Any thoughts on Microsoft Office?

[HobeSoundDarryl]

OP: buy yourself a cheap PC laptop or mini PC, install Office for PC on it and use Office on that PC. 100% file compatibility and no issues with Office for Mac, install files, functionality, etc. Stand-alone Office 2021 is regularly offered “on sale” for less than $50, so no ongoing 365 subscription required either.

With Silicon mostly killing bootcamp for 100% compatibility (Windows for ARM is not) the best way to go for anyone who needs Windows compatibility is old-fashioned bootcamp: a dedicated PC.

Pricing can get as low as baseline iPad or a few years of Parallels and you’ll have 100% compatibility. The right monitor can have more than one input so you can share a monitor. Some monitors have KVM so you can share a keyboard too. Or buy a little KVM box to share monitor & keyboard, etc.

The days of easily doing everything on a Mac are over. This is the easiest way to be sure you have full compatibility…and is probably longer-term cheaper too. All other options that don't involve a PC risk introducing at least minor file incompatibilities. The only way to have 100% compatibility with Windows files is a Windows PC... or older Intel Macs that- through bootcamp- could become a Windows PC.

If money is really tight you can't afford new, a recent model, USED PC would bring 100% compatibility too.

 

[Realityck]

However, I'm wondering if I should switch to Microsoft Office.

The single biggest reason is actually just compatibility with Microsoft Office documents. Pages does a pretty good job of opening and saving .doc and .docx files, but it isn't perfect, and native support would make my life a bit easier.

Have you ever looked at libreoffice? The question would be how old a version would work for you? But it’s been around for years.

Feature Comparison: LibreOffice - Microsoft Office - The Document Foundation Wiki

wiki.documentfoundation.org

Does LibreOffice run/work on OS X 10.9. Mavericks, or are there issues, e.g. with respect to 32/64 bit Java runtime?

I just switched to a MacOS System, currently running Mountain Lion (10.8.), and Libreoffice works fine. I am a bit nervous about updating. Can someone confirm that the program does not crash? I learned that Apple changed something in the Java runtime engine support…

ask.libreoffice.org

 

[eyoungren]

Unless you are roped into O365 for work, iWork or libreoffice is good for 90% of users. The price for either is exactly right.

I guess I just never liked being lumped in with the crowd. iWork and LibreOffice would be sufficient…but why when I can use InDesign or Word?

 

[philstubbington]

Ever since first switching to OS X in 2010, I've been an iWork user. I always figured that if I was going to use Apple's operating system, I should also use the office suite Apple explicitly built for that operating system.

Today, this means I'm using iWork '09 on OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Mavericks is my preferred version of OS X (as a lot of people here will know), and while iWork '09 is not the latest version Mavericks supports, it's the last version before Apple revamped the whole software suite, and early versions of that revamp were not very good.

However, I'm wondering if I should switch to Microsoft Office.

The single biggest reason is actually just compatibility with Microsoft Office documents. Pages does a pretty good job of opening and saving .doc and .docx files, but it isn't perfect, and native support would make my life a bit easier.

If I absolutely loved the iWork apps, this wouldn't be enough of a reason to switch. However, while Pages, Keynote, and Numbers are fine, I don't absolutely love them or anything. And, I've never actually tried Microsoft Office on Mac. I used it on Windows years ago, but never the Mac version.

Switching to Microsoft Office would be a major change. I don't like having multiple applications installed on my computer which do the same thing, because it gets confusing to keep track of which app I'm in, so installing Office would mean uninstalling iWork. When I need one of my old iWork documents in the future—which I absolutely will—I'll have to convert it to an Office file using the iCloud version of iWork, and manually fix any formatting inconsistencies.

So, my question is, how is this era of Microsoft Office on the Mac?

• Of the versions of Office would be compatible with Mavericks (I'm not actually sure which these are), which is the best one? Are some better than others?
• Are they good Mac apps? Does the visual design feel unified with the rest of the system? Does it follow Apple design guidelines? Do all of the little features you'd expect in a well-designed Cocoa app work as expected? Any complaints?
• Has anyone used both Microsoft Office and iWork '09? Leaving out compatibility, which do you prefer and why?

I’ve never had an issue with Microsoft 365 on Mac. I also use Visio and Project albeit obviously in Parallels or online as they don’t have a native Mac version.

 

[TheShortTimer]

You have a choice between Office 2008 (X and 2004 are PPC-only) and 2011 (2016 and later versions require at least Yosemite).
I use Office 2011 alongside iWork '09 and LibreOffice because I'm a friend of opening a given format only with the application that created it. I have no clear preference for any suite I'm afraid.

Why not both? No law that requires you stop using iWork or uninstall it just because you have Office. I've run ClarisWorks/Appleworks/iWork alongside MS Office for decades. Have both, use what fits your project or need. Office 2011 is a good product for Mavericks.

