MS Office For Only $50 !

[Randy B. Singer]

I'm just pointing this out, not making any "recommendations" or "guaranties"...

Cult Of Mac is offering the full commercial version of Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021 for a one time fee of only $50:

(Outdated link removed...deal no longer exists)

(When you go to the site to order it, it notes that it will only work on the latest three Mac OS's: Monterey, Big Sur, and Catalina.)

In the past, if someone was selling a too-good-to-be-true deal on MS Office, it was usually from some shady sounding outfit and one could assume that it was a grey market deal.

However, in addition to Cult Of Mac, MacHeist and AppleInsider are also offering this same deal. So it sounds as if it is legitimate. It might be being offered because MS Office 2021 will soon be replaced with a newer version.

 

[Slydude]

I've ordered a couple of things through Cult Of Mac, and all of them have worked as advertised. I recently retired to headsets after several years of heavy use. I also have a charging cable purchased through them with two lightning connections and an Apple Watch charging cable on the same cable. My only complaint is that the plastic covering one side of the watch charging disc has come off, but the charger works.

 

[chscag]

I just ordered it. Thanks Randy.

Just a quick note about the process. If you already have a MS account, the ordeal of registering and downloading, receiving an activation code is rather easy. If you do not already have a MS account, you must create one in order to receive the download and activation code.

The installer (download) package is 2 GB. The Office apps can be installed separately. For example if you only need Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, you do not have to install Outlook, Teams, and so forth.

This is a great deal for the perpetual license. It is not a subscription.

By the way, the deal goes away in 7 days.

Also... and this is important, the entire deal is managed through "Stack Commerce" our old friends who used to provide all those special deals when we were using the old forum software. Evidently, that's who "Cult of Mac" uses to manage their deals.

 

[stefanmaine]

I confess I have missed Microsoft Word. I am not proud of that, but there it is. I have tried LibreOffice and Softmaker and others, including Pages, and while decent and well intended, in my experience none is as good as Word (and Excel). Maybe it's an "old dog and new tricks" problem.

So, today, encouraged by the preceding threads, I have purchased and installed Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021 for $49.99 + tax with a "perpetual" (not subscription) license.

I installed only Word and Excel (and "auto updates"), but there are several other apps in the package.

According to Cult of Mac's website, the offer continues for six more days.

Thank you Randy B. Singer for your post.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I confess I have missed Microsoft Word. I am not proud of that, but there it is. I have tried LibreOffice and Softmaker and others, including Pages, and while decent and well intended, in my experience none is as good as Word (and Excel). Maybe it's an "old dog and new tricks" problem.

I write for a living, and Microsoft Word is currently the gold standard among word processors. I have it on my main desktop computer and I use it to write most of my stuff. It has a few features that I haven't found in any other word processor that make my life quite a bit easier. So I don't think that you should be embarrassed that you prefer to use it too.

That said, I'm not paying Microsoft's usurious price to put Microsoft Office on all of my personal Macs, or on all of the Macs in my office. On those machines, including on my personal MBA and MBP, I have FreeOffice.

Most of the folks in my office who have FreeOffice don't even know that it isn't Microsoft Office. FreeOffice takes a bit of setup to be mostly indistinguishable from MS Office, but that only takes a few minutes. When I'm away from the office I use FreeOffice on my laptops, and I find it to be shockingly close to MS Office.

I don't think that Microsoft Word is the most advanced word processor for the Macintosh anymore. I think that Papyrus Author easily eclipses it. At some point I will have to do a full review of it and see how hard it is to migrate to using it and how good a job it does with MS format files.

Papyrus Author (free and Pro versions available) (free/$15/month)
https://www.papyrusauthor.com/

 

[Rod]

I always wondered this, do I need to uninstall my present copy of MS Office for MacOS before installing a new version?

 

[chscag]

I always wondered this, do I need to uninstall my present copy of MS Office for MacOS before installing the new version?

I'm going to find that out and will let you know. I currently have Office 2019 (stand alone license) installed and have not yet installed the new version (Office 2021).

Removing an older version of Office is not easy. Microsoft provided an uninstaller for Office 2011 and Office 2016 but I haven't seen anything for Office 2019.

