Microsoft Excel Reviews

by Jamesk479

Once again, MS just doesnt get it. IPad is an on-the-go device mostly. If someone is opening an Excel file ion an iPad it might just be an emergency, and your on the go. So I prob open this thing once a month. And every time I come back it is a clumsy mess with some annoying distraction. For one thing, it opens the last file. I do not want to work on a file from a month ago. Naturally, you close it but then its prompting you to save. You want me to save a file that you should know I havent done anything to or in the last month? That is beyond ignorant. The cloud will have a more recent version. It is the most cloud version, you might say? It is not easy for the user to tell and even if so, then there is absolutely no reason to force me to save. I haven not even breathed on this file that i did not want open. So now you might be scared that with autosave u could lose recent revisions? The safe thing would be to just terminate MicrosoftExcel , but...long story short.... I STILL HAVE NOT STARTED THE IMPORTANT TIME SENSITIVE WORK THAT PEOPLE OFTEN NEED TO DO on-the-go. Off course thats not all... it is also telling me I need a subscription to access my OneDrive folder. I HAVE ONE and I am logged in. Just absolutely unacceptable!

by Ringdelio

Wuderlist was a wonderful app. It kept lists, synched across my devices, and across my family (if I choose). I used it to run my life. MS acquired it, changed the name to ToDo, decided it was perfect as an enterprise project management system (it’s not, and I have run big projects), and made it nearly impossible to rely on if you are not sitting at your desk all day like a MS developer. It got rolled into the MS system, and of course double password protected. Right away I hated this—I don’t need my grocery list defended from the Russians. Then it decided that I couldn’t leave it on—it would log me out to protect my data. A big waste of more time. Then it decided I needed to use their proprietary two-party app to provide a backup authentication. Did they even think about how much fun this would be standing in the middle of Home Depot and trying to work through this morass just to verify which woodscrews I wanted to buy? Here’s a hint for the developers—software should help us get stuff done, not be a merry-go-round of interaction with the system. Time to find a new app.

by Floatsflyer

I have 30+ years experience using the desktop version of MS Excel on Windows based PCs. Consider myself fairly proficient. iOS version on iPad looks like, but does not function like, Windows desktop version. First, it appears to be web based so there is serious lag time between attempting to make changes and seeing your attempt appear on-screen. Second, I have spent last ten minutes attempting to copy three adjacent cells (two with numbers and third with formula adding them together) then pasting them into several rows directly below them. Highlight the three cells, long press then tap Copy, highlight group of cells below, long press then tap Paste and what happens? Those three Copied cells are not Pasted but instead one cell shows contents of last item (a cell description) I Copied from a website. Tried four times, same result. Very frustrating. Shame on me for expecting a Microsoft app to work well on an Apple operating system. Guess I need to learn how to use Numbers.

by Wrlitzr

I use excel to track my business miles on my iPad while I’m out in the field, and it seems like at least 3-5 times a week I have to completely uninstall and reinstall MicrosoftExcel because it stops being able to open any files. It just says something went wrong and the file can’t be opened. I’m able to open the file on my phone and computer, it’s just this version of MicrosoftExcel that has this problem. The first few times it happened I tried resetting the device and clearing any app cache I could get access to, but the only thing that would fix it was completely reinstalling. This is not a small app to be downloading several times per week over cellular... If it weren’t the only app capable of handling the specific formulas included in this spreadsheet I would definitely be using Google Sheets or Open Office instead... If you need a general use spreadsheet app I highly recommend looking at one of those instead to avoid this persistent pain in the neck...

by Progolfore

Nothing is more frustrating than using an app that is a shell of itself. Especially when it comes to simple tasks. I had excel spreadsheets on my PC that I had generated and each one I created a logo and title in the header. These headers aren’t generally seen while using excel but are available to edit and use through a menu on a PC. Now I use an iPad Pro solely (PC died) and there is no menu or method to change headers on all of my excel files I have previously made. My spreadsheets are useless because I can’t change a header in their iOS app versions. And I am a Microsoft 365 user/payer. I called support and asked where I could give feedback on this to get someone to look at it and change it and they told me I only could go to a PC to give feedback on this. They didn’t have a method in a browser on an iPad! That’s crazy messed up! Microsoft, are you listening, why are these simple and necessary features not available?

