were created in Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh.
The Excel Viewer can open the latest version of Excel workbooks, but it will not display newer features.
More Information
The Microsoft Excel Viewer is the latest version of the viewer. It can read the file formats of all versions of Excel, and it replaces the Microsoft Excel Viewer 2003.
Other options for free viewing of Excel workbooks
- Excel Online Excel Online is available through OneDrive or deployed as part of Microsoft SharePoint. Excel Online can view, edit and print Excel workbooks. For more information about Excel Online, see the Office Online overview.
- Office 365 Trial Downloading the trial will give you access to the full capabilities of Microsoft Office 2013. For more information, see Office 365 Home.
- Office Mobile applications Download the trial for mobile applications available on iPhone, Android phone, or Windows Phone. For more information, see Office on mobile devices.
Note
The Excel Viewer is available only as a 32-bit application. A 64-bit version of the Excel Viewer does not exist. The 32-bit version of the Excel Viewer can be used on 64-bit versions of Windows.
The file name of the Excel Viewer is xlview.exe. The default folder location for the Excel Viewer on a 32-bit operating system isc:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice12. The default folder location for the Excel Viewer on a 64-bit operating system is c:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice12.
Note
If you already have a full version of Microsoft Excel installed on your computer, do not install Microsoft Excel Viewer in the same directory. Doing this causes file conflicts.
File formats supported
The Excel file formats supported are .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .xltx, .xltm, .xls, .xlt, .xlm, and .xlw. Macro-enabled files can be opened (.xlsm, .xltm, and .xlm), but the macros do not run.
Known issues with newer versions of Excel workbooks and the Excel Viewer
Even though the Excel Viewer can read the latest Excel workbooks, the following new features are not visible or are displayed differently in the Excel Viewer.
Sparklines are not shown in the Excel Viewer. The cells where they are located are blank.
PivotTables and PivotCharts are flattened. The data or chart will appear, but modifications cannot be made.
Macros do not run in the Excel Viewer.
Slicers do not display data in the Excel Viewer. Instead, a box is displayed in the location of the slicer and it contains the following text: 'This shape represents a slicer. Slicers are supported in Excel 2010 or later. If the shape was modified in an earlier version of Excel, or if the workbook was saved in Excel 2003 or earlier, the slicer cannot be used.'
If you have to view or use these features, use Excel Online.
Microsoft launched its Office 2016 for Mac Preview back in March, rolling out quite a significant update for the productivity suite just a few weeks later. The company has now released a further update, although it's not quite as comprehensive as the last one.
Indeed, the main focus of this latest update is on fixing various issues across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote on Apple PCs, although there are a couple of very minor new feature additions.
Microsoft Excel Preview Update Mac 2017
Microsoft's release notes detail what's included in the June 10, 2015 update:
Outlook
- Networking improvements
- Reminder improvements
- Bug fixes
Word
- Mail merge recipient source improvements
- Bug fixes
Excel
Pdf Preview
- Bug fixes
PowerPoint
Microsoft Excel Preview Update Mac Download
- Ruler tab stops
- Ability to modernize legacy media formats
- Bug fixes
OneNote
- Bug fixes
You'll need to be running OS X Yosemite 10.10 or later in order to run the Office 2016 for Mac Preview, but if you've already got the preview installed, you can pick up the latest fixes via Microsoft AutoUpdate on your Mac, or hit the link below for manual download links.
Source: Microsoft Support (KB3048692)