Today’s post was written by Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office Client Applications and Services team.
Today we are taking a big step forward for Mac® users—Office 2016 for Mac is now available in 139 countries and 16 languages. Based on feedback from the great Mac Office community, we’ve made major updates to each of the apps, and we couldn’t be more pleased to deliver it first to our Office 365 customers.
Unmistakably Office, designed for Mac
Office 2016 for Mac is a version of Office that’s available as a one-time purchase from a retail store or through a volume licensing agreement. It will be supported with security updates and bug fixes, as needed, until October 13, 2020. The minimum supported macOS for Office 2016 for Mac is 10.10 (Yosemite). Office for Mac with Office 365, gives you power and flexibility to get things done virtually from anywhere. Find the right Office for you. Learn how Microsoft uses ads to create a more customized online experience tailored for you.
The new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote provide the best of both worlds for Mac users—the familiar Office experience paired with the best of Mac.
If you already use Office on a PC or iPad, you will find yourself right at home in Office 2016 for Mac. It works the way you expect, with the familiar ribbon interface and powerful task panes. Mac users will appreciate the modernized Office experience and the integration of Mac capabilities like Full Screen view and Multi-TouchTM gestures. With full Retina® display support, your Office documents look sharper and more vibrant than ever.
Using Microsoft Office On Mac
Office for Mac is cloud-connected, so you can quickly get to the documents you’ve recently used on other devices and pick up where you left off. New, built-in document sharing tools make it easy to invite teammates to work on a document together. When sharing documents, you won’t have to worry about losing content or formatting, as Office for Mac offers unparalleled compatibility with Office on PCs, tablets, phones and online.
Five modern, first-class applications
Word for Mac—Word’s powerful writing and reviewing tools make it easy to create great-looking documents. The new Design tab lets you easily apply designer-quality layouts, colors and fonts throughout your document. You can work on the same document simultaneously with your teammates and use threaded comments to have a conversation right next to the corresponding text.
Excel for Mac—The new Excel for Mac helps you visualize your information by recommending charts best suited for your data with chart previews. Familiar keyboard shortcuts, autocomplete and an improved formula builder save you time when creating spreadsheets or entering data. For deeper analysis, new PivotTable Slicers help you filter large volumes of data and discover patterns.
PowerPoint for Mac—PowerPoint’s improved Presenter View gives you full control when you present by showing you the current slide, next slide, speaker notes and a timer on your Mac screen, while the audience only sees your presentation on the big screen. The new animation pane helps you design and fine-tune animations, and the latest set of slide transitions add polish to your presentations.
Outlook for Mac—Managing your email, calendar, contacts and tasks has never been easier. The new Outlook for Mac has push mail support so your inbox is always up-to-date. The improved conversation view automatically organizes your inbox around threaded conversations, so you won’t have to hunt for related messages. And the new message preview shows you the first sentence of an email just below the subject line so you can quickly decide if you want to read it now or come back later.
Microsoft Office Mac Yosemite 10
OneNote for Mac—OneNote is the newest addition to Office for Mac. You can capture your ideas in digital notebooks and access them on any device. Find things quickly with the OneNote search engine that tracks your tags, indexes your typed notes and recognizes text in images and handwritten notes. Bold, italicize, underline or highlight notes, insert files, pictures and tables and organize your notes however you want. You can also share notebooks with friends, family or colleagues so everyone can work together on travel plans, household tasks or work projects.
Made better by Mac users
The customer participation in our Office for Mac preview since its launch in March exceeded our expectations, making it our largest Office for Mac beta ever. Many thanks to everyone who participated in the preview program and helped us improve the product.
Mac preview participants provided us with over 100,000 pieces of feedback. Based on this feedback, we released seven updates in four months with significant improvements in performance and stability. We also added features like improved Mail Merge in Word, Propose New Time in Outlook and support for External Data Connections in Excel.
And the best news is that Office for Mac will continue to see ongoing improvements over time. We plan to release updates and new features for Office 365 customers at least once per quarter.
Available today for Office 365 customers
Office 365 subscribers can get the newest version of Office for Mac today. All you need is an Office 365 subscription (Office 365 Home, Personal, Business, Business Premium, E3 or ProPlus), which includes the rights and access to use Office applications on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android devices, along with additional value in OneDrive and Skype.
Here are a few different ways to get Office 2016 for Mac today:
- Already an Office 365 customer? On your Mac, just browse to your account page (office.com/myaccount), sign in and follow the installation instructions. If you have Office 365 through your organization, go to portal.office.com/OLS/MySoftware.aspx.
- Are you a student? You may get Office 2016 for Mac for free or at a substantial discount. It takes only 30 seconds to find out at office.com/student.
- Otherwise, go to office.com/mac or buy an Office 365 subscription at your local retailer.
Office 2016 for Mac will become available as a one-time purchase option this September.
We hope you’re as excited as we are about the new Office for Mac. It’s one of many important releases this summer where we are improving the Office experience across devices and platforms. We released Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android phones just two weeks ago, which join Outlook and OneNote for Android phones, and we are just weeks away from delivering Office Mobile apps for Windows 10.
Please keep sending us your feedback and suggestions, and we will continue to improve your Office experience.
—Kirk Koenigsbauer
*Apple, Mac, Retina and Multi-Touch are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.
Office has long been the productivity suite of choice in the Windows world, and it’s also been a favorite for even longer on the Macintosh side. Perhaps this is a good spot to remind everyone that Excel originated on the Mac!
Lots of hard work was put into the latest Mac version of Microsoft Office, and it shows. Office 2011 for Mac more closely mirrors the design of the PC version of Office (as you can see by Microsoft Word for Mac shown), but it still includes everything you’d demand from a native OS X application (such as Pages from iWork, which is Apple’s competing office productivity suite).
However, as with OS X itself, Office 2011 for Mac isn’t just an attractive exterior. Consider some of the advantages of Office 2011:
Perfect document compatibility with the Windows version of Office: You can both read and write documents with transparent ease, no matter which platform gets the file. Documents can be shared between platforms on the same network.
Mirrored commands: Office 2013 for Windows and Office for Mac 2011 have similar menu items, dialogs, and settings, thus making OS X instantly familiar to anyone who’s used Office on a Windows PC.
Support for native Aqua features: These features include transparent graphics in your documents, input and confirmation sheets, and palettes for formatting.
Tons of templates, samples, and support files: Microsoft doesn’t scrimp on ready-to-use documents and templates, as well as additional fonts, clip art, and web samples.
Outlook: Office for Mac 2011 includes a version of Outlook that’s similar to the Windows version in scope and power. It combines most of the features you find in the Apple Mail, Calendar, and Contacts applications.
Besides Outlook, Office for Mac 2011 includes three applications:
Word: The word-processing application that rules the planet
Excel: The leading spreadsheet application
PowerPoint: A favorite presentation development application
The Office for Mac Home & Student suite costs about $150 at the time of this writing. You might save a few dollars if you buy it online from a web store.