Microsoft Releases Office 2016 for Mac With Updated Versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and More

[MacAddict1978]

I wonder if I can get this version through my works at home program in September.

I read a different article that indicated that is a yes along with other various enterprise configs and subscriptions. I'm in the same camp. I can buy office for $9.95 through work, and I love this version minus the fact its still not quite ready for prime time. Eventually my beta versions will stop working and I just cannot go back to 2011 now.

 

[Michael CM1]

Here in the UK, Photoshop was always priced at around £500-£600 ($775-$930). Lightroom around £100 ($154) You can see why £7.99 ($12.30) per month is an attractive deal for us to get both...

In Europe and especially UK we pay far more than anyone else for software. We get ripped off!

That doesn't sound quite so bad if it nears $900. But I know I saw the software for $700 all the time and quite often less. I bought CS3 as a student version when I was eligible. I should've gotten CS6 before Adobe made it harder to find than mithril. I just don't use it enough at home to pay $10 or $20 per month (I saw it was $20 for a single app).

 

[VulchR]

Dear Microsoft (and anybody else who works on GUI's):

I just installed the new version of Office. Do any of you realise how god-awful the colour scheme in the new GUI is for people with impaired vision? Do you even think about them? I doubt it. Well, some day all of you will get old, your eyes will begin to fail, and you will deserve whatever you get from the GUI designers of the future.

Instead of using blue text for unread messages in Outlook, why stop there? How about using yellow text on a white background?

 

[Benjamin Frost]

If you stop subscribing you can't work with your files.



They got everyone by the balls, if I just need Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, before, I could just get design standard suite, now I'm forced to get all the apps for $74.99/month; they offer a discount but only if you sell your soul for 1 year. So in general they are making people pay more, for irregular releases, less flexibility/choice, and it's not convincing how much value they've added to the CC releases over the past 3 years. They can slow down or speed up their development all they want, if they slow down, you will still be paying the same. And you can't stop subscription because you will no longer be able to use your files.

Microsoft is hinting at subscription for Windows too. Imagine if Windows Vista had been in a subscription model, you'd have been forced not just to use it 1-2 years, but also pay for it every month. Contrast that with what actually happened, which is, Windows Vista was released and people didn't buy it, Microsoft didn't get money, and they were forced to work day and night to redeem themselves with Windows 7.

To me it's clear there is fundamentally far less value/innovation in software subscription for the consumer.

You express well the fundamental flaw with any subscription service.

With software, the subscription model presupposes that every new version will be better than the one before, that you will prefer it to the one before, and that there will be no bugs. Reality tells us otherwise. People like some versions better than others, and it varies from year to year. Software doesn't go up in a straight line. You may fall on hard times for a couple of years and decide to avoid spending money on a new version; can't do that with a subscription. You may simply prefer the look and feel of an older version; again, a subscription model forces you to waste money on a newer version, even if you prefer an older one. Showstopping bugs may appear; you still have to pay for them! Minor bugs, ditto.

With music streaming, the presupposition is that all new music will consistently be good. Reality tells us that this sure doesn't happen! Apple want you to spend $12,000 in addition to buying all the stuff you would have bought anyhow. They need to combine a subscription with ownership. If you buy spend $10 on music in iTunes, you get to stream all of iTunes for a month. That would be an incentive to buy perhaps more music than you would otherwise have done, and also encourage you to discover more music than you would have otherwise done, increasing the chance of you spending money on music and benefitting Apple and musicians.

As it is, you have a black and white choice. No ownership and rent for perpetuity, or complete ownership but no streaming. I thought Apple would be wiser than that.

 

[Janichsan]

Can't agree more! Not ready at all. It's much improved over old versions (prob the best mac office ever) but too many bugs, crashes, and issues. Powerpoint still doesn't let you insert or embed web video, tons of issues with using OneDrive... and performance issues abound (she's slow). Maybe the subscription base is a way for them to round up more beta testers..... but no where near ready.

Once they get several more bug fixes down though, it will be great. It feels very seamless going back and forth between Office 2013 at work and office on my mac now.

Have they at least added the features from Office 2013 that were still missing in the last Office Mac beta I tried, e.g. customisation of the ribbons?

