Are Msoft Word and Excel any good on MacBooks?

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi All,

I’m thinking of taking the dive and getting a macbook as the next laptop.

We already have Office 365 subscription.

Are Msoft Word and Excel any good on Macbooks though?


Criteria:

1. Opens word and excel docs ok, if originate from Windows laptops?

2. Formatting ok?

3. Saves ok, and then opens ok on Windows machines?


Be good to know your experiences, before going through the hassle of hours of adjustments of documents on a MacBook, then having to to reverse back in the office with the windows machines.



Regards
Martin


PS:
I asked the same questions a while back about the office implemetations on the IPAD. I’m finding Excel a dissapointment on the Ipad, and I’m hoping the Macbook’s wider screen and keyboard format etc. a much better platform for a Much more professional version of Excel and windows!

 

[russell_314]

I have Office 365 on my Mac mini running Catalina so it would be the same OS as a MacBook. I've never had any issues with Excel or Word but I'm not a power user so I haven't tried every possible combination. The documents I did make open the same way on my Windows PC as they would on my Mac. It looks the same to me.

 

[SkiHound2]

MS Word is not any good on any platform. I know, I'm not being helpful. I have to use Word all the time for work and I just think it's a very clunky program. I run it on an iMac and don't see any reason it wouldn't run fine on a Macbook. No problem going back and forth with folks working on Windows platforms. I think there are a few interface differences but Word and Excel files on Windows and macos play nice with each other. I've also been using Pages some. I'm often pasting statistical output into Word/Pages and then annotating the output. I can convert that readily to Word and have never had anyone have an issue opening the files. When I have to do tables I'm still doing those in Word. You shouldn't have any issues.

 

[Madonepro]

Yep all good on my 2020 MBP.

 

[Boyd01]

You should be fine. Have been using Office on my Macs since the first version for MacOS X (about 20 years ago?) and have exchanged countless files with Windows users. Before I retired in 2011, I needed to use the Windows version for mail and calendars at work because the Mac version didn't support exchange servers back then. However I think that has been added to newer Mac versions.

 

[James_C]

The compatibility between Office 365 Mac and Windows versions is excellent these days. I work in company were everyone else uses a PC and I am the only one with a Mac. I regularly share Excel and Word Files without a problem. The only thing you need to be careful of is fonts as particularly with Word and Powerpoint if you don't have the same font on both platforms you may get some formatting differences.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi all,

Many thanks for all your time and for sharing your experiences of the years with Word and Excel across Windows and Apple Macs.

Cool, I’ll probably give it a go in the store when we are finally allowed out And about post C19, if happy, will take the plunge 8)

Waiting for the arm version of the MacBook so, so would be waiting anyway I suppose.

Hope you guys have a great weekend

Regards
Martin

 

[Boyd01]

Of course, nobody here knows how well Office will work on the new ARM Macs but I'd assume things will be OK. My other thought is that you are brave to be the "first kid on the block" with such a major change to the Mac. Let's hope Apple gets it all right on the first try, personally I try to avoid the first version of any new hardware.

You might also consider that current Macs can run Windows very well - either by directly booting or running as a virtual machine. This is not going to be possible on the new ARM Macs, or at least not initially.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Of course, nobody here knows how well Office will work on the new ARM Macs but I'd assume things will be OK. My other thought is that you are brave to be the "first kid on the block" with such a major change to the Mac. Let's hope Apple gets it all right on the first try, personally I try to avoid the first version of any new hardware.

You might also consider that current Macs can run Windows very well - either by directly booting or running as a virtual machine. This is not going to be possible on the new ARM Macs, or at least not initially.

Hi B,

Ah yes, good point

I am one of the late adopter people, so will wait until fall of 2021’s 2nd run of these new arm macbooks at the earliest, to see how well they are performing in the real world and people’s experiences.

Pretty excited tho with this evolution of microchips

No hot laptop on lap, with fan whirling away


Regards
Martin

 

[rezwits]

Yeah they are great, I think the only thing is, man (especially if you have like 3 machines) they update like every week or every two weeks, just over and over, and it gets a little annoying.
So, once again you goto sit and dig in to something, and then UPDATE, wait, for 10-15 minutes and it's just LIKE UGH!

 

[nothingtoseehere]

The compatibility between Office 365 Mac and Windows versions is excellent these days. I work in company were everyone else uses a PC and I am the only one with a Mac. I regularly share Excel and Word Files without a problem. The only thing you need to be careful of is fonts as particularly with Word and Powerpoint if you don't have the same font on both platforms you may get some formatting differences.

So it is! I have the same constellation since corona - the office has PCs, at home my Macbook (Pro 13" 2015 but the exact type doesn't matter here). Everything is fine, much better than 5-10 years ago when people with Macs had some funny files in addition to the .docs - this all has gone.

I should add that also Outlook for Mac works great with our MS Exchange plan.

There are some very small differences in the functionalities but nothing that affects my workloads seriously (of course, YMMV) and as I prefer the macOS user interface, my productivity is still better on the Mac. The two main differences I am aware of are within Outlook so I won't write them down here.

And yes, I also have taken my Office 365 plan to install Word and Excel on my iPad, that is sometimes useful for quick patches in documents but not for serious all-day work. On the Mac, there is full functionality.

 

[Madonepro]

The only thing you need to be careful of is fonts as particularly with Word and Powerpoint if you don't have the same font on both platforms you may get some formatting differences.

I've found that usually you get prompted, or you'll see a download icon to install that font.

Cool, I’ll probably give it a go in the store when we are finally allowed out

You can buy and download it online. There is also a free trial.

