Office 365 v 2011 - key technical differences?

smithrh · Mar 4, 2013

I'd like to hear from people that have first-hand experience in working with Office 365 on the Mac...

As of now, we're running Office 2008. We've toyed with the idea of upgrading to 2011 for various reasons, but now 365 is out. We know about the financial implications and business proposition of SaaS/subscriptions, but what we don't know are the key technical differences between 2011 and 365.

For example, if we shun the cloud for storage, what are our connectivity requirements?

Can 2008 and 365 co-exist, or is this a one-way upgrade?

etc etc.

TIA!

mgipe · Mar 4, 2013

Office 365 for Mac is not an upgrade over Office 2011. It's a new business model for selling (licensing) Office programs.

When you buy Office 365 for Mac, you are paying for a license to use Ofice 2011 for one year, after which you have to pay again or Office stops working.

Microsoft is trying to move to a subscription license model.

smithrh · Mar 4, 2013

So, 365 is simply a different pricing model and delivery method, and there are NO other differences?

James_C · Mar 4, 2013

smithrh said:
So, 365 is simply a different pricing model and delivery method, and there are NO other differences?

Office 365 also gives you access to Microsoft's cloud versions of their desktop Apps, but the functionality is much more limited. Office 365 also gives you some online storage for your documents as well.

smithrh · Mar 4, 2013

So, I'm downloading full versions of Office 2011 and licensing them (up to 5 different machines) for a year, right?

If I can work offline this may be the way to go for us (small consulting company, 100% Mac, need to use Office for client compatibility).

Bending Pixels · Mar 4, 2013

Any Microsoft product is a downgrade.....

If you have Office for Mac 2011, you won't gain anything with Office 365 (other than a thinner wallet).

smithrh · Mar 4, 2013

Bending Pixels said:
Any Microsoft product is a downgrade.....

If you have Office for Mac 2011, you won't gain anything with Office 365 (other than a thinner wallet).

Don't have 2011 yet.

Can I have 2008 and Office 365 installed side-by-side?

Look - I don't like Office either, it's simply a necessary evil, see my first post.

NMF · Mar 4, 2013

smithrh said:
So, I'm downloading full versions of Office 2011 and licensing them (up to 5 different machines) for a year, right?

Yes. 365 is just a different way to purchase Office. It gives you access to the cloud apps, but weren't those already free to begin with? Who cares, lol.

It gives you Office 2011 for now, and when a new version of Office for Mac is released, you'll get that too. If you get any Windows machines you can download Office 2013 on them as well. With 365 you always have access to the latest version of Office for as long as you remain a subscriber.

Office 365 is actually a pretty good deal if you need Office.

itouch rulz · Mar 4, 2013

smithrh said:
Don't have 2011 yet.

Can I have 2008 and Office 365 installed side-by-side?

Look - I don't like Office either, it's simply a necessary evil, see my first post.

btw - Office 2011 is way better than 2008. Much more stable and zero compatibility issues between PC and Mac Word documents (even using track changes and other more taxing features).

smithrh · Mar 4, 2013

OK - thanks for the input, I'll probably go ahead with this.

Still wondering if I can hold onto 2008 while having 365 installed....

NMF · Mar 4, 2013

smithrh said:
OK - thanks for the input, I'll probably go ahead with this.

Still wondering if I can hold onto 2008 while having 365 installed....

There's no reason why not. Office 365 isn't an app, it's just a payment method to download Office for Mac 2011. If Office 2008 and Office 2011 can be run together then there's no problem. I'm pretty sure they can be.

smithrh · Mar 4, 2013

NMF said:
If Office 2008 and Office 2011 can be run together then there's no problem. I'm pretty sure they can be.

Actually, you put it better than I did - anyone out there running both 08 and 11 at the same time?

glenthompson · Mar 4, 2013

smithrh said:
Actually, you put it better than I did - anyone out there running both 08 and 11 at the same time?

Not me but from this thread it's apparently ok: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1058699/

flynz4 · Mar 5, 2013

I have Office 08... and later installed office 11. The applications live in different directories in "applications". I never used both... but I uninstalled '08.

/Jim

smithrh · Mar 5, 2013

Thanks everyone, that's good input - I'll be trying out 365...

nefan65 · Mar 5, 2013

Also, 365 is non-transferable. So if you get a new machine, replace the drive, etc. you re-purchase. There's a bunch of chatter on the Interwebs about it.

smithrh · Mar 5, 2013

nefan65 said:
Also, 365 is non-transferable. So if you get a new machine, replace the drive, etc. you re-purchase. There's a bunch of chatter on the Interwebs about it.

