office software/catalina

[martinchivers]

I have Microsoft office 2011 (acquired from a friend) (but only use word and excel) installed and working on my Mac running with Mojave. I'd like to update that to Catalina. BUT, when starting the download, it warns that office (among others will not work afterwards). I cannot risk being without these. I've looked at Apache Open office, but I'm weary of downloading something that is not what it purports to be. If I do install that is it as good as the Microsoft option? Where is the best site to download from? I don't want to buy office outright or pay a monthly subscription.any pointers will be much appreciated.

 

[loekf]

I would recommend LibreOffice iso OpenOffice.

LibreOffice is much better kept up to date than OpenOffice. LibreOffice is fork of OpenOffice after Sun/Oracle decided to pull the plug and moved OO to Apache.

 

[JustMartin]

Libre Office is just as good functionally as Word, but does not look as polished and, of course, there are differences you'll have to get used to.

 

[martinchivers]

brilliant, thanks guys. I'll take a look at Libre Office, then.
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I've looked at it in the App Store. £22.99. Is there a free download form the net? (if so, can someone give me a link) I assume if purchasing, thats a lifetime one off, as apposed to a subscription? and it will work with Catalina? I have .xlsx, .doc and .docs - these will open and remain fully functioning? I ultimately only need word-processing and spreadsheets.

 

[09872738]

Download from the project site at https://www.libreoffice.org/

Its inherently free, so no need for payments of sorts.

 

[martinchivers]

excellent....thank you very much. I have downloaded it and opened the word processor and the spreadsheet programs. It there a way to separate the icons and have them in the dock? As closing one, to open the other will not work for me. I always have both programs running at the same time & I'm not sure I'll be able to do this. Incidentally, does Libre have a mail program within it? I used to use outlook but it crashed on me and I lost everything, all my emails and settings, so never used it again. It had been consistently failing to make useable backup in the run up to that, to. so maybe if it does I could set that up too.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"It there a way to separate the icons and have them in the dock?"

I believe the answer is, "no".

"does Libre have a mail program within it? I used to use outlook but it crashed on me and I lost everything, all my emails and settings, so never used it again."

Do you have a problem with Apple's "Mail.app"?
It's always worked for me, through every version of the OS since 10.3.

Other Mac mail apps:
- Thunderbird
- Opera Mail
- GyazMail
- PostBox

 

[WilliamDu]

I have Microsoft office 2011 (acquired from a friend) (but only use word and excel) installed and working on my Mac running with Mojave. I'd like to update that to Catalina. BUT, when starting the download, it warns that office (among others will not work afterwards). I cannot risk being without these. I've looked at Apache Open office, but I'm weary of downloading something that is not what it purports to be. If I do install that is it as good as the Microsoft option? Where is the best site to download from? I don't want to buy office outright or pay a monthly subscription.any pointers will be much appreciated.

Whatever you do, WAIT before upgrading to Catalina. See all the forum comments on Catalina. It seems not ready for release.
Also, I upgraded to Office 2016 via 365 and bitterly regret it as it is buggy. For now, you're better off with Mojave and Office 2011 apps. Personally I haven't seen any good reason for leaving Mojave which does everything I need to do and runs my 32 bit apps.

 

[martinchivers]

Wow. Ok guys. Thank you. Great advice there, I think. I use my Mac all day, nearly everyday and it’s imperative that it works. I’ll take this advice and hold off the upgrade (for now at least). Meanwhile i’ll fully test libre office and look at their forums to. I've found a away to have both spreadsheets and word processing running at the same time. (just open and find file and open it). There are a few issues that have come to light, immediately. In the spreadsheet program, I cannot see how to add rows. This is something I do a lot in excel. In Libre word when opening some .doc and .docs, some images (logos) are missing (yet others are visible). There are lots of things about it I dont like, (can't edit text from a .doc, or find insert a text box, as examples) so may well have to bite the bullet and purchase Microsoft office. But for the time being, I won't update to Catalina.

 

[loekf]

Whatever you do, WAIT before upgrading to Catalina. See all the forum comments on Catalina. It seems not ready for release.
Also, I upgraded to Office 2016 via 365 and bitterly regret it as it is buggy. For now, you're better off with Mojave and Office 2011 apps. Personally I haven't seen any good reason for leaving Mojave which does everything I need to do and runs my 32 bit apps.

Dont agree about Office 365. It as stable as their Windows counterparts, maybe that’s a bad thing, but I hardly see crashes.

Just wished Microsoft would make a Visio port to macOS.

 

[WilliamDu]

Dont agree about Office 365. It as stable as their Windows counterparts, maybe that’s a bad thing, but I hardly see crashes.

Just wished Microsoft would make a Visio port to macOS.

Excel 2016 doesn't crash, but useful keyboard shortcuts disappeared and inability to adjust dates on x-axis pain in the butt. Have to insert year data four years too low to get correct plots. It IS fast.
Spreadsheet data entry wierd and cell formatting messed up. Software formats random spreadsheet cells with unwanted shading and cursor unstable and randomly ineffective in both spreadsheets and charts.
Outlook not awfully user friendly, and slow to wake up. Word is OK.
Microsoft support no help as usual. I've been using Microsoft since Multiplan on Little Mac in '85. Quality of their Mac products clearly takes second fiddle to Windows work since then.
Unfortunately, I upgraded to 2016 from 2011 which was working fine. Forgot about "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
Not crazy enough to use Catalina until at least 2020, if then. Software QC forgotten art at both Microsoft and disastrous at Apple. I spent 30 years in IT and would have been fired for allowing release of Catalina 10.15.0.
Bedankt.

 

[JanuaryJo]

So glad I found this thread. I'm in same boat as OP. So I'll keep saying NO every time I get a pop-up to upgrade from Mojave to Catalina, and I'll also keep using 2011 Office Mac.