You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Catalina Compatibility with MS Office

Hi! Suddenly with Mac OS Catalina (10.15.7), it seems the MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) no longer work. The App Store just refers to "get MS Office 365", but that means extra cost, and I don't like 365 (had it on a WIN pc). What to do? I like the slightly simpler Office, plus find a change in OS should not make apps no longer work.

MacBook

Posted on Apr 6, 2021 8:42 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 6, 2021 2:36 PM

You cannot install any OS older than Big Sur on any M1 Mac. This is also true of the most current Intel based Macs. Apple's products have always been this way. With only a few, very rare exceptions, you can't install an OS that's older than what your Mac shipped with.


Apple didn't wreck anything. The Mac and its OS are their products, they can do whatever they want with them. It's up to third party vendors to keep their products up-to-date so they work in the latest OS. Apple can't do that for them, and vendors get plenty of advance documentation of what they need to do.


Your choices for an M1 Mac (presuming you specifically need Office and not a workalike product) are Office 365 or Office 2019.


There's almost nothing different between the two, with these exceptions:


  1. Office 365 requires a subscription. The cheapest is $70 a year for a one computer license.
  2. Office 365 gets new features as they're ready to release.
  3. Office 2019 is a one-time cost perpetual license. Same as your now defunct, Office 2011.
  4. Office 2019 does not get new features. Only bug fixes or minor improvements to existing features.
  5. Office 2019 is nearly dead - if you upgrade to the next major OS Apple releases this fall. Microsoft's latest Mac rule is perpetual releases of Office are only supported for three Mac OS releases. Since 2019 was released with Mojave, that means Big Sur is the third OS version, and it will not work in whatever Apple releases this fall. Meaning, MS will be releasing a new perpetual license version to coincide with Apple's next OS. All of that means if you buy Office 2019 now, you'll have to pay full price again for Office 2022 (or whatever MS calls it) in order to have a functioning perpetual version of Office beyond Big Sur.
10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 6, 2021 2:36 PM in response to MissLegacyOS

You cannot install any OS older than Big Sur on any M1 Mac. This is also true of the most current Intel based Macs. Apple's products have always been this way. With only a few, very rare exceptions, you can't install an OS that's older than what your Mac shipped with.


Apple didn't wreck anything. The Mac and its OS are their products, they can do whatever they want with them. It's up to third party vendors to keep their products up-to-date so they work in the latest OS. Apple can't do that for them, and vendors get plenty of advance documentation of what they need to do.


Your choices for an M1 Mac (presuming you specifically need Office and not a workalike product) are Office 365 or Office 2019.


There's almost nothing different between the two, with these exceptions:


  1. Office 365 requires a subscription. The cheapest is $70 a year for a one computer license.
  2. Office 365 gets new features as they're ready to release.
  3. Office 2019 is a one-time cost perpetual license. Same as your now defunct, Office 2011.
  4. Office 2019 does not get new features. Only bug fixes or minor improvements to existing features.
  5. Office 2019 is nearly dead - if you upgrade to the next major OS Apple releases this fall. Microsoft's latest Mac rule is perpetual releases of Office are only supported for three Mac OS releases. Since 2019 was released with Mojave, that means Big Sur is the third OS version, and it will not work in whatever Apple releases this fall. Meaning, MS will be releasing a new perpetual license version to coincide with Apple's next OS. All of that means if you buy Office 2019 now, you'll have to pay full price again for Office 2022 (or whatever MS calls it) in order to have a functioning perpetual version of Office beyond Big Sur.

Apr 6, 2021 1:20 PM in response to Phil0124

Hi! Thanks -- You are right, it is the 2011 version of Office... but 365 will require either a new purchase, or I fear, a "subscription", i.e. again an unnecessary $$. I do have a 365 license through work, but it is for online, so it's not very desirable, and won't work if I'm not in WiFi. I have to admit, I liked the old "buy and install" type of software... and useful things like envelopes or labels tools used to work better on the older versions. I wonder if I should go back to Mojave? Apple should really advise of the wreckage they do to software, printer drivers and other software (like film scanner drivers...) when they dramatically change OS. I now have 4 great Canon printers that don't work with my new M1 MacBook...

Is it easy to get back to Mojave from 10.15.7, Catalina?

Apr 7, 2021 8:15 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt, thanks for the VERY thorough comments. While I grumble, you do have a point (or more). The exposé on MS Office 2019 is helpful and interesting -- and shows it, too, is a limited-shelflife product, good idea to wait. I am nursing a 2012 Air and 2013 Pro along (they are still great, but slowing a bit, I notice), as well as the new M1 Air. Aside from missing fonts, Pages/Numbers/Keynote do work nicely and import/export perfectly, it seems, so perhaps I'll best delay thoughts on Office until the new OS and maybe "Office 2022".