I share these sentiments as I've been using Office 2011 since 2010 (after switching from OpenOffice because it lacked an easy option for page numbering at the time) and in more recent times iWork '09 too. Both packages have served me very well and everyday I have them running simultaneously on my daily driver under High Sierra. To me, this would be the ideal set-up because you'll have the best of several worlds if you also include LibreOffice too.

I guess I'm just not experiencing that (Office).

Same here. For most Office 2011 has been rock solid. The main issue I've faced has been an annoying bug which would intermittently cause some of my footnotes to disappear - and I need to close and reopen the document for them to return but that hasn't occurred for quite some time now.

Really, my only major problem with Office 2011 is that Microsoft took the online activation servers offline in 2017, which means that people like I who actually bought the damn thing can't install it and activate it without either going through Microsoft's phone support, or simply just hoisting the Jolly Roger over their Mac.

If you're forced to fly the Jolly Roger over your Mac due to unavoidable problems with a product that you purchased then consider these words from the mouth of Microsoft's founder about people who don't pay for his software...

...and as long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours.

Yes, Gates said that.

(Not an advocacy of software piracy, merely highlighting what was said.)

 

[Wowfunhappy]

You can use some of Office for free on the web, although you might run into problems using whatever browser you're using on Mavericks.

Oh, so I can use the web version of Office via Chromium Legacy, and that's currently how I confirm that iWork exports worked properly. But for everyday use I'm not interested in a web app!

If money is really tight you can't afford new, a recent model, USED PC would bring 100% compatibility too.

Money isn't a major concern, but I like using my Mavericks Mac because it makes me happy. ❤️ There's a PC in the same room as my Mac that I can switch to with a button press, but I don't like using it.

No law that requires you stop using iWork or uninstall it just because you have Office.

There isn't a law, but if I keep both installed at once it will make me unhappy.

office 2011 works well, it's not native cocoa but with the right settings it looks essentially indistinguishable, and I'm usually picky. Not sure what other people are saying about background process, either I removed those or it was added only after 2011. Has applescript support as well. I think onenote might support up to 2016 version on mavericks. Only thing to watch for is that emacs keybindings don't work, but you can work around this by setting up your own via a script.

Oh damnit, I use those! It's great there's a workaround but that makes me nervous about what other niche integration will be missing. I actually thought MS Office used Cocoa.

Does anyone know if any of the following works in Office 2011?

• Can text highlighted in Office be used as input for an automator action?
• Can text be dragged out of Office into a text clipping?
• Do text replacements set up in System Preferences work in MS Office?
• Does Office use the standard Apple Color Picker?
• Can I copy an image in Office to my clipboard, open Preview and select File → New From Clipboard?

 

[PauloSera]

If you have to work with office documents (that other people are going to be viewing/editing in Office) then yes of course you should be using Microsoft Office on the Mac.

There is no such thing as "good enough" document compatibility, e.g. what you get from Pages. It needs to be 100% compatible or working with other people makes it a nightmare. I can always tell when I get a document back from someone who insisted on opening up in Pages.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

OP: if you want dependable compatibility with all Office files made on Windows machines, use that PC you already have. The love of Silicon Mac will not deliver 100% file compatibility by any means.

Else, the many suggestions in this thread can get you “pretty good” and maybe “good enough” compatibility… which works right up until it doesn’t with some file.

Nobody will know some secret solution to get you 100% file compatibility. PC or bust if you want dependability.

 

[rgeneral]

Welp, that won't do—it's exactly the kind of thing I dislike most!

However, can I ask when / what version this was? Office 365 isn't on the table here—it wouldn't work on Mavericks even if I wanted it.

Are you able to perform the task with web version of office.

 

[bobesch]

I hold on to Office'08 H&S. Maybe not the finest GUI but least hassle concerning activation.
It works on the whole range of my Macs starting with PPC/Tiger up to intel/Mojave.
Since I like to maintain compatibility with Office2000/Win2k and Office'01/os9 all my Office-files are stored in Office97-03 file-format, since my requirements are only basic. (To be honest: Office2k in a Win2k VM is my true favorite, closely followed by Office'01/os9 and Office'04/PPC making an iBookG3 Clamshell with mSATA my finest connected type-writer.)

 

[MacProFCP]

I use Microsoft Office for collaboration with PC users and found the current versions to be both fast* and reliable. If you're looking for something that is cheaper and works, try Google Apps which act like web versions of Microsoft.

*I have lots of ram in my machines which contributes to keeping Apps fast. My laptops have 16GB or 32GB and my MacPro has considerably more.

 

[tensixturtle]

Unless you are roped into O365 for work, iWork or libreoffice is good for 90% of users. The price for either is exactly right.

I tried going for a while only using those two and it wasn't pretty. Even though I had past experience with both of those apps, they are less refined and slightly less intuitive for me.

 

[bobesch]

Does anyone know if any of the following works in Office 2011?

Here's what Office'08 can do ...

• "Can text be dragged out of Office into a text clipping?"

Is it this, what You are looking for? (Works also with images ...)

