If you can, you might as well get the latest version right off the bat.Office 2021 will be available for Windows and Mac desktops. If you’re still using Windows 7, Office 2016 is the latest version you can use.For many years — even when the rivalry between the two companies was at its hottest — Microsoft has produced a native version of its Office suite for Apple’s Macintosh computers, something Apple has welcomed.A feature that's coming in the next version of Office for Mac is the return of. The Windows version runs only on Windows 10. Microsoft released the Office 2019 for Windows and Mac on September 24, 2018. The latest version of Microsoft Office is Office 2019, which is available for both Windows PCs and Macs.But it was typically behind its Windows cousin in features, and was on a different update cycle from Office for Windows.That’s all changed now. Until roughly two years ago, Microsoft had deployed a separate, independent, Apple-focused team to handle Office for Mac, with development help from Apple, and the product had a Mac look and feel. It will work with either Intel or M1 based Mac computers.If you don't want to buy a subscription, the latest version of Office for Mac is Office Home & Student 2019 (119.99/US149.99) or Office Home & Business 2019 (249.99/249.99). MacOS, Microsoft’s policy is to support the current and past two MacOS releases. Windows 10 or Windows 11 is required for Office 2021, same as Office 2019.
What Is The Atest Version Of Office Software Is NowSo longtime Office for Mac users will face a learning curve.I’ve been testing Office for Mac 2016 for about a week in fact, I’m writing this column using part of the suite, Word 2016. One manager even bragged to me that the new version would make people at “Goldman Sachs” happy.But except for a few Mac-only features that mostly are about meeting the Mac’s standards for apps, there’s nothing especially “Mac-like” about this version of office. Microsoft says the software is now a “first-class citizen” in the Office world. PowerPoint in the new Office for Mac 2016 MicrosoftFrom the point of view of feature parity and user-interface consistency, this is a good thing — especially for the 75 percent of Office users who Microsoft claims use it on both Windows and Mac. To emphasize the point, the naming has advanced five years from the last Mac version — Office 2011 — to match the forthcoming Windows desktop version, Office 2016, due later this year.![]() But it also works if you just send a file around via email. Those changes showed up when I returned to the Mac and refreshed the document.This kind of collaborative writing or editing is done most easily in Office 2016 for Mac if you save your files to OneDrive. For instance, I was able to make tweaks in this paragraph from a Windows laptop running Office 2013, and from an iPad running Office for iPad, which is a well-done subset of the PC and Mac versions. No new file formats are being introduced.And because you can save and open files on any of several versions of Office for different platforms, you can work on any document from multiple devices. Among the additions in PowerPoint are support for slide transitions formerly only in the Windows version.The new Office remains compatible with files created in its predecessors, and vice versa. Adobe flash player for mac os xBut the company is hoping that with cross-platform parity and integrated cloud and multi-author capability, it can keep the Office cash cow going.So, what are the Mac-only features Microsoft has preserved in this new version? Well, as in most Mac apps, you can use the platform’s multi-touch gestures for the trackpad. If you like the new one, you can get rid of the old one to reclaim disk space.Of course, Microsoft now finds itself competing with some popular free options in the productivity space, notably Google Docs, which many younger users, and even small businesses, prefer. So you can switch between the two, or run them both at the same time. You can just store and retrieve files locally.One more thing: Installing the new Mac version doesn’t wipe out your old version. Microsoft’s main focus in the new Mac version of Outlook was to make it the equal of Windows as a tool for using Exchange, the company’s email, calendar and contacts system that is mainly used by big enterprises. Microsoft says this is coming soon.More importantly, I had problems setting up Outlook. MicrosoftIn addition, Mac users can choose to turn off the colored menu bars that Microsoft has adopted on other platforms to distinguish the components of Office — blue for Word, green for Excel, etc.What didn’t I like about Office for Mac 2016?First, you can’t customize the toolbar above the ribbon, as you can on Windows. The new Office for Mac can share files with Office for iPad and iPhone. And the new Office suite, which Microsoft says has been rebuilt, now supports Apple’s Retina displays for sharper text and graphics, especially in PowerPoint. This is just unacceptable in 2015, and Microsoft pledged to me that it would address the issue.All in all, I’d say that — especially in Word, Excel and PowerPoint — the benefits of parity with Windows outweighs the loss of Mac distinctiveness. So it makes you set them up manually, with server names, port numbers and so forth. Unlike many other email apps, it has no way to know, or to be told, that these are Google-based accounts.
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