Hello all.
I am trying to use Excel but can't figure out a very basic thing which works fine across all OS and screen readers. What I am wanting to do is mark a certain row as column header. So when I move from one column to another in any row, I should no the column header. I have titles like Issue, Description, Completion Status and deadline on the first row. Now when I am filling up data in all the rows I should know the column when I do tab or shift tab. How can I mark the first row in this case as the header to be announced on every column change?
By kk_macker, 1 July, 2025
Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Comments
Not possible AFAIK
You've hit on the reason I don't consider Excel at all viable on Mac.
In Apple Numbers, all sheets and data within sheets are in one or more tables. VO picks up the headers from the Mac accessibility model the same way it does in HTML.
Excel spreadsheets look and act tabular, but don't follow Mac table rules, so column and row headers are not tracked, and I'm 99.99999% certain there's no way to get VO to read those.
Now, the possible workaround might be to create tables on that worksheet, which is not done automatically as it is in Numbers. Technically, if that makes it a table in VO's eyes, then it would work. I don't remember the process of creating a table on an Excel worksheet, since it's not something I ever do on Windows. However, I went through the annoying process once, though, and it didn't work.
I actually prefer Numbers. It has a neat way of inserting cell labels into the formula bar after you type the coordinates the first time, which makes formulas way easier to read. Numbers does lack some rarified functions Excel has. I've had spreadsheets I couldn't create in Numbers, but not for everyday stuff.
You can open and save Excel files in Numbers, if you need to share them with MS Office users. I would be skeptical of the fidelity, though, particularly after multiple loads/saves.
One other thing you might try is the web version of Excel, if Numbers won't cut it and you need it for collaboration. I'd bet the web app does deliver the worksheet as an HTML table.
Across the board, Microsoft doesn't do things the Mac way, and Apple won't accommodate software that doesn't do the "right" thing. I've gone back and forth with support on both sides regarding this issue, and each one told me it's the other one's problem.
Works on the web for sure
yes it works on the web version but not out of the box in the excel app. The way to do it is to convert the data into a data table. One way to have this by default in the sheets we created is to save a template and then use it.
Data tables also has several advantages like if there is a formula to apply on new rows it does so automatically.