 

[elsa41]

Not exactly a quick install....

Mine installed in 5 minutes!

 

[lowendlinux]

That doesn't sound quite so bad if it nears $900. But I know I saw the software for $700 all the time and quite often less. I bought CS3 as a student version when I was eligible. I should've gotten CS6 before Adobe made it harder to find than mithril. I just don't use it enough at home to pay $10 or $20 per month (I saw it was $20 for a single app).

You can get the basic Ps/Lr pack for $10.

 

[seenett]

I downloaded this last night. MS has never had a uniform way across all Office applications to change the default document folder - it was different in each application's preferences. Now I can't find that functionality at all.

PLEASE tell me MS didn't lock me in to using OneDrive by default. Has anyone been able to change it? I want to use my local DropBox folder like before.

 

[carjakester]

Not showing up on my university 365 subscription yet (not surprising).

I checked mine last night and it was available.

 

[joe-h2o]

So, Microsoft are trying to force me on to the 'Pay us whatever we demand, for the rest of your life, or your files stop working' model.

There's no way I'm ever going to do that, either sell me the software or do without my money.

Wait till September then, as it says in the article.

You did *read* the article, right?

 

[neuropsychguy]

I checked mine last night and it was available.

I was mistaken. There was a note at the bottom of the page saying that I can't download because it doesn't work with Mavericks. If I was on Yosemite it would have shown up for me. I'm not upgrading this particular computer (for research and it's iffy whether or not it's okay to update OSes during studies).

 

[trifid]

You express well the fundamental flaw with any subscription service.

With software, the subscription model presupposes that every new version will be better than the one before, that you will prefer it to the one before, and that there will be no bugs. Reality tells us otherwise. People like some versions better than others, and it varies from year to year. Software doesn't go up in a straight line. You may fall on hard times for a couple of years and decide to avoid spending money on a new version; can't do that with a subscription. You may simply prefer the look and feel of an older version; again, a subscription model forces you to waste money on a newer version, even if you prefer an older one. Showstopping bugs may appear; you still have to pay for them! Minor bugs, ditto.

With music streaming, the presupposition is that all new music will consistently be good. Reality tells us that this sure doesn't happen! Apple want you to spend $12,000 in addition to buying all the stuff you would have bought anyhow. They need to combine a subscription with ownership. If you buy spend $10 on music in iTunes, you get to stream all of iTunes for a month. That would be an incentive to buy perhaps more music than you would otherwise have done, and also encourage you to discover more music than you would have otherwise done, increasing the chance of you spending money on music and benefitting Apple and musicians.

As it is, you have a black and white choice. No ownership and rent for perpetuity, or complete ownership but no streaming. I thought Apple would be wiser than that.

You are right, and I like your idea about combining purchases with streaming, that could work. Now, I would argue there is a difference between music/movie/tv media subscriptions and software. At least one major difference is that with movies/tv content is modular, you can switch subscriptions (netflix, amazon prime, hulu) pretty easily, so there is choice and competition.

With software you can't just cancel Adobe and subscribe to something else and keep working perfectly with all your files in part because of the proprietary nature of software and file formats.

 

[conedMiro]

As soon as I upgraded form the preview, I lost all ability to use 3rd party fonts, especially Roboto - which is what I do professional documents in, it recognizes the Regular as Bold Italics and then I removed and readded only the normal version, the bold version was ~3x as thick as it should have been

 

[trifid]

Honestly I don't see why "subscription" is the future, at least not how it's being sold right now. There is no reason why Adobe (for example) can't offer both subscription and ownership. We have other business models that offer both, the fact they don't is just out of greediness.

I guess the most popular model is owning or renting a car. There are arguments for both and both are valid depending on the need of the person. Why can't we have both?

 

[tanyet]

I pay $99 per year/ $8.25 per month for the following

Full office apps on my surface (outlook, word, pp, excel, access, publisher, onenote)
Unlimited Onedrive storage with apps for every platform
Full office suite on my iPad
60 minutes of free Skype per month for me
Full office apps on my wife's pc
Unlimited Onedrive storage for my wife's account
60 minutes of free Skype per month for my wife
Full offfice apps on my mom's pc
Unlimited Onedrive storage for my mom's account
60 minutes of free Skype per month for my mom
Full office apps on my brother's mac
Unlimited Onedrive storage for my brother's account
60 minutes of free Skype for my brother


You're absolutely nuts if you don't think that's a good deal.