by Nick Name Taken2034

I have to use microsoft on the iPad I use for work. I can’t even begin to describe how much I hate excel and microsoft. The current ceo of ms has basically forced who I work for to insist we use their products. I kinda think that’s monopoly practices, but whatever. I got the iPads before I knew about that rule or I wouldn’t have purchased them. Total waste of money because they are now very expensive paper weights. Excel on the iPad is clumsy and glitchy. I do field work, like in an actual field, and having to edit these sheets is annoying. I use my personal iPad to make a sheet in numbers then open it in the excel iPad. If I had wanted to use excel or any other ms product I would be using the surface, which we have, and it was also a huge waste of money because you have to use that keyboard. The ‘pad’ part of the surface only works with some apps. Again, not something they tell you when you buy it.

by Disappointed Student 2021

I am a Music Education student who is required to take a basic statistics course for my degree. I also used to be an engineering major where we were required to do an advanced statistics course. Not supporting KEY features like the Data Analysis Toolpak in 2021 where many students are using office 365 on tablets is very disappointing from a company that prides itself on its office suite. It puts thousands of students at a disadvantage because they (instead of being able to use their preferred and possibly only personal device) have to go to computer labs on campus, which are not always guaranteed to work or be open when you need them to be, to complete what should really be a mundane class in the curriculum of basically every humanities and social sciences major, and at much higher levels STEM majors. I thought the excel app would be more robust than the google sheets app but it really doesn’t even compete when the main pull to excel is its add-ons and because it does not have those google sheets is really the better option with much more ease of transition between devices.

by Ya, Right.

I like being able to access my excel files from my iPhone. Works great for simple editing and updating. But suddenly I can not edit an excel file that I had created on my laptop and had been able to edit it on my iPhone before. It opens read only and when I try to save it to another name or location it does not allow it because I now must have an Office 360 subscription. I never had one to begin with. I have a one drive account, but that does not get me around this. WHY do I suddenly need an Office 360 subscription? It’s MY file; I created it OUTSIDE of this iPhone app. WHY are you holding me hostage? I can’t find an explanation for why this happened and why I now need the subscription. Google Sheets seems to work just fine and I am now using that instead. Are other Office apps going to do the same thing to me? Incidentally, if you get stuck by this, I finally got around not being able to write the file anywhere by mailing the file to myself from inside MicrosoftExcel and then I opened it with Google Sheets.

by Was Hopeful

There isn’t a single time I’ve used MicrosoftExcel to create spreadsheets that I haven’t finished disappointed or disgusted. Every time I create a spreadsheet with tables and charts Excel just fails. A simple exercise to grab a table of dividend distributions from a web page, paste into Excel, calculate the average dividend and average NAV, and then chart the NAV and dividends with trend lines seems to be too much for Excel to handle. It usually finishes off by locking up when I am frustrated and decide to save to OneDrive so I can finish my work on a Windows PC.

The next most frustrating problem is editing a formula. I don’t understand why dragging the cursor through a formula can lead to so many different selection mistakes. I dare you to try placing the cursor at the start of a cell reference or between a string of multiple open parentheses. Top that off by the totally inept programming of moving the cursor using the space bar. The inertia of the cursor seems to change randomly and toggles between “it isn’t going to move at all” to “how did the cursor get way over there so fast?!”

Viewing existing spreadsheets seems to work pretty well. This is the only reason I gave MicrosoftExcel two stars instead of one.

by TheAlphaBelle

I have been seriously disappointed with the Microsoft office products on iPad. I wasn;t expecting much since it in a iPad after all but as someone who is a student, teacher, realtor and study intelligence for the military this iPad is lacking the basic necessities. Word - I can perform 2 functions and I get the same use out of Notebook. Excel- still haven’t been able to find one useless aspect. I expected way more out of Microsoft Office and the possibities it provides on an iPad. Especially for someone who has been a committed user since the very beginning. What yeah was that like 1990’s or 2000’s. Extremely disappointed. If this is the best that could be done for Microsoft on an iPad then at least make it easier to navigate and more capabilities. Perhaps downloading different fonts for a start?