You mean 2011 is non-transferable, right? 365 gives you 5 transferable licenses... unless I've totally misread things...

nefan65 · Mar 5, 2013

I believe it was just 2011. But I would ask MS direct before hand. If it were me. Just to be safe.

NMF · Mar 5, 2013

nefan65 said:
Also, 365 is non-transferable. So if you get a new machine, replace the drive, etc. you re-purchase. There's a bunch of chatter on the Interwebs about it.

Office 365 is absolutely transferable, don't post information you know nothing about.

I've transfered my install a couple of times due to reformats and what not. I have the student 365 license so I can only have 2 installs (either Mac or PC) at any given time. You can deactivate an install on the website or just call MS. It's not difficult at all.

nefan65 · Mar 5, 2013

NMF said:
Office 365 is absolutely transferable, don't post information you know nothing about.

I've transfered my install a couple of times due to reformats and what not. I have the student 365 license so I can only have 2 installs (either Mac or PC) at any given time. You can deactivate an install on the website or just call MS. It's not difficult at all.

Here's one link...http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2013/02/19/office-2013-and-office-365-installations-and-transferability.aspx

Another...http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-software/19250/microsoft-pushing-office-2013-buyers-cloud-non-transferable-license-rules

There are others. So I do know something about it.

It was a word of caution, and stated he should check with them prior. You should take your own advice.

Michael Goff · Mar 5, 2013

nefan65 said:
Here's one link...http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2013/02/19/office-2013-and-office-365-installations-and-transferability.aspx

Another...http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-software/19250/microsoft-pushing-office-2013-buyers-cloud-non-transferable-license-rules

There are others. So I do know something about it.

It was a word of caution, and stated he should check with them prior. You should take your own advice.

Office 365 is transferable.

Period.

Look at the chart on the link you posted. It's Office 2013 which isn't transferable.

NMF · Mar 5, 2013

nefan65 said:
Here's one link...http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2013/02/19/office-2013-and-office-365-installations-and-transferability.aspx

Another...http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-software/19250/microsoft-pushing-office-2013-buyers-cloud-non-transferable-license-rules

There are others. So I do know something about it.

It was a word of caution, and stated he should check with them prior. You should take your own advice.

So I take it you didn't read those? Because they both describe how Office 365 licenses are transferable. The second one is a giant editorial about how Microsoft is trying to get people to buy Office 365 because the licenses are transferable, whereas vanilla Office 2013 licenses are not.

Reading comprehension -- learn how to do it.

smithrh · Mar 6, 2013

A few followups here....

* Signed up for Office 365 and what's downloaded are the Office 2011 apps.

* The 2011 apps look to be totally separate installs from my existing 2008 installation - I can launch them separately.

* It's clear during 365 sign-up that licenses are indeed transferable

I also see this morning that MS is backtracking on PC Office 2013 licenses not being transferable. Nothing to do with Mac, but I could see people not understanding that.

Certainly there's been confusion in this area, and Microsoft is somewhat at the root of it.

In any case, so far, so good.

MisterMe · Mar 6, 2013

smithrh said:
...

* The 2011 apps look to be totally separate installs from my existing 2008 installation - I can launch them separately.

...

It was ever thus. Each major release of Office is installed in its own folder. They do not interfere with each other. You may run any version of Office that is compatible with your system irrespective of any other version of Office that is installed on your computer.

smithrh · Mar 6, 2013

MisterMe said:
It was ever thus. Each major release of Office is installed in its own folder. They do not interfere with each other. You may run any version of Office that is compatible with your system irrespective of any other version of Office that is installed on your computer.

That's good to know - I've never upgraded my Office on my Macs before, all I have experience with is in a previous job with Windows/PC Office, done by the IT department via remote push... in those cases it was "don't use Office today, and when we're done, you won't have the old version any more," hence my caution...

Office 365 v 2011 - key technical differences?

macrumors 68030

macrumors demi-god

macrumors 68030

macrumors 68030

macrumors 68030

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68030

macrumors 6502a

macrumors regular

macrumors 68030

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 68030

macrumors demi-god

macrumors 68040

macrumors 68030

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68030

macrumors 65816

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 65816

Suspended

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 68030

macrumors G4

macrumors 68030

Our Staff