Buy
Download Now

Start the free trial

7-day trial · No card required

Install and set up

  1. Download LightningXL

    Use the Download Now button at the top of this page. It saves the disk image to your Downloads folder, with the version in its name — LightningXL-v1.0.0.dmg or whichever version is current.

  2. Drag it into Applications

    Double-click the .dmg. In the window that opens, drag the LightningXL icon onto the Applications folder beside it.

    The LightningXL disk image window: the app icon on the left, an arrow, and the Applications folder on the right.

  3. Open LightningXL

    Open it from Applications. There is no window in the Dock: LightningXL is a menu bar app, so look for the ⚡ bolt at the top right of the screen. The Setup Assistant opens by itself the first time. Work down its rows in order; the steps below follow them.

  4. Enable Accessibility

    This is the permission that lets LightningXL read the Microsoft Office ribbon and press its buttons. Click Grant Access in the Setup Assistant and allow it in the dialog macOS shows. If you miss the dialog, open Grant access manually under that button, click Open Accessibility Settings and turn LightningXL on:

    System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility › LightningXL

    Come back to the assistant. The step's number turns into a checkmark as soon as the switch is on.

    System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility: LightningXL in the list with its switch turned on.

  5. Install in Office

    The Install LightningXL Macros in Office row lists Excel, PowerPoint and Word with an Install button beside each. Excel gets the add-in that carries the modeling shortcuts, formula tracing and the Share, Names and Settings windows; PowerPoint and Word get the Refresh buttons.

    Your macOS:

    Click Install for Excel. On macOS 27 a System Settings window opens first, at Privacy & Security › Files & Folders: choose LightningXL in the list and switch on Data shared by Microsoft OneNote and affiliated apps. That is the permission to put the add-in into Office's folder.

    LightningXL's entry under Files & Folders in System Settings, with the switch for data shared by Microsoft OneNote and affiliated apps.

    Back in the Setup Assistant, click Install for each app.

    The Setup Assistant's Install LightningXL Macros in Office step, with Excel, PowerPoint and Word each reading Not installed and an Install button beside each.

    LightningXL opens each app to put the file in place, and macOS asks once whether LightningXL may control that app. Click Allow.

    macOS asking whether LightningXL may control Microsoft Excel, with Allow as the right-hand button.

    Installing in Excel opens the add-in file there, so Excel asks about its macros once. Click Enable Macros.

    Excel asking whether to disable macros before opening the file, with Enable Macros as the lower button.

    Each app's line reads Installed once its file is in place, and the button beside it changes to Reinstall. The step's number turns into a checkmark when Excel's add-in is in.

  6. Start your trial or enter a license

    The last row is Start your free trial or activate a license. Choose Start 7-Day Trial, or Enter License Key… and paste the key from your receipt. One key activates one Mac.

    Start Free Trial & Open Excel, at the bottom of the assistant, does both at once and closes it.

    The Setup Assistant's last step, Start your free trial or activate a license, with the Start 7-Day Trial and Enter License Key buttons.

  7. Tap ⌥ and go

    Open Excel and tap the Option (⌥) key once on its own. The ribbon tabs show their letters. Type one to enter a tab, then the letter of the control you want. Try ⌥ H O I to AutoFit a column, exactly as on Windows.

Things worth knowing

  • LightningXL opens at login. It adds itself as a login item on first start, so the keytips are there after a restart. The switch in the Setup Assistant turns that off; the assistant reopens at any time from the menu bar: ⚡ › Setup Assistant
  • Keep the Office window wide. LightningXL has to see a button to press it. A narrow window collapses ribbon groups into dropdowns, which moves some letters and hides others.
  • Office must be in English. The key maps follow the English ribbon, the same one the Windows shortcuts are built on.
  • macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Apple silicon or Intel, with the Microsoft 365 versions of Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
  • Updates. LightningXL looks for a new version once a day and shows what is new when there is one; ⚡ › Check for Updates… looks right away. Choose Install Update and LightningXL downloads it, replaces itself and reopens. The add-ins it installs in Excel, PowerPoint and Word update themselves at that start.
  • Keytips stop while a password prompt is open. A password field can turn on macOS secure input, which holds back every keystroke from other apps, so the ⌥ tap never reaches LightningXL and the dot beside the bolt turns gray. The usual cause is a password manager waiting for input, such as 1Password sitting open in the background; deal with the prompt and the keytips come back on their own.
  • Check your antivirus. Some security software blocks one app from sending keystrokes to another. If nothing happens when you tap ⌥, add LightningXL to its exclusion list.

Make Mac Excel behave more like Windows

All three are switches in the menu bar, off or on whenever you like.

  • Standard Function Keys in Excel. F2 edits a cell and F9 recalculates without holding Fn, and only while Excel is in front. Leave Excel and the keys go back to brightness and volume. On by default.
  • Control Arrow Navigation in Excel. ⌃ with an arrow jumps to the edge of the data region and ⌃⇧ selects out to it, the way Ctrl does on Windows. Off by default.
  • Trigger Key. ⌥ by default, or the Command key (⌘), which is typically in the same location on a Mac keyboard as Alt is on Windows.

Permission issues after upgrading

If LightningXL worked before an update and the keytips stopped appearing, macOS is holding an Accessibility entry for the old copy. Removing the entry and granting it again fixes it.

  1. Remove the old entry

    Go to System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility, select LightningXL in the list, then click the minus (−) button to remove it.

    Remove it, do not just switch it off. The stale entry is the problem, so turning the switch off and on again leaves it in place.

  2. Grant it again

    Open LightningXL from Applications, then choose ⚡ › Troubleshooting › Open Accessibility Settings and switch LightningXL on. It appears in the list as a fresh entry.

  3. Restart LightningXL

    Choose ⚡ › Quit LightningXL and open it again from Applications. The permission only reaches a running app when it starts.

If the ribbon shows its letters but nothing happens when you type them, it is the other permission: System Settings › Privacy & Security › Automation › LightningXL. Switch Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint on there.

Still not working?

Email hello@lightningxl.com and we will help you sort it out.

It speeds things up if you choose ⚡ › Troubleshooting › Save Diagnostic Report… and attach the file, along with a screenshot of Excel after you tap ⌥.