MS Office for Mac - any security concerns?

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Hi - I posted a while back re a lot of excel files I had on my PC and how to keep them working on my mac - folks mentioned MS Office for Mac as a solution. Turns out I am able to get MS Office 2016 for $10 thru my company.

Thinking more about the route I took to get here - the whole reason I switched to Apple was my frustration/borderline hatred for MS windows - rebuilding the laptops and tower we have every so often because of all the extra crap that ends up running on it - not to mention all the non-stop security updates (think there were over 1,000 updates in one of the last rebuilds I did of Win 7). Windows is a cesspool of code imho.

So now faced with a solution of running MS Office on my MBP, which has been running great without any problems since I got it last christmas - am I being paranoid about putting MS Office 2016 on it? I know MS can be evil - they were proven to put code in their OS that favored MS Explorer over Netscape.. ie. make NS not work so well.... and I'm concerned they could do the same here - screw up my Mac since its' not a Windows platform

Has anyone running MS Office on MAC had any of the old issues I've been free of for the past 12 months? ie. Constant security updates to the app due to breaches found? Malicious code screwing up their machine? Does your Mac run just as well now as it did before you installed MS Office?

It's the easiest route for me in terms of keeping all my calculation/formula heavy spreadsheets... I'm just a bit paranoid about the side effects.. are my fears warranted?

Craftydad
 

vansmith

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So now faced with a solution of running MS Office on my MBP, which has been running great without any problems since I got it last christmas - am I being paranoid about putting MS Office 2016 on it?
If I'm being blunt, yes. MS is not the same MS of ten years ago (let alone a few years back) and Office is a fine piece of software.

MS has released a few bug fix updates but you should want them to do so (hence why most companies do on a regular basis).
 
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MacInWin

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I run Office 365 (the subscription version of 2016, AFAIK) and it runs well on my MBP under ElCap. I've not seen any issues with it at all.
 
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I've used various versions of Office for mac over the years. Like MacInWin above I currently run Office 365 under El Capitan - no problems / issues.

Security wise all you can do is make sure you have the most up to date version by installing updates as and when they arise. Yes this can be a bit tiresome at times when MS seem to issue updates every day but that's the price you pay
 
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Thanks all! It still need to upgrade to El Capitan - I'll do that before installing Office 2016. Cool. It'll save me from having to figure out and rewrite a lot of formulas.
Craftydad
 

chscag

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I would hold off with Office 2016 for a bit until Microsoft solves some outstanding issues that are still causing problems for Mac users of Yosemite and El Capitan. I keep a close watch on the Microsoft Mac Office 2016 forums on the MS server and that forum is still loaded with complaints and problems with all the Office 2016 applications. You can go there are read up for yourself: MS Mac Office 2016 forum Mac Office 2011 is still the most stable version and the one I recommend using for now. MS is slowly fixing outstanding issues but that may take awhile.
 
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Sounds like the same old MS I knew since running Win 3.1 on my IBM PC 1. Putting out code with a few latent issues is one thing - shipping code before it's really baked is another, and their fixes sometimes causes other holes, which lead to more updates/security breach points. Ugg. Don't know if I can get Office 11 for Mac cheaply so I'll hold off. Maybe I should just invest the time to really learn Numbers and slowly convert everything over. Then I'd be done with MS as much as possible. Thanks for the info! Greatly appreciated.

Craftydad
 
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MacInWin

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The Office365 version works well on ElCap, no problems noted here. It's only about $7/month, so the price is pretty reasonable. I just got an update on Office yesterday, so MS is working on it. I think chscag's information may be a little out of date.
 

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I would hold off with Office 2016 for a bit until Microsoft solves some outstanding issues that are still causing problems for Mac users of Yosemite and El Capitan. I keep a close watch on the Microsoft Mac Office 2016 forums on the MS server and that forum is still loaded with complaints and problems with all the Office 2016 applications. You can go there are read up for yourself: MS Mac Office 2016 forum Mac Office 2011 is still the most stable version and the one I recommend using for now. MS is slowly fixing outstanding issues but that may take awhile.
Which issues are still outstanding that are showstoppers? I haven't seen any but I might be behind the news here (it's basically stabilized here for me after a terrible graphic issue which was fixed in an OS X update a while back).

Sounds like the same old MS I knew since running Win 3.1 on my IBM PC 1. Putting out code with a few latent issues is one thing - shipping code before it's really baked is another, and their fixes sometimes causes other holes, which lead to more updates/security breach points.
That's not entirely fair to MS though as one of the primary issues after 2016 was released had to in fact be fixed by Apple (an El Capitan bugfix had to be released to address an issue with OS X that was causing issues with Office).
 

chscag

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You really need to read thru the posts in the forum I linked to. It's true that some of the original issues have been resolved but apparently others remain according to the many complaints. As an example, one of the most frequent complaints posted is that MS took away the ability to modify the Ribbon and Toolbar - something that still works with the Windows version. (Maybe not a showstopper for you.) I should mention that MS has stated the modification of the Ribbon and Toolbar will be added in a future update.
 
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MacInWin

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You really need to read thru the posts in the forum I linked to. It's true that some of the original issues have been resolved but apparently others remain according to the many complaints. As an example, one of the most frequent complaints posted is that MS took away the ability to modify the Ribbon and Toolbar - something that still works with the Windows version. (Maybe not a showstopper for you.) I should mention that MS has stated the modification of the Ribbon and Toolbar will be added in a future update.
Actually, I did visit the forum and I didn't see any "fatal" errors that would warrant saying to move to the iWork suite and back. Given the problems with that migration to and from Numbers with Excel spreadsheets, the relatively minor issues of ribbon and toolbars is trivial, IMHO. When I have tried using Excel spreadsheets in Numbers, then putting them back into Excel format the pain in getting anything beyond a simple spreadsheet moved is far worse that dealing with a toolbar. Again, all of this is just my $.02. If all you need is simple spreadsheets, maybe that double translation will work for you.
 

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You really need to read thru the posts in the forum I linked to. It's true that some of the original issues have been resolved but apparently others remain according to the many complaints. As an example, one of the most frequent complaints posted is that MS took away the ability to modify the Ribbon and Toolbar - something that still works with the Windows version. (Maybe not a showstopper for you.)
I imagine you're right - much of what I need is fine (for example, I don't need or care about modifying the ribbon). Granted, there may be something there in that forum that would correspond to something I've seen but, admittedly, I'm not feeling all that well today and the thought of wading through information doesn't sound all that amazing. ;)
 
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For mine, staying with Office 2011 as it is rock steady and runs great with the latest upgrade, version 14.5.8.
 
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Why bother with MW for Mac when Open Office is free, fabulous, and will open any MW document?
 
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Simple. You get what uou pay for and Libre is worth nothing. Particularly if you use Excel a lot.
 
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I used Open Office a bit when I worked for IBM. Unless it's changed, no thanks. And when you say 'open', opening a file is one thing, using all the formulas and features you're accustomed to and have already created is quite another.
 

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Open Office and Libre Office are free but are not very Mac like. However, if you can get used to the way they look and feel, both apps are certainly very useable. I mainly use MS Word for most of my work and also sometimes Powerpoint. I find that as long as I don't have to export documents that Pages and Keynote (which are free with a new Mac) work well. I do like the fact that I can display three pages of a document at 125% at the same time on my 27" iMac screen with MS Word.
 

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