I worked in finance for 5+ years and became extremely proficient with Excel on Windows. When I left to build a start-up, I switched to a Mac, and was frustrated by the absence of the shortcuts I had become accustomed to, which is why I built LightningXL on the side.

LightningXL is a menu-bar app that uses macOS Accessibility tools to add back two things on Mac that I had on Windows: (1) Access to all the ribbon commands across Excel/PowerPoint/Word using the same shortcuts as on Windows, and (2) formatting / auditing / tracing macro capabilities, similar to Macabacus.

None of the existing options provides the same scope of functionality: Accelerator Keys helps with the ribbon shortcuts, but not the macros, and the key tips that Microsoft released in the past year or so don't let you traverse the full ribbon.

My Excel efficiency is now close to what it used to be on Windows, so I wanted to share LightningXL more broadly for the other power users out there who for a multitude of reasons are using Macs.

Would love feedback on what improvements can be made and what other functionality to add for Excel or the rest of the Office suite.