Although I use Excel for Windows in my professional life, in my personal/home life I’ve used a Mac since 2006.

When it comes to Excel, today there is near-parity between the 2 platforms (it’s taken a few years to get to that point) however there’s still a way to go. Two critical (for me and many others but maybe not for you) features that are missing from the Mac version are Power Pivot / Data Model and Power Query.

This is why my Parallels Virtual Machine is running 24/7 on my Mac. I deliver training on these two features. I create videos and tutorials on these two features. I actually use these two features.

Earlier this year Microsoft started the Power-Query-on-the-Mac ball rolling by adding the ability to import data from CSV files and other Excel files but this week came the HUGE announcement that The Query Editor is now available to users on Microsoft 365 Beta Channel.

Expecting some cut down implementation like the VBA Editor, I gave it a test-drive and was pleasantly surprised.

If you’re already familiar with Power Query or you don’t use Excel on a Mac, move along nothing to see apart from curiosity as to how they’ve implemented it (spoiler alert – it’s on a par with the Windows version).

If you don’t even know what Power Query and the Query Editor are (and I know many many folks that don’t), now’s your chance to get a brief overview.

Introduction

What is Power Query?

Importing a CSV file into Excel

Introduction to the Query Editor

Use the Query Editor to extract part of a string

Use the Query Editor to merge/combine 2 columns

Use the Query Editor to apply a filter

Use the Query Editor to calculate age from date of birth

Use the Query Editor to convert a table to a list using unpivot