• "Can I copy an image in Office to my clipboard, open Preview and select File → New From Clipboard?"

Yes. You can also drop an image-file from finder into an Office-document or drag&drop a selected image between Word, Excel and PPT or drag&drop an image out of an Office-document onto the Desktop or into a Finder-folder/window or into other Apps like Pages, Numbers, TextEdit, LibreOffice etc.

 

[tensixturtle]

Does Office use the standard Apple Color Picker?

Yes

Can I copy an image in Office to my clipboard, open Preview and select File → New From Clipboard?

Yes
edit: oops @bobesch already answered that.

 

[tcatsninfan]

If you have to work with office documents (that other people are going to be viewing/editing in Office) then yes of course you should be using Microsoft Office on the Mac.

There is no such thing as "good enough" document compatibility, e.g. what you get from Pages. It needs to be 100% compatible or working with other people makes it a nightmare. I can always tell when I get a document back from someone who insisted on opening up in Pages.

This. My work requires sending lots of documents and spreadsheets between many different people, most of whom use Windows. Additionally, the nature of my work requires the formatting of documents to be precise.

I tried using Apple's suite before but found that there would be formatting issues from time to time. I don't want to waste valuable time reformatting documents even if it is just once a week or something.

MS Office for Mac is good. I've been using it for years, a couple of different versions, and haven't had any issues.

 

[antnythr]

For any documents that are being shared with other people, especially in any kind of business environment, you use Microsoft Office. Whether you like it or not, it's the defacto standard for office software and it simply needs to work for everyone that interacts with the document.

For anything else you do that doesn't depend on other people needing to view/edit, use your productivity suite of choice.

 

[brofkand]

Office today is a good Mac citizen. It generally follows Apple's user interface guidelines, in some cases better than Apple themselves do. It is not like Internet Explorer in the Jaguar days for example. It is frequently updated and uses Apple's native frameworks. It's not just a hasty port of the Windows apps or a carried-along shoelaces and chewing gum hack job of a 90's app like Photoshop is. If you need Office interoperability with Windows Office users, you must be running Office.

 

[mrmister]

OP: if you want dependable compatibility with all Office files made on Windows machines, use that PC you already have. The love of Silicon Mac will not deliver 100% file compatibility by any means.

This was true a decade ago, but hasn't been true since the Windows and Mac versions of Office reconciled their code bases. A recent version of Mac Office will do the same job a recent Win Office will do now.

 

[Corefile]

Can you use iCloud online services? I've been using them the most recently and I'm pleasantly surprised by how good they are.

 

[Shirasaki]

Are you sure? Chromium-legacy might allow that. I don't know if it does, but it might be worth checking out.

He could be meaning stand-alone applications installed on macOS X maverick, not the browser version.
And to be fair, one really need to use office on windows to enjoy the full benefit of it, although vba on Mac isn’t terrible imo either.

 

[robgreene]

Today, this means I'm using iWork '09 on OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

The single biggest reason is actually just compatibility with Microsoft Office documents. Pages does a pretty good job of opening and saving .doc and .docx files, but it isn't perfect, and native support would make my life a bit easier.

I know you say you prefer Mavericks, but updating your Mac OS and Apps to the current versions would make your life a bit easier as well. It's tough to expect maximum compatibility when you're deliberately choosing older systems. At the rate tech is advancing, it's increasingly beneficial to be up to date.

 

[eyoungren]

I know you say you prefer Mavericks, but updating your Mac OS and Apps to the current versions would make your life a bit easier as well. It's tough to expect maximum compatibility when you're deliberately choosing older systems. At the rate tech is advancing, it's increasingly beneficial to be up to date.

Not sure if you're aware of where you're posting, but this is the Early Intel Mac forum. On the outside we'd be using Macs from 2015 or earlier.

How up to date can we be?

 

[robgreene]

Not sure if you're aware of where you're posting, but this is the Early Intel Mac forum. On the outside we'd be using Macs from 2015 or earlier.

How up to date can we be?

Was not aware that "Early Intel Macs" excluded recommendations for upgrading when it made sense.

 

[Hrududu]

Was not aware that "Early Intel Macs" excluded recommendations for upgrading when it made sense.

Apparently in this thread it does. The solution is simple: install Office and keep iWork to use both. OP literally responded with "If I keep both installed at once it will make me unhappy." so rational solutions are not high on the priority list. Even if anything that natively runs Mavericks will also run El Capitain, and probably patched OS up to Monterey with little effort, he would rather not apparently. I guess I'm doing the "Early Intel" thing all wrong by taking old systems as far as they'll go?

 

[eyoungren]

Was not aware that "Early Intel Macs" excluded recommendations for upgrading when it made sense.

No, it does not. As long as your recommendation for upgrading doesn't mean the purchase of a current Mac or upgrading to versions of macOS that early Intel Macs can't run or be patched to run.

The idea here is to find solutions for the Macs we currently use and the OS versions they can run. With that in mind, we can only update so far.