What works

Last updated: November 6, 2026 · Spark Grid 1.3

You have a workbook already. Here is what Spark Grid does with it, and what it doesn’t do yet.

Files

• .xlsx opens and saves. So does CSV.
• New, Open, Save, Save As, and recent files. Autosave writes a file you have already saved.
• Open from the Open dialog, or drop a file on the app icon.
• Several sheets: add, rename, delete, and switch. Drag a tab to move it. Tabs keep the file’s order, and a new order saves.
• Defined names in an Excel file are read. Names you create are saved.
• Column widths and row heights come back the same after you save and reopen.
• Formulas Excel saved as blank stay blank, instead of showing 0.

Formulas

A formula cell shows its result. The formula stays in the formula bar. These 91 functions calculate:

• Math: SUM, PRODUCT, ABS, ROUND, ROUNDUP, ROUNDDOWN, INT, MOD, POWER, SQRT, SIGN, PI, CEILING, CEILING.MATH, FLOOR, FLOOR.MATH, SUMPRODUCT, SEQUENCE
• Conditional totals: SUMIF, SUMIFS, COUNTIF, COUNTIFS, AVERAGEIF, AVERAGEIFS, MAXIFS, MINIFS. Criteria can use wildcards.
• Statistics: AVERAGE, COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, MIN, MAX, MEDIAN, LARGE, SMALL, RANK, RANK.EQ
• Logic: IF, IFS, IFERROR, IFNA, AND, OR, NOT, TRUE, FALSE, ISBLANK, ISNUMBER, ISTEXT, ISERROR
• Lookup: XLOOKUP, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, XMATCH, ROW, ROWS, COLUMN, COLUMNS
• Text: CONCAT, CONCATENATE, TEXTJOIN, TEXT, VALUE, LEFT, RIGHT, MID, LEN, TRIM, UPPER, LOWER, PROPER, SUBSTITUTE, FIND, SEARCH, EXACT, REPT, CHAR
• Dates: DATE, YEAR, MONTH, DAY, WEEKDAY, HOUR, MINUTE, SECOND, EDATE, EOMONTH, TODAY, NOW

Any other function shows #NAME?. Missing a function you use? Tell Sam which one.

Formatting

• Fonts, colors, borders, and alignment.
• Number formats keep the file’s format code: thousands separators, the currency symbol, and the date and time pattern.
• Conditional formatting: highlights, color scales, data bars, and three icon sets.
• Formatting comes back the same when you save and reopen, including in files with conditional formatting.
• Saving keeps what Spark Grid doesn’t show or edit yet: grouped rows, tab colors, protection, page setup, links, tables, and pivot tables stay in the file.
• Merged cells. Titles draw across the merge at full size.
• Freeze panes. Frozen rows and columns stay put when you scroll.

Working in the sheet

• Selection, zoom, and resizing rows and columns.
• The fill handle continues numbers, dates, numbered text, and month and day names. Option-drag copies.
• Filter any column from its header: search its values, see how many rows hold each one, and sort A to Z or Z to A. Click the same sort again to put the rows back. Undo works on filters.
• Filter by rule: contains, begins with, greater than, between, top and bottom, and dates.
• Dropdown lists: pick from a cell’s list, or make one with Data > Dropdown List.
• Comments: read one by resting the pointer on its cell, and add or edit them from the cell’s menu.
• Hide and unhide rows, columns, and sheets.
• The name box takes an address or a defined name. F2 edits the selected cell.
• Copy, cut, and delete skip rows a filter hides, as in Excel.
• Find and replace on the current sheet.
• ⌘-arrow jumps to the edge of your data. Add Shift to select as you go.
• ⌘-click or ⌘-drag removes cells, rows, or columns from a selection.
• Pictures you can move and resize.
• Bar, column, line, area, pie, and scatter charts on the sheet, with more than one series, series and point colors, title, legend, axis titles, and gridlines.
• Charts saved in your files show on the sheet and update as you edit their cells. Move, resize, and edit any chart; the Charts panel lists them all.
• Find Duplicates: pick the columns that must match, then highlight or remove repeated rows.
• Tables with a styled header and banded rows, made from Insert > Table or kept from your files.
• Sheet tab colors, AutoSum (⇧⌘T), and the sum, average, and count of a selection.
• Print preview for the selection, the used range, the sheet, or the workbook.

Big workbooks

• Large files open fast. A 48,000-formula workbook went from about 15 seconds to about half a second in 1.1.
• An edit on the sheet you’re looking at shows up near-instantly. Other sheets catch up in the background.
• Saving doesn’t freeze the window. Switching sheets is immediate.
• Scrolling back to a page you’ve seen is instant. The first visit to a far part of a very large sheet can still hitch.

Not there yet

• Spark Grid is not Excel or Numbers. Pivot tables stay in the file, but you can’t make or change them. No live collaboration.
• Pressing Space in Finder doesn’t preview a workbook in Spark Grid.

Fixed in 1.1.1

These matched Excel only partly in 1.1.

• ROUND on an exact half cent now rounds the way Excel does, so 1463.095 gives 1463.10.
• Newer functions saved by Excel (XLOOKUP, XMATCH, IFS, TEXTJOIN, and CONCAT) calculate instead of showing blank.
• INDEX across one row, like INDEX(B1:M1, 10), gives the tenth cell.
• Formulas with brackets keep their brackets when you sort, fill, or paste them, so (1-F3) stays grouped.

Privacy

No account. No analytics. The app doesn’t use the network, and your files stay on your Mac. See the privacy policy.

Something not on this page?

Email a sample workbook with anything private removed, and say what you expected. help@sparkgridapp.com