Microsoft Office Launching Soon on Mac App Store [Update: Out Now]

[az431]

Apple could learn from Microsoft

Curious what element of 365 you are referring to?

He's probably referring to the fact that Numbers and Pages are absolutely crap, and completely useless for any business such as a law firm. Maybe if you want to type out a recipe, Pages is ok.
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I think Apple should make a PC version of their productivity apps.

No one would use it.

 

[Ploki]

He's probably referring to the fact that Numbers and Pages are absolutely crap, and completely useless for any business such as a law firm. Maybe if you want to type out a recipe, Pages is ok.
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No one would use it.

Yeah, neither Numbers nor Pages are up to speed of previous iWork suites. I like it, but lets not pretend it can do a lot

 

[trusso]

As intrepid blogger Mr. John Gruber (who, by the way, appears to make over $400,000 a year from "sponsorship" - pretty nice, huh?) points out, how are Apple and Microsoft divvying up the in-app purchase of Office365 subscriptions? [https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/01/24/office-365-mac-app-store]

70/30? 85/15? 95/5?

Too bad the indie developers, who could actually use the extra cash, don't have that sort of pull.

(And when I say "too bad," I mean the system is rigged and the people benefiting should feel some semblance of shame for the obscene profits they make.)

 

[Wags]

I guess small benefit would be if purchased discounted App Store card would make slightly cheaper.

 

[DanielDD]

The app store versions take less space than the ones Microsoft makes available at their website (see attachments)

For anyone interested, I have a 365 account and already had office installed on my machine, but just to see if there were any differences I downloaded Word a few minutes ago. As far as I can tell, it is exactly the same in look and function as what you could download from their website. I have the 2019 versions of everything.

I don't know that there is any reason for existing users to go through the app store, but it will definitely be nice for people downloading office for the first time or on a new device.

There are two advantages for using the App Store version:
- No need to deal with Microsoft AutoUpdate anymore.
- You can install each app individually. This alone saved me 3GB of space just by deleting Office apps I didn’t use.

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

As intrepid blogger Mr. John Gruber (who, by the way, appears to make over $400,000 a year from "sponsorship" - pretty nice, huh?) points out, how are Apple and Microsoft divvying up the in-app purchase of Office365 subscriptions? [https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/01/24/office-365-mac-app-store]

70/30? 85/15? 95/5?

Too bad the indie developers, who could actually use the extra cash, don't have that sort of pull.

(And when I say "too bad," I mean the system is rigged and the people benefiting should feel some semblance of shame for the obscene profits they make.)

John Gruber isn't pointing anything out in the link you provide. He is just speculating. His guess is just as good as yours or mine.

 

[KennethS]

I took your “fun” experience and downloaded Powerpoint.
"Check for updates" is gone.
Clicking on PowerPoint, About PowerPoint shows that I have still my Office 365 subscription active.
So it seems to be quite straightforward migrating to M.A.S.
Carlos
P.S.: Successfully updated Word and Excel "on top".

Thanks to you both for this. I downloaded from the MAS as well on top of already installed instances of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and it seems to have converted them to MAS copies (it did not just load another copy of each, which I wanted to avoid). I suspect this has likely left some crud in place needed when Office 365 was downloaded directly from the MS website, but I won't worry too much...

 

[BlackZ]

Anyone an idea if they will show up in the Business Volume Purchasing model now? Checked but don’t see it.

http://vpp.itunes.apple.com/

Last June at WWDC, Apple revealed that Microsoft Office and its suite of apps would finally be launching on the Mac App Store, without giving a specific launch date. That launch now appears imminent as iOS App Stores in select countries have updated with a new feature referencing the availability of Microsoft Office on the Mac App Store.

Image via @agpiveteau​

Specifically, in Switzerland and France, the iOS App Store has a feature that states the following:
Microsoft Office apps have been available on Mac for years, but users have had to download them from the web or in physical retail boxes since Apple has never offered them directly in its Mac App Store. This should make the process of getting programs like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel much easier for Mac owners.

Like other versions of Office, you'll need a subscription to Office 365 to gain access to the full features of each app.

Although the launch appears to be very soon, we're still unsure on when exactly Microsoft Office will be ready to download in the Mac App Store. When it is, we'll update this post accordingly.

Update: Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint are now live on the Mac App Store.

Update 2: Apple has published a press release about the launch of Microsoft Office on the Mac App Store. The company notes that Office 365 for Mac has been designed to support Mac-unique features, like Dark Mode, Continuity Camera, and Touch Bar on MacBook Pro.
You can also download a bundle of all the new Office 365 apps on the Mac App Store, including OneDrive and OneNote.

Article Link: Microsoft Office Launching Soon on Mac App Store [Update: Out Now]

 

[komki]

I too would like to switch to MAS version of Office. Maybe small thing, but having updater app running in the background with write rights to my files makes me uncomfortable. One thing less to worry about when apps are installed from MAS.

I'm wondering do the MAS Office apps really really have the same functionality as the apps downloaded from Microsoft website? Office installer installed e.g. all kinds of fonts to my system, like Arial. Will they still be there when installing apps from MAS? Or as I live in Finland the Office installer installed Finnish versions of Excel, which has all function names translated to Finnish with no option to use original English names... Will this still be the case with MAS version?

 

[DanielDD]

I too would like to switch to MAS version of Office. Maybe small thing, but having updater app running in the background with write rights to my files makes me uncomfortable. One thing less to worry about when apps are installed from MAS.

