My understanding is that it's a universal binary for both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. In other words, it's not native ARM64 code. I've amended the article title for clarification.
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Microsoft Releases Office for Mac With Apple Silicon Compatibility, Universal Build Still in Beta [Updated]
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Appreciate it but it's still not accurate.
The announcement was in regards to the latest release supporting Big Sur (which is the first OS to support AS). Office is still Office. Nothing has changed. They stated in the article that native support for both AS and Intel will be in the future. For now, it's Intel using R2.
From the article it seems that they just made sure that office runs fine in Rosetta2. It's not ported to Apple Silicon yet.
I think Microsoft is using the 'universal binary' term to refer to Intel machines. If it contained native code for both Intel x86-64 and ARM64, it would be called Universal 2.
This looked like a hair on my monitor...
![Screen Shot 2020-11-12 at 7.38.47 AM.png]( "Screen Shot 2020-11-12 at 7.38.47 AM.png")
Actually I have just downloaded the fast insider Beta 16.44 and it is in fact Universal Binary - Good job Microsoft 
![Screenshot 2020-11-12 at 12.38.57.png]( "Screenshot 2020-11-12 at 12.38.57.png")
Cool! So no Rosetta 2? Awesome!Actually I have just downloaded the fast insider Beta 16.44 and it is in fact Universal Binary - Good job Microsoft
View attachment 1660703
Yep, so long as you are happy running a Beta version of Office 365
According to Microsoft's press release....Actually I have just downloaded the fast insider Beta 16.44 and it is in fact Universal Binary - Good job Microsoft
View attachment 1660703
"The first launch of each Office app will take longer as the operating system has to generate optimized code for the Apple Silicon processor. Users will notice that the apps 'bounce' in the dock for approximately 20 seconds while this process completes. Subsequent app launches will be fast."
That seems to indicate that it gets run through Rosetta 2. "Universal" doesn't necessarily indicate that it contains native code for each platform... just that the one binary can be installed on both platforms...
Universal installed on x86 MacOS = run natively.
Universal installed on AS MacOS = first run gets converted.
But given Microsoft's poor track record of clear communication, it is quite possible that they were incorrect.
Re-Reading the press the release I think they are referring to the current stable release not the first insider Beta release, which after downloading is clearly universal binary - and will run natively on AS.
Not necessarily. The original Universal binary allowed compatibility between Intel and PowerPC architecture slices. The new Universal 2 binaries contain architecture slices compatible with Intel and Apple Silicon.
Granted, Microsoft hasn't been particularly clear on which one it's referring to.
Affinity has just released the update for Photo and Designer a few minutes ago. ??
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Yep - If you look at the screenshot above all of the prior releases of Office before 16.44 were labeled 'Intel' and I am running Big Sur RC 2 and even Apples Apps are labeled Universal, even though they must clearly be Universal 2.
Microsoft has not ported anything yet. They only make use of Rosetta, which Adobe can too - without doing any work.
Just updated the article after speaking with Microsoft. Universal build with native ARM64 code is in the Beta Channel. This public release (build 16.43) is not that version. Apologies for the confusion.
You are correct the current release is Intel, however you can choose to download the 'Fast Insider' Beta release which is universal binary which will run natively on Apple Silicon. Apple demonstrated an Apple Silicon Mac back in June at WWDC running a native build of Office 365.
James_C is on the money here - Microsoft tweeted this yesterday (paraphrased): Universal binaries including native ARM is released in beta channel, includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint . Purpose is for early ARM-adopters to test against m1-based hardware. No dates committed for final,
official releases.
I got the Universal 16.44 betas also, they work fine on Intel (obviously ?) if anyone wants to give them spin also.
Edit; OneNote got released in Beta as Universal also (16.44).
Now we just need Microsoft Edge, Teams and Skype for Business then I'm a happy camper come Tuesday next week ?
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I’d say you have that backwards. Tim has little clue what he’s doing. Look at Apple’s revenue breakdown. 55% of it is from the iPhone and iPad. Products Apple introduced in the last five years of Steve’s leadership.
33% of it comes from Services, Home, and Wearables. This category (minus wearables) was started under Steve, and he got it up from nonexistent to 14% in the last 10 years of his life.
The last 11% is the Mac - unchanged from where it was when Tim took over a decade ago, and not really a category Steve did much with in his last five years.
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In contrast, I’d say Satya Nadella knows what’s he’s doing at Microsoft. Under his leadership, they’ve aggressively moved into cloud compute, entered the hardware end of PCs with the Surface, and released Windows 10, which is arguably a better OS than macOS (certainly it was a much bigger leap as far as computer OSs go than anything else seen in the past 15 years.)
Steve Ballmer was an idiot - he couldn’t get out of the way soon enough - but Nadella seems to rival Gates as the biggest influencer of where Microsoft is now.
? I thought same too. Why there hair on my monitor? I scroll bit and it moved then realised it part of website.