Poor old Mac Excel, it just don't get no respect.

It's different enough from PC Excel to strike uncanny valley fears into the unwitting. The next versions will exclude built-in VBA much to the chagrin of the Mac business faithful. The uproar reminds me of when Lotus announced it would pull LotusScript, a VBA-like language, out of its Notes program. People were openly revolting (although nothing was quite as revolting as Notes development).

So, if you don't have Parallels or the like, it's pretty much the only choice you've got on OS X. Sure, you can use Open Office, but that comes with its own peculiarities and incompatibilities.

One tip I'd like to share is how to silence this much maligned program. If you're using anything other than the built-in speakers on your Mac, you'll find that people in other parts of the office tend to jump out of their chairs when you hit Save. Mac Excel blings, clicks, and whirs with wild abandon.

You're just one click away from the sound of silence and passing this along is almost always met with "oh, you can do that?" squeaks of delight.