 

[chscag]

I posted the question of uninstalling an older version of Office before installing a newer one to the Microsoft Communities. We'll see if anyone answers.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I always wondered this, do I need to uninstall my present copy of MS Office for MacOS before installing the new version?

Microsoft says that it isn't necessary to uninstall your previous version. But for certain versions of Office leaving the old version installed was a source of grief for many. So I would recommend uninstalling it.

 

[Rod]

Thanks Randy, I think being safe rather than sorry is the way to go.

 

[Rod]

Purchased, downloaded and installed. As suggested I uninstalled the previous 2016 MS Office for MacOS using AppCleaner and a manual search for leftovers with FAF.
First thing I noticed, white text on a black background, hurrah! At last I have my preferred Dark Mode in my preferred word processor.

Thank you so much for your post, it still cost me AU$86.00 but sooo much cheaper than the usual Home and Student package at AU$150.00+.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

First thing I noticed, white text on a black background, hurrah! At last I have my preferred Dark Mode in my preferred word processor.

The first thing that I do when installing a new copy of MS Word is go through every single setting in Word's Preferences. It might take half an hour, but it's really worth it to get Word to perform the way that you want it to. Especially the Auto Correct/Auto Format As You Type/Auto Text features. These can be a huge annoyance if left as they come, and a huge help if set up to your liking.

I also recommend turning off the grammar checker, word count, and Track Changes until and unless you need them. All three can drag down performance.

 

[chscag]

I also recommend turning off the grammar checker, word count, and Track Changes until and unless you need them. All three can drag down performance.

And make sure you select "always make a backup" in Word preferences. Word has a bad habit of losing your unfinished document in the event of a system crash or Word crash.

 

[chscag]

Microsoft says that it isn't necessary to uninstall your previous version. But for certain versions of Office leaving the old version installed was a source of grief for many. So I would recommend uninstalling it.

I just received an answer from a MS tech that works in the MS Communities. He recommends uninstalling the older version. He also stated that 2 versions of Office 16 (2019 and 2021) can not co-exist on the same computer. MS does have a tool that will remove the older version including the license and keychain entries. I haven't tried it yet.

 

[krs]

Pity this version is not compatible with macOS 10.14 Mojave

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Pity this version is not compatible with macOS 10.14 Mojave

Here is an article on how you can (legally) download older (compatible) versions of MS Office:

How to get older versions of Microsoft Office apps

Already own a recent standalone version of Office? You might still be able to download it to your device

www.techadvisor.co.uk

 

[Rod]

Randy, I had this experience recently and was amazed at how simple it was. I acquired an old white unibody MacBook from my daughter and set it up as a spare. I wanted MS Office on it so went to the My Account page of Microsoft Home page, logged in and there were my previous versions. Downloaded the MS Office 2016 version and entered the Key provided, even that was automated.

 

[jaimederecho13]

I'm just pointing this out, not making any "recommendations" or "guaranties"...

Cult Of Mac is offering the full commercial version of Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021 for a one time fee of only $50:

(Outdated link removed...deal no longer exists)

(When you go to the site to order it, it notes that it will only work on the latest three Mac OS's: Monterey, Big Sur, and Catalina.)

In the past, if someone was selling a too-good-to-be-true deal on MS Office, it was usually from some shady sounding outfit and one could assume that it was a grey market deal.

However, in addition to Cult Of Mac, MacHeist and AppleInsider are also offering this same deal. So it sounds as if it is legitimate. It might be being offered because MS Office 2021 will soon be replaced with a newer version.

I bought it for~ $39, download from an eBay listing. You get a download link, then an email with the license key. I'm guessing that the seller has purchased a volume license, then sells individual licenses therefrom, hoping that there are enough sales to make a profit.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I bought it for~ $39, download from an eBay listing. You get a download link, then an email with the license key. I'm guessing that the seller has purchased a volume license, then sells individual licenses therefrom, hoping that there are enough sales to make a profit.

Right, that's what the seller has done and not pirating software.

 

[Rod]

TOO LATE! Haha! Anyway it was still half price and I’ve been holding off for years. Very happy with the new version.