 

[throAU]

Word is better. Excel is not quite as fast in my experience. both are usable.

 

[James_C]

Word is better. Excel is not quite as fast in my experience. both are usable.

Yep Excel used to run like a dog, main problem was Excel on the Mac used to be single threaded, last year Microsoft updated it to be multi threaded which made a huge difference.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

Both are usable on a Mac.

 

[Boyd01]

You can buy and download it online. There is also a free trial.

The OP said they already had an Office 365 subscription, so I think they were talking about trying a Mac in the store.

 

[Scott Baret]

I have the standalone business versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I bought them individually since I don't need any of the other tools, nor do I particularly like subscription software.

Word is Word. I've used Word on Macs since 5.1, which many longtime gurus will still insist is the best version of the product (IMO it still is). I've found some versions of Word better than others along the way (especially 2001 and the original OS X version) while others have been problematic in some way (6.0 for its bloat and lack of speed, 2008 for its interface, 2011 for lack of speed). The same can be said of the corresponding Windows versions. All versions of Word do suffer from having too many features, but it's still the best word processor out there for the Mac. Of course, it doesn't have a ton of competition. It's far superior to Pages for any serious writing, plus it has a pretty serious equation editor (which has gotten better over the years).

Word 2019 isn't perfect, but it's the best for the platform. It also has 100% compatibility with any and all .doc and .docx formats, which are standards across the board. (Good luck with that if you use Pages!)

Excel has always been the standard for spreadsheets. Trivia fact: it was originally a Mac program when it first came out; it didn't originate on DOS or Windows. It's also always had a high adoption rate for spreadsheet programs and has a lot of resources written about it; if you're looking for that one obscure formula, chances are good something is out there online or even in a book about it. Numbers is the Apple alternative and it's an also-ran. Excel may not be the most exciting Mac program, but it does get the job done and does so reliably.

I should briefly mention PowerPoint. Keynote does some things better, but PowerPoint is best for maximum compatibility if that matters much to you.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

I have the standalone business versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I bought them individually since I don't need any of the other tools, nor do I particularly like subscription software.

Word is Word. I've used Word on Macs since 5.1, which many longtime gurus will still insist is the best version of the product (IMO it still is). I've found some versions of Word better than others along the way (especially 2001 and the original OS X version) while others have been problematic in some way (6.0 for its bloat and lack of speed, 2008 for its interface, 2011 for lack of speed). The same can be said of the corresponding Windows versions. All versions of Word do suffer from having too many features, but it's still the best word processor out there for the Mac. Of course, it doesn't have a ton of competition. It's far superior to Pages for any serious writing, plus it has a pretty serious equation editor (which has gotten better over the years).

Word 2019 isn't perfect, but it's the best for the platform. It also has 100% compatibility with any and all .doc and .docx formats, which are standards across the board. (Good luck with that if you use Pages!)

Excel has always been the standard for spreadsheets. Trivia fact: it was originally a Mac program when it first came out; it didn't originate on DOS or Windows. It's also always had a high adoption rate for spreadsheet programs and has a lot of resources written about it; if you're looking for that one obscure formula, chances are good something is out there online or even in a book about it. Numbers is the Apple alternative and it's an also-ran. Excel may not be the most exciting Mac program, but it does get the job done and does so reliably.

I should briefly mention PowerPoint. Keynote does some things better, but PowerPoint is best for maximum compatibility if that matters much to you.

Thanks Scott,

I was wondering whether to invest time in learning to use the Apple alternatives as well.

I’m much prefer to spend time learning the new ipad touchscreen stuff instead

Cheers
Martin

 

[1221320]

Regarding PowerPoint, I had to switch to a Windows laptop as I do a lot of PowerPoint work, and I found that compatibility with Windows PowerPoint files was often quite poor - elements would be misaligned, or formatting would be skewed.

Is that now not the case? I'd like to shift back to a Macbook, but not if there are still PowerPoint headaches.

 

[TrevorR90]

Regarding PowerPoint, I had to switch to a Windows laptop as I do a lot of PowerPoint work, and I found that compatibility with Windows PowerPoint files was often quite poor - elements would be misaligned, or formatting would be skewed.

Is that now not the case? I'd like to shift back to a Macbook, but not if there are still PowerPoint headaches.

Which office version were you using?

I’ve used Microsoft office on my MacBook all throughout undergrad and had to create tons of PowerPoint and don’t recall any issues at all. I’m about to start a masters program and just installed 365 since my university offers that and I’ve played around with it a bit on my 2019 Mac Pro, 365 seems much smoother and oddly much faster.

 

[1221320]

Which office version were you using?

I’ve used Microsoft office on my MacBook all throughout undergrad and had to create tons of PowerPoint and don’t recall any issues at all. I’m about to start a masters program and just installed 365 since my university offers that and I’ve played around with it a bit on my 2019 Mac Pro, 365 seems much smoother and oddly much faster.

It was possibly Office 2016 - this was before I switched to Office 365, which I now use on my PCs. But that's good to hear there are no issues now. I've had this ThinkPad X1 Carbon for just over a year, so I'm not in the market for a replacement yet. I think once Apple has started to transition their Macbook Pros to ARM chips, it might be a good time to switch back (assuming Microsoft are quick to release Office ARM for Macs - I think they already have a Windows ARM version for their Surface Pro X?).

 

[cdcastillo]

I use word and excel on a first gen iPad Pro, a 2015 MBP still using Mojave, and 2 windows laptops. We modify files mostly from dropbox, and some in usb drives.

I've been working like this for about 3 years now, I haven't had any issues with formatting up to this moment.