For example, Microsoft made the following Mac versions of Office: Office 2011, Office 2016 and they released Office 2019 in September 2018. Microsoft 365 subscribers get access to new versions of Office when they are released, which is typically about every 3 or 4 years.
One-time purchases don’t have an upgrade option, which means if you plan to upgrade to the next major release, youll have to buy it at full price. Frankly, I don’t believe I’ve ever used them so I can’t comment on how similar or dissimilar they are from the full desktop versions. Office 2019 is a one-time purchase that comes with classic apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for PC or Mac, and does not include any of the services that come with an Office 365 subscription. The online versions are cleverly named Word Online, Excel Online, etc. Microsoft offers a web-based version of these applications.The online versions are only available if you have an Microsoft 365 subscription.
It is important to know that regardless of whether you buy Office as a stand-alone product or as part of Microsoft 365, you get the ability to download and install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc on your Mac. I’d like to point out a few other considerations that I think you should keep in mind as you make your decision.
To make it easier to see the application name and whether it’s 64-bit or not, drag the 64-bit header from the far right to the far left so it’s right next to the “Application Name” column.Are you trying to decide if you should buy Office for Mac as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription or as a stand-alone product? While cost is one important consideration it is not the only one. Microsoft Office Home and Student 2021 (E-Delivery) Product Code Delivered via Email One-time Purchase for 1 Device, PC, or Mac Fully Installed Office 2021. If you scroll to the far right, you should see a column that says “64-Bit” and the words “Yes” or “No” for each application. To do this, click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner, then on “About This Mac” and then on “System Report.” When the report opens up, scroll down to the “Software” section and click on “Applications.”Īn alphabetical list of applications will appear with various details about each one.
How to check for 32-bit programsįor those that are considering an upgrade to Catalina, a good first step is to see what 32-bit programs you are currently running to determine if they are important to you or not. Depending upon which version of the MacOS your computer shipped with, you may have to use an external hard drive to complete the reversion. There is no simple way to go back to the previous version (Mojave), so this option is very time consuming and complicated, as you’ll have to wipe your hard drive and reinstall everything. There is a Microsoft 'License Removal Tool' that removes all previous Microsoft Offices licenses from your computer. Other Office 2021 users have reported similar experiences online. Though it’s a web-based tool, there are options for editing your documents when you are offline. Update: I was experiencing repeated problems with the Office apps either hanging at launch or forgetting their activation every single time I quit the app. It includes Docs, Sheets and Slides, which are Google’s version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, although nowhere near as powerful.
If your needs for productivity software are very basic, you may find the free options available from Google through a Google Drive account to be acceptable. This means you either pay monthly ($6.99 for Home and Student) or annually ($69.99 for Home and Student or $99 for Business) from now on. Microsoft is trying to get users to convert from a single purchase package that will eventually expire to their subscription “SaaS” (Software as a Service) platform known as Office 365. The primary difference in the two packages is the Business version includes Outlook. You can purchase the Office Home and Student 2019 bundle from Microsoft for $149.99 or the Office Home and Business bundle for $249.99.
If you have Office 2016, you should be able to upgrade to the 64-bit version through Microsoft’s standard upgrade process if for some reason it hasn’t already been updated. If your version of Microsoft Office is older than Office 2016 v15.35, you’ll have to choose from a variety of costly or time-consuming and complicated options.