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Microsoft Debuts Office 2019 Preview for Mac Enterprise Users

Not being a fan of the Mac Office suite but an Office user on Apple's OS platforms since the Word 6/Excel 5 "debacle" in the early 90s, I'm finally a bit encouraged by MS's efforts at putting out a unified code base across OS platforms. In my own work and my company, I make serious coin with Excel when tied to databases, tread water with Word and Outlook, and pretty much don't waste my time with PowerPoint. OneNote as we've known it is already dead.

I've demoed this enterprise suite on Windows and just starting to check it out on macOS. The Mac suite has more features at this point than what's available on the Fast Ring's version of the Mac Office suite.

As to gripes about the subscription model, IMO get over it already? Subsidized licenses are all over the interwebs. Office 2011's 5+2 support just ended unless you've paid up for extended support, and Office 2016's perpetual standard support is good until October 2020, another 2-1/2 years from now on both the Mac and Win OSes.

Whiners about the subscription model will be able to buy Office 2019 in a matter of months and get support for it until at least October 2023. Move along now... :rolleyes:

What am I looking for in the Mac suite - from a company owner's/enterprise perspective - that would entice me to move my Office focus to the Mac? One addition - Power BI in a native macOS environment. If you've got 20 minutes to kill, watch this presentation. The VBA environment and the Microsoft Office Store are "nice", but I'd buy into Office in a major way with the macOS if I could get Power BI up and running natively in a native 64-bit environment on macOS - I'd dump my video ingest workstations and get them number crunching for clients in a heartbeat, the WinOS platform is IMHO holding Power BI back. Readers of this bit that are into number crunching know what I'm alluding to already. Getting Excel/Power BI on an iMP with sh*t-tons of cores backed up by my i7 quad-core Mini Servers (installed headless in xMacs), data modeling will never be the same on the macOS platform IMO. :drool:
 
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canadianreader said:
Libreoffice is free to use I don’t know why people continue to pay Microsoft
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Google Docs and iWork are also free... they aren't Office. They don't even scratch the surface unless all you're doing is double-spaced high school papers. I fell for the promise of free twice now, with OpenOffice and GDocs. They're all terrible in comparison. That's why people pay for Office.
 
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Downloaded. Installed. Couldn't tell a difference.

There are a few new features and behind-the-scenes administrative improvements, but I had to check the version number under "About Microsoft Word" to make sure I was really using the 2019 version. I suppose it's nice to not have to train staff on how to use the new version.
 
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Anyone tried this with network accounts where users' home folders are stored on the server?
 
DarrenNI said:
STILL no voting buttons in Outlook presumably?

(And like someone above said - just create a Mac version of PowerBI!)
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Server based contact groups in Mac Outlook, like there is in the Windows version?
Real PST support, as in the ability to access PST files directly without having to import into the local database?
Ability to create PST files that are compatible with Windows Outlook?
 
iVoid said:
Not sure what version people with a perpetual 2016 license can update to, but I wonder if they don't get updates beyond version 15. v16 was released months ago (at least for O365 users).
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The perpetual version of Office 2016 has been updated to version 16.x months ago. I'm currently running 16.14. The jump from 2016 to 2019 is mainly just marketing, with a few features unlocking for the perpetual license holders as bonus which the Office 365 subscribers had for years (e.g. customisable ribbon, focus mode in Word).
 
johncarync said:
Downloaded. Installed. Couldn't tell a difference.

There are a few new features and behind-the-scenes administrative improvements, but I had to check the version number under "About Microsoft Word" to make sure I was really using the 2019 version. I suppose it's nice to not have to train staff on how to use the new version.
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Haha :D I did exactly the same thing (without removing the version of 2016 installed) and I assumed it had installed somewhere different as I couldn't see any changes! That said, it did seem to load a little quicker!

As a contractor working with various organisations, one of the only things they all have in common is the Office Suite they use. Whilst there are cheaper and even free options, for compatibility with clients MS Office 365 has no competitors.