 

[trifid]

I pay $99 per year/ $8.25 per month for the following

Full office apps on my surface (outlook, word, pp, excel, access, publisher, onenote)
Unlimited Onedrive storage with apps for every platform
Full office suite on my iPad
Full office apps on my wife's pc
Unlimited Onedrive storage for my wife's account
Full offfice apps on my mom's pc
Unlimited Onedrive storage for my mom's account
Full office apps on my brother's mac
Unlimited Onedrive storage for my brother's account.


You're absolutely nuts if you don't think that's a good deal.

It's a great deal and it works great for you. But consider this, similar to the renting/owning a car, there is an argument for owning/renting software. People have different needs, some just need Office on one computer, and sometimes when you buy a one it comes in a bundle at a discount for example. And those that get it that way, lets say those that got it back in 2010, enjoyed that for 5 years, nothing paid extra.

 

[tanyet]

It's a great deal and it works great for you. But consider this, similar to the renting/owning a car, there is an argument for owning/renting software. People have different needs, some just need Office on one computer, and sometimes when you buy a one it comes in a bundle at a discount for example. And those that get it that way, lets say those that got it back in 2010, enjoyed that for 5 years, nothing paid extra.

I don't totally disagree but it's comparing apples to oranges. You're not getting the same products plus the days using a piece of software for 5 to 7 years are probably over. I used to buy office for $399 and use it for 3 to 4 years but that was stretching it and this would still be a much better deal.

 

[Tech198]

I thought "renting" software in the cloud would be cheaper than owning it outright....

25 copies of office for work.... for example for use.

Maybe no one like subscriptions, and prefer to actually buy a package they physically have in their hands. Seems MS is trying to make life easier, but people don't want convenience.

 

[sracer]

Nice. Requiring Yosemite, not so nice. I wouldn't mind holding out for OSX El Capitan, but there have been reports of iWork 09 doesn't work on El Cap.
EDIT: The OSX El Cap thread has been updated to indicate that iWork 09 DOES INDEED work.

 

[k1121j]

I pay $99 per year/ $8.25 per month for the following

Full office apps on my surface (outlook, word, pp, excel, access, publisher, onenote)
Unlimited Onedrive storage with apps for every platform
Full office suite on my iPad
60 minutes of free Skype per month for me
Full office apps on my wife's pc
Unlimited Onedrive storage for my wife's account
60 minutes of free Skype per month for my wife
Full offfice apps on my mom's pc
Unlimited Onedrive storage for my mom's account
60 minutes of free Skype per month for my mom
Full office apps on my brother's mac
Unlimited Onedrive storage for my brother's account
60 minutes of free Skype for my brother


You're absolutely nuts if you don't think that's a good deal.

call me nuts

 

[k1121j]

Here's another interesting article that suggests subscriptions in the future: http://arstechnica.com/information-...-makes-a-nod-to-subscriptions-for-windows-10/

i find the whole thing funny its the difference between apple and MS now that difference is hurting MS and they are trying to turn in to a hardware company but there kinda stuck in the hold they dug..... Apple laughing all the way to the bank

 

[Traverse]

For some of us, Office gets us from point A to point B that works well for our needs. We aren't worried about others making fun of the car we are driving, especially when they aren't paying the bills.

I love how you worded that.

 

[Chase R]

I've come to realize that I don't really need MSFT Office anymore. I use Google docs and sheets for just about everything nowadays. Sure Office does way more... but do I really need it to? Not really. There is value in keeping things simple.

 

[richpjr]

I pay $99 per year/ $8.25 per month for the following

You can get a year on Amazon right now for $73.25.

 

[campyguy]

I pay $99 per year/ $8.25 per month for the following

You're absolutely nuts if you don't think that's a good deal.

No, I think you're nuts, but not absolutely nuts! You're paying too much!

I got my first year for free at a local MS Store (the "Bring in your iPad" offer last year), and this is the deal I'll be getting...