I'm wondering do the MAS Office apps really really have the same functionality as the apps downloaded from Microsoft website? Office installer installed e.g. all kinds of fonts to my system, like Arial. Will they still be there when installing apps from MAS? Or as I live in Finland the Office installer installed Finnish versions of Excel, which has all function names translated to Finnish with no option to use original English names... Will this still be the case with MAS version?

Your Office apps follow the language preferences in System Preferences > Language and Region. This is true not only for language but for date and time format, number separators, and currency.

Starting from office 15, the office apps no longer install fonts on your FontBook. Each app has their own libraries. This is one of the reasons why the apps take too much space and feel sluggish. However, since they rely on their own libraries, the MAS version should be the same as their counterparts.

 

[Carlos51]

I too would like to switch to MAS version of Office. Maybe small thing, but having updater app running in the background with write rights to my files makes me uncomfortable. One thing less to worry about when apps are installed from MAS.

I'm wondering do the MAS Office apps really really have the same functionality as the apps downloaded from Microsoft website? Office installer installed e.g. all kinds of fonts to my system, like Arial. Will they still be there when installing apps from MAS? Or as I live in Finland the Office installer installed Finnish versions of Excel, which has all function names translated to Finnish with no option to use original English names... Will this still be the case with MAS version?

Hi,
Lack of fonts would not be a problem as I have found they are available on the web.
E.g., “Calibri” can be found here:
https://www.wfonts.com/font/calibri
Regards,
Carlos

 

[MacBH928]

I really hate when one company has too much power... MS Office is extremely dominant world wide. I know there is like OpenOffice and iWork but all the serious businesses like banks and governments run MS Office. I doubt Apple due their accounting on iWork.

 

[TriBruin]

Anyone an idea if they will show up in the Business Volume Purchasing model now? Checked but don’t see it.

http://vpp.itunes.apple.com/

I was able to find them in my Apple Business Manager account. You would think searching for "Microsoft Excel" would list the App first, nope. I had to scroll through a bunch 3rd party add-ons before finding the real version.

 

[Beck Show]

Sweet, another avenue that I won’t download anything Microsoft from. Microsoft and Office are garbage - iWork all day.

 

[yvr]

He's probably referring to the fact that Numbers and Pages are absolutely crap, and completely useless for any business such as a law firm. Maybe if you want to type out a recipe, Pages is ok.
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No one would use it.

Good to know, I didn't know there were so many limitations on Pages (https://www.apple.com/lae/mac/pages/compatibility/). Next time I'm trying to put an exploded doughnut chart in a recipe, I'll know that Pages will substitute a Pie chart. But for the other 99% that uses it for word processing, Pages works just fine. And we have iTunes for PC's, so who knows, maybe some people would use Pages on a PC as well.

 

[Cosmosent]

I would NOT be at ALL surprised if MSFT got MUCH BETTER Terms than ALL other Mac apps !

NO WAY did they (i.e., MSFT) agree to "Standard" Terms !

My best guess, AAPL's cut is 5%.

 

[zYxMa]

Curious what element of 365 you are referring to?

Have you tried Ofice 365? It’s not just Word, Excel etc, it has SharePoint, Flow, PowerBI and many many other amazing productivity apps.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Meh. Don’t want these. I work and google docs are much better.

 

[JokerPower]

Office 365 for macOS is available for awhile on the MS website. What’s new about this?

 

[Suckfest 9001]

Sweet, another avenue that I won’t download anything Microsoft from. Microsoft and Office are garbage - iWork all day.

Lmao that's cute

 

[zooby]

I manage Mac and iOS devices for a University, and having them in the App Store will make it way easier to deploy and keep them up to date. Right now whenever an update comes out we have to download them, add them to our MDM, then set policies to push out the updates. Then the Update process can cause issues for users.

With an App Store app, we just "purchase" $0 licenses, and apply them to a group of machines, then set a time for it to automatically check for updates.

This won't help most users, but for us it is a welcome change.

So will the future updates be done via the App Store and not Microsoft's Auto Update tool? Cause if that is the case, I might switch to the Mac App Store version.

 

[cmaier]

Office 365 for macOS is available for awhile on the MS website. What’s new about this?

I guess the primary advantage is you can subscribe via in app purchase and not have to deal with it on MS’s website? I guess?

 

[Steve121178]

Would Family Sharing be allowed? With MS, I doubt it. But if it does, maybe a subscription may be worth it.

Users have always been able to share their Office 365 subscription with 5 others, each with 1TB of OneDrive space each. In the last few months it increased to 6 users.
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I HATE having to pay a subscription. It’s just another way of making you really pay through the nose. A pity you can’t put a purchased version of Office on your mobile devices like you can on your iMac or MacBook.

You can though. Just don't complain that you don't get the product updates that 365 subscribers get.

 

[CalvinBroadus]

They not free. They're wrapped into the price of the Mac you have to buy to get them.

Thank god you’re on a MacRumors website. The programs are free compared to MSFT’s suite. Those cost yearly.
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I've moved to Office a long time ago on my Mac at home. When everything you do at your workplace (or even with friends and family) is on Windows with Office having Mac Office just makes everything work right. I have never had a lot of luck with things converting right especially Excel to Numbers and PowerPoint to Keynote or vise versa. When I use Office I just know it's all going to work right.

This is true. But on the contrary I have never had an issue using (for example) a Keynote for a PPT presentation. But I do see what you mean.

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Thank god you’re on a MacRumors website. The programs are free compared to MSFT’s suite. Those cost yearly.
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This is true. But on the contrary I have never had an issue using (for example) a Keynote for a PPT presentation. But I do see what you mean.

Of course not. Even if you compare them both are not free. It simply depends on your use case which of the two is the most expensive.