By becoming the system settings, the system settings lost three functions: the configuration of the network connection priority order, the startup and shutdown programming interface, and the customization of some language preferences. But Excel used these preferences to select the decimal separator and the thousands. This forces Microsoft to finally add an option in its spreadsheet settings.
To customize the separators, open the section Change Microsoft Excel Options, and then disable the option Use system separators. You can then choose your own decimal separator, a comma by default, and your thousands separator, a space by default. The Windows version of the spreadsheet had this option for a long time, but the Mac version was dependent on system settings.
Unfortunately, this option does not appear (yet?) in version 16.66.1 distributed to owners of a “perpetual” license, but is available in version 2210 distributed to subscribers of the Microsoft 365 offering. Both versions always have a few weeks off, and some features are sometimes reserved for the Microsoft 365 edition.
To be completely complete with the issue of language preferences, note that the options in the old section Keyboard has been distributed between the new department General > Language and region (where you can now easily configure the language used by an application) and the new section Keyboard (especially in the section All input methods that hides behind the button Edit…). This new organization breaks benchmarks but is ultimately very logical.
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