Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

So, what can’t iOS Excel do?

0989382

0989382

Suspended
Original poster
Jan 11, 2018
527
379
I know iOS’s version of Office is limited compared with that of the Mac, which itself is limited to the Windows version.

Though that’s widely known, what exactly is missing from iOS Excel versus desktop versions? And, furthermore what impact would it have on typical home use of Excel (or any of the others Word / PowerPoint).


Some optional background as to why this discussion might help people;
“I’m currently working my way through the Excel Bible book. It’s great and will help my new career so much. I’m issued a work machine however, and how I use Excel professionally just wouldn’t be required outside of the office. I have no need to work on work files on my personal devices, and even if I want to mess with Excel at home the work laptop is there. So, for the more powerful features if and when I need them, I can have them. But 99% of the time I’ll have my iPad - is that really a big deal for most people?” - 0989382, contemplating the iPad only lifestyle at home.
 
I use Numbers for spreadsheet work. People say it is limited compared to Excel but I'm yet to run into anything I can't do that I need to do. That goes for both iPad and Mac edition.
Though I also rarely use spreadsheets for very complicated things. I have Maple, R, SQL and so on for that.

Anyway back on point; What you can't do with Excel on iPad:
• Export your data to a CSV and import the CVS into a ruby to process the data programmatically.

But that's not exactly a common use-case.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 0989382
The iOS version of Excel ranks near the bottom of spreadsheet apps available for iOS. The strength of Excel for iOS is that it is able to render excel spreadsheets with great accuracy on iOS devices. So if you have to view an excel sheet that was created on Windows or Mac, then you'd be able to display it correctly on something like an iPad. You could do some light editing on it, but that's about it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 0989382
0989382 said:
Does Paste Special allow



Can iPad display more 'content' on the 4K display as opposed to just stretching it bigger? As in, more columns and rows on the external display.
Click to expand...

0989382 said:
I see. That's not great. But maybe that'll change with the latest iPad Pro development to USB-C etc.
Click to expand...

You've been able to code secondary display functionality for iOS for ages. Since like iOS 4 I think. Meaning you could make it not just a mirror. I didn't know whether Excel did so or not, but surely on a large 4K monitor you could zoom out further and still read it, even if it's a mirror of what's on the iPad, where the iPad display had things too small to be legible on its own display. Unless there's a hard zoom-out limit... I don't really use Excel
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back