# LightningXL

> LightningXL is a macOS menu bar app that brings the Windows Alt key shortcuts (ribbon keytips) to Excel, Word and PowerPoint for Mac, and adds 100+ of the most common financial modeling shortcuts to Excel. Tap Option instead of Alt, then type the same letters you know from Windows, for example Option, H, O, I for AutoFit Column Width. It is the fix for "Alt shortcuts don't work in Excel on Mac", plus the formatting, auditing and paste shortcuts that Windows modeling add-ins provide.

Website: https://lightningxl.com
Status: available now, for macOS 13 Ventura or later. The 7-day free trial, no card required, starts from the home page; a license is $50 a year.
Company: Burnt Hill Data Ltd., doing business as LightningXL. Contact: hello@lightningxl.com

## What it does

- Alt keytips for every ribbon command in Excel, Word and PowerPoint for Mac: 1,600+ sequences, shown as on-screen badges over the ribbon when you tap Option, exactly like Windows.
- Full depth of sub-menus, so multi-key sequences such as Alt H O I work end to end. Excel for Mac's own KeyTips setting stops one level short.
- 100+ modeling shortcuts inside Excel, following the defaults popularized by the well-known Windows modeling add-ins: number format, fill and font color cycles, alignment and border cycles, paste values, paste formats, paste links, precedent and dependent tracing, cross-sheet trace, and more. All customizable.
- Paste formatted Excel ranges into PowerPoint and Word, then refresh them from the source with one command.
- Windows-style function keys in Excel: F2 to edit, F4 to toggle references, F9 to recalculate, switching back to the Mac functions in other apps.
- Option or Command can be the trigger key, since Command sits where Alt does on a Windows keyboard.
- Runs entirely on the Mac. Workbook contents are never read or uploaded; the only network calls check the license and, once a day, whether a newer version exists.

## Who it's for

Finance, consulting, accounting and analytics professionals who learned Excel on Windows and now work on a Mac: investment banking and private equity analysts, consultants, FP&A teams, and any Excel power user who wants Windows muscle memory on macOS.

## Facts

- Platform: macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple silicon and Intel. Requires the Accessibility permission, which is how it reads the ribbon and presses its buttons.
- Apps: Microsoft 365 versions of Excel, Word and PowerPoint for Mac. Office must be set to English, since the keytips follow the English ribbon.
- The modeling shortcuts, formula tracing and the PowerPoint and Word paste run as an Excel add-in that the Setup Assistant installs; Excel asks once to enable macros.
- Pricing: $50 per year for one Mac, everything included, all updates included. 7-day free trial, no card required. Licenses move between Macs by deactivating the old one.
- Not a virtual machine: it does not add Windows-only Excel features.
- Compared with Accelerator Keys: LightningXL includes the modeling, auditing and paste shortcuts and covers Word, all at one price. Accelerator Keys provides Alt keytips only.

## Key pages

- Home: https://lightningxl.com/
- All 1,600+ shortcuts, searchable: https://lightningxl.com/shortcuts
- One guide per shortcut, for example "Alt H O I on Mac: AutoFit Column Width in Excel": https://lightningxl.com/shortcuts/excel/alt-h-o-i
- Setup and troubleshooting: https://lightningxl.com/help
- Pricing and purchase: https://lightningxl.com/buy
- FAQ: https://lightningxl.com/#faq

## Optional

- Sitemap: https://lightningxl.com/sitemap.xml