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How well does the MS Office suite run on macOS?

S

Sagnet

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2009
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I currently have a Lenovo PC as my work laptop. 99% of my job is done using MS Office applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Sharepoint, OneNote etc.

I'm looking to get a new laptop, and I have the option of switching to a MacBook Pro if I want to (or get a new Lenovo). Can I expect the Office applications to run just as stable and well on OS X as they do on a native Windows PC like a Lenovo?

I have a private MacBook Pro, so I am used to OS X. But I don't have much experience with running Microsoft applications on it.
 
Has met my (very modest) needs fine for over 10 years. Before that, I had to run Outlook in a Windows XP VM on my 2008 Mac because the Macintosh version didn't work properly with my company's exchange server. I'm retired now, but think those issues were resolved long ago.

But I see people complain about the Mac vs Windows version, so - since everyone's needs are different, and you already have a Mac - why not just install the free 1-month trial and judge for yourself?

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Just being a little nitpicky here, but it hasn't been called OS X since 2015. The last version of "OS X" was El Capitan, and has changed to macOS since then. Or are you indeed using El Capitan or older?
 
iStorm said:
Just being a little nitpicky here, but it hasn't been called OS X since 2015. The last version of "OS X" was El Capitan, and has changed to macOS since then. Or are you indeed using El Capitan or older?
Click to expand...
Haha, sorry about that. My MBP is indeed from 2014, but I suppose I have updated it to a macOS after that. Not on that laptop at the moment, so I can't confirm wich version I'm on right now.
 
No issue here's - have always used Office on my Mac.

Ive had my M1 Max for about 2 months or so now, and I did take the chance to move to Pages/Numbers instead. They are much 'lighter' but I soon got sick of spending time learning new ways to do things, so remove them and reinstalled Office 2019. Much happier.
 
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I used a Windows PC for years for work and then switched to a Mac (same company, different role), and I absolutely LIVE in the Office suite so I'm very well suited to answer this question!

It runs... fine. It is fully featured, everything you can do on the Windows version you can do on the Mac version, etc, etc, but it is clearly not optimized for Mac. Even the Apple silicon version running on my M1 Pro MBP feels a little sluggish sometimes. Again, it runs fine, it's not a dealbreaker, but it's just not as snappy as it's perfectly optimized Windows counterpart.

Then there are just minor annoyances, like if you open a document on Mac that was created on Windows or vice versa, the formatting will be slightly different. CLOSE, but slightly off. If the people you work with are on a variety of different platforms, you might notice this. O365 helps bring better parity, but it's not perfect.

I find all of these things to be well worth it in order to use a Mac, and many of them you might not even notice unless you're a power user, but it's worth noting!
 
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Sagnet said:
I currently have a Lenovo PC as my work laptop. 99% of my job is done using MS Office applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Sharepoint, OneNote etc.

I'm looking to get a new laptop, and I have the option of switching to a MacBook Pro if I want to (or get a new Lenovo). Can I expect the Office applications to run just as stable and well on OS X as they do on a native Windows PC like a Lenovo?

I have a private MacBook Pro, so I am used to OS X. But I don't have much experience with running Microsoft applications on it.
Click to expand...

Office will have a different interface / feel. Personally, it's hard adapting to the Mac version with all of the keyboard and menu shortcuts that I use in Windows.

I agree you should test it. If you have Office 365 at work, you may have a license for your personal Macbook.
 
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No issues here either. I use both Windows and macOS for work, and actually prefer to run Outlook on my Mac instead of Windows. It's much more sleeker and looks great. Supposedly the new look is coming to Windows too, but it's interesting it came to macOS first. https://w2.outlook.com/getmac/

By the way, does your employer use Office/Microsoft 365? If so, you might be able to install Office on up to five devices...so could potentially be able to try it out on your current Mac.

DJLC said:
I have no complaints... all Microsoft apps work great on my MacBook Pro.

The only exception being Teams, which is still officially an Intel binary. But the Apple Silicon native release is right around the corner. And in the meantime, I've been using the Apple Silicon native Teams beta builds with great success.
Click to expand...
You missed the news! The Apple Silicon native version was released several days ago and is no longer in beta.
www.macrumors.com

Microsoft Teams App Gains Native Apple Silicon Support

Microsoft today announced the debut of a native Microsoft Teams app that's been optimized for Apple silicon Macs, with the app coming after...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
 
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Sagnet said:
I currently have a Lenovo PC as my work laptop. 99% of my job is done using MS Office applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Sharepoint, OneNote etc.

I'm looking to get a new laptop, and I have the option of switching to a MacBook Pro if I want to (or get a new Lenovo). Can I expect the Office applications to run just as stable and well on OS X as they do on a native Windows PC like a Lenovo?

I have a private MacBook Pro, so I am used to OS X. But I don't have much experience with running Microsoft applications on it.
Click to expand...
Given that you have a MacBook Pro. I would try running Office on it and see if you like it. I use Windows 11 for work and MacOS for everything else. Office runs great on MacOS, but it seems to work better on Windows. Its clearly designed for Windows and Windows' version of Office offers more functionality. As much as I prefer to use MacOS for everything; when working in Office, I prefer it on Windows 11.
 
I much prefer the Windows versions. They are aesthetically more pleasing and have more functionality. Also, I find the startup times on the Mac versions pretty slow on my 2018 MacBook Pro.

