Excel for Mac: Where to Find Stuff That’s on the File Tab in Excel for Windows (Part 1)

This week in our series about Microsoft Excel for Mac, we consider where to find some of the features that appear in the File tab of the Ribbon in Excel for Windows.

No File Tab in the Ribbon on Mac

Why is there no File tab in the Ribbon in Excel for Mac (or Word or PowerPoint)?  That’s a great question, and to be honest, we aren’t sure, but it seems likely that since there’s a File menu on Mac, Microsoft didn’t want to add to the confusion by also creating a tab with the same name in the Ribbon.

As shown in the screen shots from Excel for Windows and Mac below, you can clearly see there isn’t a File tab on Mac.  Notice there’s no Help tab either.

The File tab in Windows isn’t like the other Ribbon tabs.  It fills the entire window, and it has its own tabs on the left side offering a wide set of actions, such as getting info about your file, creating a new file, opening a file, saving a file, setting Excel’s options, etc.

In Excel for Mac, the actions that you would expect to find on a File tab are spread out among a few different places, and we’ll try to cover them all in this part and our next post (which we have cunningly called Part 2).

Windows: File -> Home

On a Mac, press the Home button which is in the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar).

Another way is to use the File menu -> Open, and then press the Home button.

Windows: File -> New

With a Mac, go to File menu -> New from template…, or press Home on the QAT, then choose the ‘New’ panel.  If you choose New from the menu, it directly creates a new workbook.

Windows: File -> Open

On a Mac, go to File menu -> Open…, or press Home on the QAT, and then choose the ‘Open’ panel.

Windows: File -> Share

On a Mac, go to File menu -> Share -> Share…

Windows: File -> Get Add-ins

On a Mac, go to Home tab -> Add-ins -> More Add-ins.

Windows: File -> Info (covered in Part 2 of this post)

On Windows, the Info panel contains a collection of features that are scattered in various places on Mac.  It’s a lot of information to cover, so we think it deserves its own blog post.  We shall revisit next time.

Windows: File -> Save a Copy or Save As

On the Mac, go to File menu -> Save a Copy or Save As.

Windows: File -> Print

On a Mac, go to File menu -> Print…

Windows: File -> Export

• CREATE PDF / XPS DOCUMENT: XPS is not available on Mac.  To create a PDF on Mac, you can go to the File menu -> Save as…, and pick PDF as the file type.  Another way is to open the Print dialog, and choose PDF -> Save as PDF…
• CHANGE FILE TYPE: To change the file type, you can go to the File menu -> Save as…, then pick a different file type and save the file.

Windows: File -> Close

On a Mac, go to the File menu -> Close.

Windows: File -> Account

• SIGN OUT: On Mac, go to the Excel menu -> Sign Out… or press the Home button, then choose your profile picture -> Sign Out
• SWITCH ACCOUNT: Not available on Mac.  To switch accounts, you need to sign out, and then sign in with the other account.  Then quit and restart the Microsoft applications
• MANAGE SETTINGS (ACCOUNT PRIVACY): On Mac, go to the Excel menu -> Preferences or press CMD + Comma -> Privacy.·       
• OFFICE BACKGROUND AND OFFICE THEME: On Mac, go to the Excel menu -> Preferences or press CMD + Comma -> General 
• ADD A SERVICE: On Mac, press the Home button, or go to File menu -> Open, then press your profile picture -> Connected Services -> press the + button.  Or go to the Open panel, and press Manage Storage Accounts
• MANAGE ACCOUNT: Go to your Microsoft account page in a web browser
• SWITCH LICENSE: Not available on Mac
• UPDATE LICENSE: Not available on Mac.  To update your license, you may need to sign out, then quit and restart Excel and sign in.  Then quit and restart again
• UPDATE OPTIONS: On Mac, go to the Help menu - > Check for Updates
• ABOUT EXCEL: On Mac, go to the Excel menu -> About Microsoft Excel
• WHAT’S NEW: Not available on Mac.  To find out What’s New, join Microsoft’s community and watch for updates on the Excel team’s blog.  Also, sign up for our newsletter, where we provide monthly updates about what’s new. 
   

Windows: File -> Options  

On Mac, go to the Excel menu and choose Preferences, or press CMD + Comma to open the Preferences dialog. 

 
Word to the Wise

If you can’t find a feature you’re looking for in Excel for Mac, try using the Search feature in the title bar (commonly referred to as TellMe).  Type what you want to do or the name of the command you’re looking for.  If it’s available on Mac, it should be shown to you in the search results.

We hope you found this topic helpful.  Check back for more details about Excel for Mac and how it’s different from Excel for Windows.