And as far as other vendors, true, too... just sad that I have otherwise perfect printers that are now islands onto themselves (plus new ink cartridges)... Maybe keep a "legacy" laptop (I have more...) to send docs to for printing/scanning? Hate to pitch things to landfill. (I repaired my TV 3x, it had started to smoke one time, simple issue on the power board... and still have it running.)

Thanks and best --

Apr 6, 2021 9:38 AM in response to MissLegacyOS

If you had a 32 bit version of Office, like Office 2011 or earlier or a not-updated Office 2016, then it will not work on Catalina as explained in the support document you came from.


If your Microsoft Office version is so old, you can update to either Office 365 from the App Store, our buy the new Microsoft Office 2019.


If you have Microsoft Office 2016 it can be updated to 64 bit to work on catalina. See here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/office-for-mac/office-2016-for-mac-64-bit-upgrade


Outside of that you can use free alternatives like LibreOffice or Apples own Numbers, Pages, and Keynote,. free from he App Store. They can both handle Office documents.


Apr 6, 2021 3:38 PM in response to MissLegacyOS

MissLegacyOS wrote:

Hi! Thanks -- You are right, it is the 2011 version of Office... but 365 will require either a new purchase, or I fear, a "subscription", i.e. again an unnecessary $$. I do have a 365 license through work, but it is for online, so it's not very desirable, and won't work if I'm not in WiFi. I have to admit, I liked the old "buy and install" type of software... and useful things like envelopes or labels tools used to work better on the older versions. I wonder if I should go back to Mojave? Apple should really advise of the wreckage they do to software, printer drivers and other software (like film scanner drivers...) when they dramatically change OS. I now have 4 great Canon printers that don't work with my new M1 MacBook...
Is it easy to get back to Mojave from 10.15.7, Catalina?

No, it’s not easy to revert to Mojave if you don’t know what you are doing as it requires a complete erasure of your boot drive. And as for your rant about macOS changes Microsoft has complete control over that. Office 2011 is now TEN YEARS old and no longer receives updates from Microsoft. If you want to blame someone blame Microsoft. Office 2016 and newer work fine on new Macs. Microsoft decided not to offer free updates to you. They want you to purchases the newer version of office. It’s not Apple’s responsibility to maintain compatibility with ten year old software. Finally, it is quite possible that Canon has updated drivers that will restore use of your printers. Have you investigated?

Apr 7, 2021 8:22 AM in response to lkrupp

Hello, lkrupp! OK, I concede (grumbling). I got the same impression re: downgrading, and don't want to take the time or incur the risk... The Pages/Numbers/Keynote programs are good work-arounds and import/export to MS formats seem to be glitch-free.

For printers, I did try to find new drivers, but Canon also limits the number of years they support product. I might use an older laptop and just send larger print projects to / through that. (I used to use several printers at a time to print literature for trade shows I attended... allowed just-in-time updates vs. heaps of literature missing a new product. So I don't want to pitch them and contribute to landfill.). I'll keep working on that...

Thanks and cheers --

Apr 7, 2021 8:47 AM in response to MissLegacyOS

If you need Office right now - and I presume you do for the M1 Mac - you can get Office 365 for one year at the $70. Then, don't renew it when the year is up, and instead purchase Office 2022.


The software is actually the same. Note the download page is for both 365 and 2019. It's just in how you activate it. Adobe's CS6 Standard and Extended is also like that. The software itself is literally identical. What serial number you put in determines how it's activated.


You'll be able to directly import your Outlook 2011 data into the new version of Outlook, so that's a plus. It's far more work to bring the data from Entourage 2008 or older forward.


It was up in the air for a while if there was even going to be another perpetual version of Office. Just a couple of months ago, Mac announced there would be at least one more. So what's coming in the fall may be the last such version. It really only makes sense when the support for the perpetual software is three years. Business version of Office 2019 - $250. Single use Office 365 for those same three years - $210.


Office 365 gets much cheaper than any perpetual version when you're talking about having it on more than one computer. For $100 per year, you can install it on up to any 6 devices you own. Mac, iOS or Windows (any combination). So for that $300 over three years, six perpetual licenses of Office 2022 Business at $250 a copy would be $1,500. Even for only two Macs, it's $500. So 365 is already cheaper for those same two computers.


MS has made no secret that perpetual licensing for Office is going to go away soon. And when you look at pricing between the two, and especially the fact the perpetual version dies in three years (if you always upgrade macOS), 365 doesn't cost any more, and is usually cheaper. Only a single user who never upgrades the OS past the point their perpetual version will run on saves any money.

Catalina Compatibility with MS Office

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.