Thank you for all your hard work and allowing my feedback!

by Batgirl0520

At one time I would have given 5 stars as Excel is one of my favorite programs. But some recent changes have made MicrosoftExcel almost unusable for me. I'd rather turn on my computer and wait to use that Excel instead of MicrosoftExcel .

If I try to scroll up and down with the key pad open, it usually closes the keypad on me. Opening it again every time is a pain. When I enter a number in a column and hit return, the keypad automatically reverts back to the text keys instead of the numbers. If you are entering numbers in a column, chances are you will want to keep entering numbers. Having it go back to text every time is obnoxious and totally a waste of time! If I select a cell with my finger, it is basically impossible to then select an adjacent cell. I need to tap one away from the one I actually need first and then go back.

by RMKang

It’s great, not having to carry around my macbook pro and use excel for work on the iPad. I’ve gotten used to and actually prefer to use Excel on iPad for a quick project.

However, after the update for Apple Pencil 2, program does not respond upon opening sheets, switching tabs, etc when you are using the apple pencil unless you tap on the Draw tab, and tap again on Home tab. It wasn’t doing that before the update. This does not make for smooth, quick work process, having to switch back and forth. I talked to the Tech Support about this, and was told that basically it is what it is now and that I’d have to wait for MS to fix this issue. Sooner than later would be great.

Also, if there is a way that allows multiple sheets open at the same time, that’d be wonderful, but one can only dream.

by !BabyGirl89!

I am having issues with this application on my IPad. I can not use the application at all.
Also, this application logs me out of Office 365 from time to time and I can’t access my files. Then when I try to log back on I have issues and it wont let me. This only happens on occasion. I am now logged in to Office 365.
The real issue now is, I can not even use this application. When I first open the application it tries to open the last document I worked on. The issue is that it wont open it. It just keeps the pop up that says attempting to open and will not do anything. When I try to cancel it, it then pops up attempting to cancel and won’t. My application is no longer working on my IPad due to this. I’ve tried to turn the IPad off. Stop and start the application. I don’t know what to do.

by ABelieber

Bought the subscription to Office 365 because I wanted to use Microsoft Excel. First 2 projects I worked on went fine. My 3rd project was a huge one (a $800 fee for me). I worked on it for 6 hours when suddenly my work vanished ... disappeared right in front my eyes! I tried everything, but I could not get the document back. Came to the realization that while the “auto-save” feature was “on”, MicrosoftExcel was not saving any of the work!! The Microsoft cloud had nothing! Made a quick research and found that this type of complaint has been posted by others going back to 2014!!! What??? IT HAS NOT BEEN FIXED??!! Clients have had the same 2 bad experiences (failure by the auto-save and the document disappearing) AND MICROSOFT HAS NOT ADDRESSED THIS ISSUE. So, despite buying the iPad Pro intending to use Excel, I now will have to buy a Window base laptop. Grrrrrrrrrr.

by Sundlie

I love being able to use Excel on my iPad Pro as it’s super easy to make adjustments on the go. I’ve got Office 365 and my documents are stored on OneDrive so I’m usually able to make changes and it shows up on my other devices. However at least once a week MicrosoftExcel seems to forget my password and all my documents stop syncing. I have to sign in again and then it overwrites any changes I’ve made on my iPad since it decided to stop syncing. OneDrive has been doing weird stuff like this on all my laptops, desktops and tablets over the past few years. In fact the last time OneDrive seemed to be problem free was back when it was called SkyDrive. Hopefully Microsoft gets things figured out eventually. If not I’ll probably just switch over to Google Docs when my 365 subscription ends.

by E-book Lover

Overall, I’m very happy to have the convenience of using Excel on my iPad. I’m not a very sophisticated user, so the stripped down version is mostly workable for me.

