Microsoft releases all-new Office 2016 for Mac to Office 365 subscribers
Microsoft on Thursday announced that Office 2016 for Mac --?a totally revamped version of its venerable productivity suite --?is now available to any Mac user with an Office 365 subscription.
The updated suite includes redesigned, rewritten versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. Each application now features a metro-style user interface, which brings the design of Microsoft's stalwart software package in line across all the platforms for which it's available.
A slew of new features have also been added, though the apps have yet to quite reach feature parity with their Windows cousins. Mac users can now invite colleagues to edit Word documents together in realtime, for instance, but crowdpleasers like Excel's Quick Analysis are still missing.
AppleInsider got an early look at the new suite in March,?and we've been using them as our daily drivers since that time. The changes are almost without exception for the better, and the community interaction during development --?Microsoft says users of its preview have provided more than 100,000 pieces of feedback --?point to a renewed Microsoft commitment to the Mac.
For now, Office 2016 for Mac is only available to users with active Office 365 subscriptions, which start at $69.99 per year. To soothe the inevitably ruffled feathers of consumers used to purchasing their software outright, Microsoft promises "updates and new features for Office 365 customers at least once per quarter."
For those who still don't want to subscribe, Microsoft says that a separate version for standalone purchase will be available in September, though pricing has yet to be revealed.
The updated suite includes redesigned, rewritten versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. Each application now features a metro-style user interface, which brings the design of Microsoft's stalwart software package in line across all the platforms for which it's available.
A slew of new features have also been added, though the apps have yet to quite reach feature parity with their Windows cousins. Mac users can now invite colleagues to edit Word documents together in realtime, for instance, but crowdpleasers like Excel's Quick Analysis are still missing.
AppleInsider got an early look at the new suite in March,?and we've been using them as our daily drivers since that time. The changes are almost without exception for the better, and the community interaction during development --?Microsoft says users of its preview have provided more than 100,000 pieces of feedback --?point to a renewed Microsoft commitment to the Mac.
For now, Office 2016 for Mac is only available to users with active Office 365 subscriptions, which start at $69.99 per year. To soothe the inevitably ruffled feathers of consumers used to purchasing their software outright, Microsoft promises "updates and new features for Office 365 customers at least once per quarter."
For those who still don't want to subscribe, Microsoft says that a separate version for standalone purchase will be available in September, though pricing has yet to be revealed.
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For those who still don't want to subscribe, Microsoft says that a separate version for standalone purchase will be available in September, though pricing has yet to be revealed.
Hopefully it'll be offered as part of HUP. As an enterprise customer, I can get Office for $10 (which is about all it's worth to me).
Apple has done a great job convincing people that Windows has so many drawbacks and that OS X would be a safe and even better replacement. I was hoping for the same treatment for MS Office. Office 2011 was a (deliberately, I believe) horrid port of Office for OS X. There was so much room for converting people to another solution. But there was no decent replacement. Mac Mail could have swooped in and supported many (most) of the features of Outlook 2011.
I'm guessing that MS Office's popularity on OS X will only improve with this release. They have a decent entrenched user base already and this new version finally brings feature and design parity to OS X. Anyway, I'm giving up hope that the Apple Productivity apps will give MS Office any competition.
Even with Apple giving away iWorks for free they still cant make a dent.
Even with Apple giving away iWorks for free they still cant make a dent.
Uh, they "can't make a dent" because Macs don't have a big presence in enterprise, it's not like people have an equal choice of iWork for free and paid Office, so they choose office. For personal use, I'm sure they've made a huge dent. Enterprise and commercial use is another story, and has more to do with available hardware.
They don't have to. If I don't have to use Office, my life is so much better. I can't thank Apple enough.
Steve Jobs thought office was important enough for Microsoft to support Office on Mac back during The Dark Times, that he personally secured a multi year commitment from Microsoft to keep developing it, and even let Microsoft include Internet Explorer (as default browser) on Macs as part of the deal. Like I said, those were Dark Times, when Apple's DOOM was in fact, a very real possibility.