One problem I've had is that spreadsheets with ActiveX controls will not function in Excel for Mac.
 
Had Office running on 2015 MBP and then Mini M1 and now Studio Max. The Windows version is for advanced users muc better. However, most don't require more than what is out there now for Mac. If Apple's counterpart software doesn't do it for you I would suggest you look at some of the free suits like LibreOffice or similar. They are not bad for what they are and some save as Office file format. I admit I had with certain Pages documents trouble saving to docx file. These had the simplest of tables in them and very mild* formatting. I used Office for my BS and now for my Masters, all Mac all the time now.
 
I use Microsoft 365 for Mac in an Office where everyone else uses Windows. The Mac version works very well these days, and I have no problem sharing files with other windows users. The UI is a little different and keyboard shortcuts can be different as well, so may take a little adjusting.
 
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deannnnn said:
It runs... fine. It is fully featured, everything you can do on the Windows version you can do on the Mac version, etc, etc, but it is clearly not optimized for Mac. Even the Apple silicon version running on my M1 Pro MBP feels a little sluggish sometimes. Again, it runs fine, it's not a dealbreaker, but it's just not as snappy as it's perfectly optimized Windows counterpart.
Click to expand...

This has been my exact experience too. I am a heavy Excel user and have been using Excel on Mac and PC for decades. The current version of Excel on Mac is definitely the best it has ever been, but it still just feels a little sluggish and laggy, and that only gets worse the larger the file gets.

That being said, Office has gotten good enough now that I am fine using Excel on a Mac. It isn't the chore it used to be. I wouldn't have said the same a decade ago.
 
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svenmany said:
I much prefer the Windows versions. They are aesthetically more pleasing and have more functionality. Also, I find the startup times on the Mac versions pretty slow on my 2018 MacBook Pro.

One problem I've had is that spreadsheets with ActiveX controls will not function in Excel for Mac.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, if a user you're sharing a document with puts an ActiveX control into it, you will only be able to open that document in read-only mode on the Mac. I've also had an issue (only once) running some VBA code that my coworker put into an Excel document. The function he was calling wasn't defined on the Mac. That one surprised me.

I think it does boil down to advanced usage (of yourself and the people you're sharing documents with). If people aren't doing anything strange, you'll probably be OK with the Mac versions.
 
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If I lived in MS Office apps for 8-10 hours a day, there is absolutely no way I would do it on a Mac. None.

I love the Mac, I work in Adobe's creative apps all day long. But when I open a MS Office app it feels like I'm using a 25 year old computer. I'm running a brand new Mac Studio with 64GB RAM, so it's not the computer itself. Microsoft just isn't optimized for the Mac. Thankfully, I only have to use MS apps once in a while.

And by the way, there are a ton of missing features and capabilities when running Office on the Mac (particularly PowerPoint and Excel), which you can Google search for more info.
 
Sagnet said:
I currently have a Lenovo PC as my work laptop. 99% of my job is done using MS Office applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Sharepoint, OneNote etc.

I'm looking to get a new laptop, and I have the option of switching to a MacBook Pro if I want to (or get a new Lenovo). Can I expect the Office applications to run just as stable and well on OS X as they do on a native Windows PC like a Lenovo?

I have a private MacBook Pro, so I am used to OS X. But I don't have much experience with running Microsoft applications on it.
Click to expand...
I believe MS has a trial period. Give it a go and test it.
 
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Sagnet said:
I currently have a Lenovo PC as my work laptop. 99% of my job is done using MS Office applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Sharepoint, OneNote etc.

I'm looking to get a new laptop, and I have the option of switching to a MacBook Pro if I want to (or get a new Lenovo). Can I expect the Office applications to run just as stable and well on OS X as they do on a native Windows PC like a Lenovo?

I have a private MacBook Pro, so I am used to OS X. But I don't have much experience with running Microsoft applications on it.
Click to expand...
Word, PowerPoint and Outlook is as smooth as in Windows. But excel is not as responsive / comfortable compared to Windows version. There is also no Visio and Access in Mac.
 
jav6454 said:
I believe MS has a trial period. Give it a go and test it.
Click to expand...
I think this is great advice.

There are two parts to this choice for me; usability and compatibility.

I find the Windows versions of the apps far more usable. They are aesthetically more pleasing; a real pleasure to use. The Mac versions are fine, but don't wow me.

Before you commit to replacing your Windows machine with a Mac, you should open a bunch of your documents and work with them on the Mac. Only then can you be sure you will not encounter compatibility issues.

If 99% of my job was using Office applications, I would get a Windows computer.
 
svenmany said:
I much prefer the Windows versions. They are aesthetically more pleasing and have more functionality. Also, I find the startup times on the Mac versions pretty slow on my 2018 MacBook Pro.

One problem I've had is that spreadsheets with ActiveX controls will not function in Excel for Mac.
Click to expand...
Regarding the aesthetics, are you serious? The Windows version feels like a dinosaur in comparison to the macOS version.

As for the startup times, maybe it has to do with Intel?
svenmany said:
One problem I've had is that spreadsheets with ActiveX controls will not function in Excel for Mac.
Click to expand...
Microsoft wasn't able to bring ActiveX support to other platforms.

Besides, it's extremely ancient. Nobody should be using ActiveX in 2022... o_O
 
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