That said, some functions don’t seem to be present at all, and it’s puzzling why they aren’t included in the iOS version. I keep getting a ‘circular reference’ error in one spreadsheet, for instance, and can find no way to locate it using the iOS app. I finally went to my PC to resolve the error.

Since all of Microsoft’s dubious ‘help’ seems to refer to the PC version, looking up ‘how to’ information can be an exercise in frustration. If there’s a chart that tells you which functions aren’t included in MicrosoftExcel ., it should be prominently displayed so as to avoid the many wasted minutes looking for something that just isn’t there.

by Scarlet In The Living Room

Okay so, I’m an MS Office girl from way back. From websites to databases, you name it, I loved every little bit Office could offer. But then I got an iPhone, and I found myself straying to other apps compatible with my newfound iPhone love. I tried Office for iPhone, but at that time, the two designs just didn’t work well together. But recently I’ve needed to work with Office and I gave the iOS version another go. All I can say is Hallelujah, y’all!!! Microsoft has worked out all the kinks, and my two tech-loves can coexist at last! Oh , and not for nothing, I recently got an iPad Pro 10.5 with an Apple Pencil, and OMG, y’all!! I’m in database-formatting-outline-creating Heaven!!! Give Office for iOS another try- you’ll be happy you did.

by Urahmus

I consider myself an advanced Excel user and was skeptical of the limitations that would be imposed by the iPad version, but I have been pleasantly surprised so far. I have just started using the iPad version but have not yet encountered any major limitations for the activities I use 90% of the time. The cell borders options are not as complete as in the PC version, but that’s a cosmetic thing I can live with. The program integrates fantastically with the cloud, and all updates are immediately available on other devices. Very convenient to use the iPad for quick additions to a sheet, without having to go to my desktop computer, boot it up, do my work, and copy it to a thumb drive or email it to myself. This is easy to get used to...

by Cletusd

The new comment feature RUINED my previous notes. I used to be able to edit them at will. Now because they have all been converted to these “threaded comments”, for one they take forever to open up when you tap on them and I cant edit them. Ive had this particularly useful spreadsheet that Ive used for years and now its almost no good to me. I was on online with tech support for 2 hours trying to see if there was a way to reconvert them back to simple notes. It turns out I have to use the my laptop and redo the entire spreadsheet to re-add all my notes. I cant even find the “add note feature” on my iPad version. I am not happy at all with this comment thread feature!!

by Matt3466

Good app but Excel is easier to use on a desktop or maybe a tablet computer. One good thing is that I can use Excel on my computer and then use the cloud to view the file on my iPhone. That way at least I can view or print the file without carrying around a larger tablet computer.

Unfortunately, however, the Excel screen on my iPhone is scrunched up and the help feature is not as accessible on my iPhone. I suppose MicrosoftExcel would be useful for people who are extremely familiar with Excel and it’s formulas but for average users like myself using Excel on a larger computer is the way to go.

by That Maurer Kid

I use my iPad Pro for everything college. Literally everything. I type papers on the Microsoft Word app, make Power Points on Microsoft’s PowerPoint app, take notes, do online assignments, play games, listen to music, watch school related videos WHILE taking notes, etc etc. I do know that some features are left out on Microsoft apps since I’m using an Apple product and they DO NOT go unnoticed. Such features I have been able to go without and many people probably don’t use them often. When it comes to Microsoft’s Excel app, too many features are left out and MicrosoftExcel is almost rendered useless for engineering work. I need to be able to manipulate line graphs, scatter plots, and data and MicrosoftExcel doesn’t allow me to do so. If I have 2 columns of data, I need to plot one versus the other, and MicrosoftExcel doesn’t allow me to do so. Then once I do that, I need to be able to see all the data that comes with the graph that is generated, like the r^2 value and setting tolerances for trend lines etc. Maybe it was a far fetched idea in the first place to think I could use an iPad for all my college engineering work, but its frustrating when I can do literally everything else on my iPad faster, easier, and more convenient than with a laptop, EXCEPT for Microsoft Excel. Literally the only drawback I have with my iPad. I get Office 365 through college so I’m still paying Microsoft for ALL of its features, but not getting them. Disappointing.

