If your a student such as myself and use a Mac, you have probably run into a few complications in certain course work. To save you sometime researching your different options, I have found a few different ways you can access the Excel Analysis Toolpak on your Mac. Since I am a student at East Carolina I will provide the options available to me. You may want to see what software resources your school provides for you.
FYI – some of these options will work for other Windows specific programs and applications.
1.) Statplus by Analystsoft. You can download a free version of the StatPlus addon by a Analystsoft. I performed a few Histograms with this software and I was highly disappointed with the functionality of this software. It is nearly impossible to follow an example from an instructor using Excel on Windows. http://www.analystsoft.com/en/products/statplusmacle/
2.) Use the VCL (Univerisity specific). Some universities provide a virtual computer lab for students to access certain programs. This is my preferred method to use the analysis toolpak in Excel. For ECU students you can login at http://vcl.ecu.edu . If you have not used the VCL before you may need to download a plugin for your browser to use it. Once have installed the appropriate plugin, make sure you use “option 2” to access Microsoft Office, then login with your student credentials. DO NOT SELECT “Office 2010/Excel 2010”. It will not allow you to install the addons. Instead select the “Risk Solver Platform”. Heres the catch… You can only open/save files to/from your piratedrive so accessing your files can be a pain in the @#%^ . The only way I know of uploading or downloading files to your piratedrive is through Onestop/Piratedrive . Other than that, It works great! *Hint: Use your Safari browser when accessing the VCL. I have not been able to get the VCL to work through Chrome on a Mac.
3.) Bootcamp + Windows + Office 2010 . Sound like a pain? It is but, if your a ECU student its free (other universities have simular programs). The plus side of this option is you can use other Windows specific applications with it. I have not tried this so I wont get into specific of how it work. First you will want to download Windows 8 (for free) from http://www.ecu.edu/cs-itcs/Software/microsoft.cfm . Also, you will want to download Office 2010 for Windows as well. Install Windows in bootcamp, then install Office in your Windows. Its a lot more work than it sounds but I believe they actually have a Mac version of Windows 8 specifically designed for this application. You can do Google search for more info on bootcamp and installing Windows on a Mac.
4.) VirtualBox + Windows + Office 2010 . Almost as much work as the previous option but, I actually prefer this option. Heres why… You dont have to shutdown your Mac and restart it in Windows. The VirtualBox actually allows you to run an operating system in another operating system. Essentially it allows you to run Windows in a window (sorry I had to…) so Windows operates like any other program on your Mac. VirtualBox is free at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads . You will need a copy of Windows, which you can download free from your school and of course you will need to download Office 2010 (for free from your school) as well.
If all else fails, borrow one of those $#%$^ Windows computers from a friend in exchange for whatever artsy thing you do because everyone who owns a Mac must be a designer, artist, freelancer, etc, etc. Just dont convert to the dark side… (Windows user). Hope this helps in your quest to be a Apple person living in a Microsoft world. Good luck!
BTW – I found the VCL and Virtualbox to be the best options for me.