I’m excited to announce that we’ve improved the Name Manager in Excel for Mac! You’ll now have a much better view of your defined names, and can more easily add, edit, and delete names.
Improved Name Manager
The new Name Manager in Excel for Mac now has all the capabilities you enjoy in Excel for Windows. This is something many of you have requested, and we’re happy to deliver!
How it works
The previous Name Manager experience in Excel for Mac allowed you to create and edit defined names, but it didn’t give you full control of those names. To try out the new experience, go to the Formulas tab and access the Defined Names section of the ribbon. In this section you can:
- Select Name Manager to open a dialog box where you can view the entire list of defined names in your workbook, which includes all the important information about your names and can be filtered. This dialog box makes it easy to find, add, remove, or edit the names.
screen shot of the Name Manager in Excel for Mac
- Select Define Name to set the scope and add a comment to your defined names. This dialog box (New Name) gives you better control over how the names are applied in your workbook and helps to document the purpose of each name.
screen shot of the New Name dialog in Excel for Mac
Note: You can also resize the Name Manager and Define Name (New Name) dialog boxes, which makes them easier to use and allows you to view more information. (This will come in handy if you’re using the new LAMBDA function.)
To learn more, check out the article Use the Name Manager in Excel.
Scenarios to try
- Sometimes you may have names with #REF errors, but these were difficult to spot without the Name Manager dialog. Now you can quickly scan the list of names or use the Filter option to find names that have errors and fix or remove them. To do this, select the Formulas tab, click Name Manager, then click the Filter dropdown and select Names with Errors.
screen shot of the Name Manager dialog in Excel for Mac, showing the filter menu.
- Create a new name with a comment and set the scope to a specific sheet. To do this, click the Formulas tab and select Name Manager > New. Set the Scope to “workbook,” or pick a specific sheet if you want the defined name to only work in formulas on that sheet.
screen shot of the New Name dialog highlighting that you can adjust the scope of the name.
- Previously, you weren’t able to see whether a name was scoped to a specific sheet or to the entire workbook. Now you can look at the Scope field in the Name Manager to quickly see the scope for all your defined names.
Availability
This feature is available now to Microsoft 365 subscribers with Version 16.58 or greater. To get the latest updates to Excel there are 2 options. If you installed Excel from the Mac App Store, then go to the App Store and check for updates. If you installed Excel another way, go to the Help menu in Excel and choose Check for Updates.
Feedback
If you have any comments or questions about the Name Manager in Excel for Mac, please send feedback in Excel by clicking Help > Feedback. We take your feedback seriously.
Do you have an idea to make Excel better? We'd love to hear about it. Go to the Excel forum in Microsoft Feedback to submit your idea or vote for other ideas. You can also click the Feedback button in Excel and choose "I have a suggestion".