Microsoft adds Retina display support to Office for Mac 2011

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Microsoft on Wednesday updated its Office for Mac 2011 productivity suite to add Retina display support for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

The update makes text more crisp and all key ares of the interface sharper than ever, Microsoft said in a post to its official Office for Mac blog. Users who have Microsoft AutoUpdate set to check for updates automatically will be notified that Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac version 14.2.4 is now available.

Microsoft promised on Wednesday that its team is "going back to work on even more great features" for Office for Mac. The product team welcomes comments and suggestions on its official blog. Office for Mac 2011 first launched in October of 2011.

Apple currently offers one Mac in its lineup with a high-resolution Retina display: a 15-inch MacBook Pro. The company is expected to launch a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display this fall to expand the Retina lineup to two Macs.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    Hallelujah!!!!
  • Reply 2 of 23
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,189member
    As far as I can tell, retina support isn't implemented to a significant degree. In particular, text still has jaggies. Of lesser importance, gallery images are still lo-res/blurry.
  • Reply 3 of 23


    I can't believe MS Office has beaten Filemaker Pro to Retina. Seriously Filemaker, you need to get your Sh*t together and get Filemaker retinized

  • Reply 4 of 23
    Agree with cpsro ... I don't see the Retina support taking effect after installing the update.
  • Reply 5 of 23


    Originally Posted by GadgetCanada View Post

    I can't believe MS Office has beaten Filemaker Pro to Retina. Seriously Filemaker, you need to get your Sh*t together and get Filemaker retinized


     


    You should really just be calling Apple out on that.

  • Reply 6 of 23
    Keeps telling me that I'm current at 14.2.3
  • Reply 7 of 23


    For me this is almost bigger news, than 10.8.2. Although I have been using the workaround of adding the string, which at least made the text clean. 

  • Reply 8 of 23

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by brianld View Post



    Agree with cpsro ... I don't see the Retina support taking effect after installing the update.


    Restarting OSX cold enabled it for me. 

  • Reply 9 of 23
    Take the same document and put it in Word and Pages at 200% side by side. If Word has been updated for retina displays, I'm a monkey's uncle.
  • Reply 10 of 23
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,712member
    I can't believe MS Office has beaten Filemaker Pro to Retina. Seriously Filemaker, you need to get your Sh*t together and get Filemaker retinized

    I wish Apple would reabsorb File Maker Inc. and improve the products, fully integrate them and then fix the pricing.
  • Reply 11 of 23
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,712member
    rmansfield wrote: »
    Take the same document and put it in Word and Pages at 200% side by side. If Word has been updated for retina displays, I'm a monkey's uncle.

    Come on, it's Microsofts 'version' of retina display. This is the same company that is making Windows 8 look like an 8 bit 1980's interface what do you expect? /wink

    OMG is that why it's called Windows 8?
  • Reply 12 of 23
    bigpicsbigpics Posts: 1,397member
    Retina, shmetina for now - the bigger news is that Office for Mac users are ALSO gonna be pushed into the annual [U]rental fee model[/U] [B]("the Microsoft Tax")[/B] of use that Win users are learning is their future. A limited single-user "traditional" version (installable on a single machine... ...ONCE....) will still be available, but where they're pushing us hard is into....

    $99.99 a year, dear ones...

    So get ready to bend over and pony up - flexibly but inexorably....

    ([U]Flexibly[/U]: your "annual" license covers multi Win and Mac 'puters, extra program access - to programs most of us don't use like, well, Access - free storage on Sky Drive - which I've found a bitch to use - and free Skype minutes - which I for one don't need)

    ([U]Inexorably[/U]: if they pull this off with no real user blowback, this will likely be your last chance to buy a stand alone version of Office - a "suite" I buy solely to be able to share Word documents with the DOC and DOCX world, i.e., I use Keynote because I only have to present, not share files and my spreadsheet needs are limited.)

    Paul Thurrott (surprisingly or unsurprisingly) finds this development to be [B]a screaming bargain:[/B] http://www.winsupersite.com/article/office-2013-beta2/office-2013-pricing-packaging-144267

    Do you??
  • Reply 13 of 23


    I downloaded the updates manually from http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads as the MS auto-updater kept hanging. I took advice from another forum where I copied the MS apps (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook) from the application folder to the desktop. I then erased the apps from the application folder and copied the desktop versions back in. Apparently this makes the programs recreate a .plist? Whatever the case, I did a reboot and now MS Office has never looked better. Retina rocks!!!

  • Reply 14 of 23


    Use the instructions found at this link:


     


    http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/how-to-install-microsofts-retina-update-for-office-for-mac-2011


     


    It worked for me and it is MUCH better!

  • Reply 15 of 23
    pik80pik80 Posts: 148member
    It's too bad that despite the higher res interface that it still remains way too cluttered. It's no where near as good as Office 2010.
  • Reply 16 of 23
    kevtkevt Posts: 195member


    Had hoped Office on Retina display was an iOS version. Never mind.

  • Reply 17 of 23
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,189member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheGapGuy View Post


    Use the instructions found at this link:


     


    http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/how-to-install-microsofts-retina-update-for-office-for-mac-2011


     


    It worked for me and it is MUCH better!



    That did it. Thanks.

  • Reply 18 of 23
    September 2010***
  • Reply 19 of 23


    The graphical parts of the interface look better on a retina display, but the text is still quite lacking. Part of the problem may be that the Office apps are all set to open in low resolution (get info on any of them) and the option to change that is grayed out.

  • Reply 20 of 23
    Come on, it's Microsofts 'version' of retina display. This is the same company that is making Windows 8 look like an 8 bit 1980's interface what do you expect? /wink

    OMG is that why it's called Windows 8?

    LOL!

    I liked that signature from some poster on this very forum:

    "Windows7 - A 64-bit memory extension plugin for a 32 bit graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company owned by a man with not 1 bit of common sense."
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