And I think Microsoft offers pretty decent value for money with their 365 packages, at least in the small business space.
 
here is a company that is innovating, apple is officially boring actually copies more than anything else
 
On a related matter, some of what will be in the new Office interface was ported into the Office.com portal Word "application" as MS went live with elements of the new interface. The other online "applications" will be updated by the end of this month. MS's Office Corp VP posted this today, there's a short video embedded about halfway down the web page showing some of the interaction and customization options. None of the interface mods are present in either the Win or Mac 2019 interface at this point; the perpetual license versions will get plenty of back-end revisions and few interface changes - I can relate to the latter, I have two PAs who lose it every time an interface change is dialed in without advance notice.

The updated features in the Office.com interface are available if you have an appropriate account, but a corporate account is not required for this.

Don't be judgmental, they are seeking feedback. They have incorporated some of my suggestions, so don't be bashful.

BuffaloTF said:
I fell for the promise of free twice now, with OpenOffice and GDocs. They're all terrible in comparison.
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Nice, agreeing almost completely. I use GDocs, only the word processor container app though. I use the WP container app quite often - on my Macs and PC with Chrome and on my iPhone and iPP - that container has the best voice-to-text transcription engine around. I dictate in that container app, then copy that text into whichever app I intend to use for delivery. My 0¢. :p
 
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markfc said:
Am I reading this right?

So Office 2019 won’t be available to Office 365 Users? I thought the whole point of office 365 (apart from lining Microsoft’s pockets) was that you were always on the latest version.
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If I've read things correctly, I think 2019 is supposed to be a perpetual license, meaning new/current features of O365 will get locked into that version, and so you won't miss out on any of those features.... At least I think that is what is happening.
 
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Morgenland said:
I hope that this will be a turnaround for subscription ideologists at Microsoft, Adobe and others. Personally, I've suspended any investment in this area.
I thank Microsoft for this meaningful retro-innovation (for the first time in 20 years ever).
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If you read what Microsoft says about this, it is really just a way to eventually move everyone to subscription base.

They will eventually make the perpetual one-time purchase look over priced and not worth the purchase, making the subscription more attractive for the $. In their minds this is just to help those transition to their way.

I don’t like the subscription method even though I save money possibly in the long run, but their “locked-in” approach psychologically feels like slavery to their product in my opinion.

If you want to use their products, you pay every month, every year forever like “renting”. I like to purchase one time and not have a bill every month.

The new users “younger” are what they are after and they will be locked using their products for “twenty-thirty years” or more. That is the goal and it is good for forecasting revenue and to please stock holders (longevity for company earnings). Good for companies, not sure if it is good for the consumer.

Younger users or new users get use to the slavery or subscription concept and will not see it as such. That’s how it works. The old timers who were use to the other way eventually stop using or find alternatives or retire. Then..no more complaints.
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JuBe said:
If I've read things correctly, I think 2019 is supposed to be a perpetual license, meaning new/current features of O365 will get locked into that version, and so you won't miss out on any of those features.... At least I think that is what is happening.
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Yes, but Microsoft will wait until after the perpetual license is released and THEN they start adding the newer options or newer icons, interfaces etc. This is how they get the rest over to subscription if users want or like the newer options.
 
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michael31986 said:
any idea when office 2019 for mac will be out?
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My MS rep passed on October 10th. It might be a gradual roll out, however, depending on whether you're a consumer or SMB/enterprise client with the latter often rolling out a bit later - keeps their activation servers from being hammered...
 
campyguy said:
My MS rep passed on October 10th. It might be a gradual roll out, however, depending on whether you're a consumer or SMB/enterprise client with the latter often rolling out a bit later - keeps their activation servers from being hammered...
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thanks! i was going to buy the 2016 office, but at this rate i might as well wait.
 
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When I got a new MacBook Pro in the fall of 2016, I didn't get Office. Word, Numbers and Keynote have met all my needs. I share files with PC users from time to time, and have had no trouble opening Office docs or exporting in Office formats. I suspect my needs are fairly average, maybe there are a few Office features that high end users need, but I don't think I will ever need Office again.
 
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