by Andrea Bowen

I’ve been using this Excel for iPad/iOS app since about the time it came out. This is probably the case with all the Microsoft Office for iPad/iOS apps, but I’m experiencing this right now with Excel, so I’ll call it out here. Just about all my work is on Dropbox. Excel automatically tries to open the previous thing that I was working on. And if it gets hung up—Excel basically doesn’t open because it can’t figure out how to open a file that’s in my Dropbox. I’m down to the point that I’m just opening my old Excel files in Google Drive, because at least Google Drive lets me edit, and I can save my old stuff as an Excel file if Excel for iPad ever gets its act together.

I’m finding the Dropbox functionality really dreadful, and am happy to talk to someone at Microsoft about it. I want to use Office products, but this weird situation is driving me bats.

by Doc D55

I'm very happy now. The earlier version not so much, but now I'm very happy. I've been a Microsoft user for 30 years. I totally love Excel. I've used it for work, keep as checkbook, travel expenses, on and on.
My title was Constructed Manager, of multi-million to billion dollar projects. I've got 4 college degrees. Love Excel. However anyone can make use of this program and love it. This current version is the very best to use on Apple ISO products and very easy to use. It's just a matter of experimenting and before you know it your an expert. Enjoy!
02Aug16
The improvement continue to make Excel better and better. I've been using Excel on my own Microsoft computer for many years and I continue to find more uses and simpler way of doing things. MicrosoftExcel is continuing to evolve making everything simpler and more fun to use. I strongly suggest to try it if you haven't before.
04FEB17
MicrosoftExcel has completely gone down hill. A very simple thing to do is format a column of numbers. Ex: Dates, Dollars. Well....if anyone figures out how please let me know without having to write a very time consuming formula. That is the only method I could fine. When MicrosoftExcel first came out, one (1) Tap set the cell or the column format. Now? Forget it.

by Fishnsoph

I use MicrosoftExcel daily for work and in my personal life. I have one major gripe with it though. I’m not very tech savvy so please forgive my basic way of explaining. The top green bar/menu (while a sheet is open) with the arrow to go back to the list of books, the undo button, font, search and share is not constantly available. It’s there when you open the sheet. Then it’s hidden. Sometimes it comes back when you press the green arrow and other times it’s just gone, with no way to get it back. Unless I close MicrosoftExcel completely and restart it. I really wish this section was more user friendly. Maybe I’m doing something wrong but I can’t seem to find another way to have it shown.
Thanks for letting me vent.

by Mjd2049

My 10.5 Pro which I’ve been using for years was lost. I was deciding between the 10.5 & the 12.9 Pro. I told Apple Sales person that I mainly work in excel on a daily basis. I was told that I might find the 12.9” a Big improvement. I would have to purchase 365 to be able to update my spreadsheets but that it only costs $ .99 per month. I didn’t like the change that the upgrade would cause but purchased a 12.9 for over $100. Once at home I find that the 365 app cost 6.99/month or $84/yr. I should not have trusted the Apple sales agent and checked before purchase but dang, why should I have to. I certainly can afford the $84 but it’s the principal. I can afford it but I hate greed! I’m taking back the 12.9” and purchasing the 10.5” Pro which I was doing just fine with. Sometimes it’s the little things that count.

by DME_Ski

MicrosoftExcel has been a consistently great experience for me to use. I haven’t yet come across the problems others have, however, I use it for basic things like inventories and logs, so I may not be using it to the extent others are.

I also really appreciate reading the reviews that have complaints and see the developers’ responses to these important reviews. The developers are quick to make the fixes, almost every week it seems, and I think that makes not only for a great App but for wanting to stick with an App (and their company) because you’re getting awesome service.

Thanks, again!!!