Even with Apple giving away iWorks for free they still cant make a dent.
The problem is and it always was the price of OS X machine to run the iWork in first place. In Enterprise, its not easy to accept a 1.000$+ for a Mac laptop per employee when you have 500$+ PC alternatives and from there the need to use MS Office as the office suit by default. In Education its almost the same thing, except if you study in a private expensive educational instituation, you would most likely find yourself with MS Office since the machines are PCs with Windows.
Maybe if Apple stopped removing features from each successive version of Pages they might get somewhere. Pages 09 was a great simple WP/DTP programme: Pages 5.5.3 is so simplified it’s useless.
Perhaps Apple are trying to homogenise the iOS/OS X versions, but why at the expense of what’s good in the application ?
I’ve been a Mac evangelist since 1984, and have never owned a Windows machine, but I’m getting fed up of being dicked about by some of the half-arsed software Apple are releasing. Remember when it Just Worked ?
CardDAV and CalDAV are definitely not supported in this version. In fact, one of their support people said it would be at least a couple of years if they do it at all. (In other news, Microsoft has designed a spacecraft which saves weight by doing away with oxygen systems for the passenger compartment.)
Someone else also noted that it doesn't have scripting, which means that SpamSieve can't work.
When you add up all the new stuff plus these, the new version earns a rating of -3 of 10. What the heck were they thinking?!?
And of course in 1984 there was Microsoft Multiplan for the Macintosh, available the month Apple released the computer. Gates says Microsoft made more money on Multiplan for the Macintosh than any other platform ... in more ways than one I suspect as it is rumored Gates was able to have Mac OS reverse engineered thanks to the unwitting cooperation of Apple while in development of Multiplan for Steve Jobs. The name Multiplan only lasted for about a year before being renamed Excel.
After all this time, there still has not been another new version of MS Project for Mac since 1993!
Funny, you go to the Office 2016 Trial page and there is no direct download link, you have to signup first. Ugh!
Even when I worked for a large corporation most excel sheets generated by most of my colleagues could have been done on Numbers - they were that basic.
This is great. I am an Office 365 subscriber, and my most used apps (outside the browser) on my iPhone and iPad are all MS apps (The Office Suite). The Mac apps were unusable, so I didnt do much with them, but if th enew apps are good, then it will make life even easier for me.
As others mention above, Apple had a great opportunity to unseat OFfice. Keynote was head and shoulders beyond Powerpoint. Pages with styles and layouts was much nicer to use than Word (although it lacked features Word had, they were usually pretty niche ones). Numbers was always behind Excel (way behind) but was useful ffor simple data needs. When iWork first came out, I was confident Apple would soon catch up and surpass Office. Unfortunately, Apple initially stagnated, and then actually regressed their iWork suite. MS, on the other hand, has been making constant improvements, and ever since Ballmer left, they've been making some of the best iOS apps by anyone.
It's amazing to me how Numbers has become completely worthless compared to Excel. There is not much left in PAges which is better than Word. And while I still prefer creating presentations in Keynote, presenting with it is hell, so I am willing to put in a little additional effort (Esp since Powerpoint is far more polished now) with powerpoint so I can actually present the presentations I create.
Frankly, I wish Apple would publicly deprecate iWork which may give some indie devs a chance to create decent to great Mac apps in the Office productivity space.
Pages is great at what it does: the hybrid word processing/dtp component of Apple's "works" suite.
ClarisWorks, for instance, comes to mind. I chose its writing component over a full-blown word processor every time. Worked beautifully.
And these days I choose Pages for the same reasons that many others do.
If you want a full-blown word processor that doesn't look and work like ass, Mellel is your made-for-the-mac choice. In fact, as a purist's word processor, Mellel far outclasses Word in both power and speed. And if you're serious about your document's typography (styles, auto-titles, full OpenType features and support, etc.), all the more reason to give it a try.
Access database application also for Mac?