The Mac macro job 8 out of 10 experts turned down
Automating one process across 69 workbooks, on a Mac, where most VBA specialists would not go. The client asked around: most said it could not be done.
The problem
Sixty-nine workbooks in a folder, each needing the same process run on it. On a Mac. The client had already asked around, and by their count eight out of ten specialists said it couldn’t be done.
Developers are wary of Mac for a reason: Excel is a Microsoft product and plays nicer with Windows libraries. But Mac VBA is well supported, and the workarounds are well designed: you just have to know them.
What I built
Excel macros for Mac, with some AppleScript so the file system could be accessed properly. Cascading dropdowns drove the selections, string replacements filled Word documents, and the output ran across the whole folder in one pass. Tricky business on a Mac, and it took revisions to land exactly on the client’s very specific requirement, which they’d tell you themselves.
The result
One run instead of sixty-nine manual passes, on the platform most specialists wouldn’t touch, and a job that genuinely expanded how I work on Mac. The client’s own words:
I needed Excel Macros on Mac - to automate the same process across 69 files in the folder, and maybe 8/10 other experts on Fiverr said that they couldn’t do it; Chris did.
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