MS Office now available for purchase from the Mac App Store

As the title indicates, you can now purchase MS Office and individual Office apps direct from the Mac App Store. You do need to have an Office 365 subscription though. Note that you can download and install individual apps rather than the entire suite. For example: You could download Word only or Excel or Powerpoint.

Some folks have complained about how bloated the MS Office apps were especially when installing the entire suite. Perhaps this will lessen the storage burden.

Have fun.

Thanks for the heads up. I've been wanting to upgrade my MS Office apps for a while...gonna give it a looksie!

- Nick

Ditto to what Nick said.

After 20+ years working with MS Word and Office, the alternatives just don’t do it for me. But, I prefer to have an intermediary between me and Microsoft, especially given how glitchy their online activation can be.

I recently upgraded SSDs in my 2012 MBP and had to reactivate my 2011 MS Office package could never get the online route to work, and didn’t have time or energy to go the phone route . . .

I already have a 365 subscription and have installed just Word and Excel on my iMac and MBP.

Is there any good reason to uninstall them and go with the App Store versions instead?

nickyr said:

I already have a 365 subscription and have installed just Word and Excel on my iMac and MBP.

Is there any good reason to uninstall them and go with the App Store versions instead?

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I would expect there would be little to no difference between the APP versions, only difference is probably in initial subscription and renewal going through Apple.

For that reason I’m hoping it won’t be as persnickety about hardware upgrades. Too me it’s absurd to have to reactivate simply because you swapped in a new hard drive

Nick:

I agree with Mike. The only difference I see is that the Mac App Store offers a 30 day free trial, otherwise the apps and updates are essentially the same. Downloading the individual apps does have a slight advantage though since that tends to keep things a bit tighter on your drive space.

And yes, having to reactivate every time you move MS Office apps or add new hardware is a bit ridiculous. But I suppose MS has their reasons since their software is the most popular for pirates and pirate sites.

Do you have to be a 365 subscriber to get them?


Sent from my iPhone

RavingMac said:

Too me it’s absurd to have to reactivate simply because you swapped in a new hard drive

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Honestly, how often are you replacing your hard drive? Plus all you're doing is clicking a few buttons and entering your MS account credentials to verify your subscription when reinstalling... Remember the days when we had to call to activate?

I guess I'm not understanding what the advantage is here. I could already do a custom install for just the Office apps I wanted when these apps weren't in the App Store.

Isn't this just a (good) move on MS part for more exposure?

Isn't this just a (good) move on MS part for more exposure?

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Yes, although I actually think it's more of a reciprocal agreement between MS and Apple. MS would love to sell more Office apps for both macOS and iOS. And Apple would love for more Windows users to buy iPhones and iPads.

usagora said:

Honestly, how often are you replacing your hard drive? Plus all you're doing is clicking a few buttons and entering your MS account credentials to verify your subscription when reinstalling... Remember the days when we had to call to activate?

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The problem isn’t so much having to do it, as it not working. I tried every day for a week before giving up, but the activation server was always unavailable after I tediously entered my product code (not fun with aging eyes).
And, it doesn’t matter how often you change the hard drive, as long as the CPU and system chips remain the same, it’s the same computer. Especially with spinning discs, hard drives fail and a replacement shouldn’t trigger reactivation any more than RAM upgrade.

RavingMac said:

The problem isn’t so much having to do it, as it not working. I tried every day for a week before giving up, but the activation server was always unavailable after I tediously entered my product code (not fun with aging eyes).
And, it doesn’t matter how often you change the hard drive, as long as the CPU and system chips remain the same, it’s the same computer. Especially with spinning discs, hard drives fail and a replacement shouldn’t trigger reactivation any more than RAM upgrade.

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At least with Office 365, you don't have to enter a product code, and it's never failed to activate/re-activate. I don't remember specifically any issues with Office 2011 or 2004 either (the only other Office versions I've used on Mac), but that was a while ago, so maybe I've just forgotten. Guess I've just been lucky.

And I'd say the difference between hard drive replacement and RAM upgrade is that the Office apps live on the hard drive, not the RAM. It's just a security measure to be sure people arn't trying to cheat the system. Dishonest people cause inconvenience for honest people, but so it goes...

chscag said:

As the title indicates, you can now purchase MS Office and individual Office apps direct from the Mac App Store.

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Just a caveat. One user has told me that he had the non-subscription version (i.e. NOT 365) of MS Word and he updated to the latest version of Word, and lost the use of the Ribbon in Word, and with it the ability to customize a toolbar. He reports that he contacted Microsoft and they told him that he had to subscribe to 365 to get that functionality back. Needless to say, he is livid.

Randy B. Singer said:

Just a caveat. One user has told me that he had the non-subscription version (i.e. NOT 365) of MS Word and he updated to the latest version of Word, and lost the use of the Ribbon in Word, and with it the ability to customize a toolbar. He reports that he contacted Microsoft and they told him that he had to subscribe to 365 to get that functionality back. Needless to say, he is livid.

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The MS Office apps in the App Store require an Office 365 subscription, so they should have all that functionality. It is true that some features in the Office apps are only available to Office 365 subscribers. Personally, I find the MS Office apps invaluable, and combined with the included 1TB OneDrive storage per user and installs for up to 6 users (with Office 365 Home) for less than $10/month, it's a pretty sweet deal.

I have used MS Office for years on end. From Office 95 through Office 2010 in Windows and from Office 2008 through Office 2011 for the Mac. Office 2016/2019 can only be customized if you have an Office 365 subscription which seems to me to be an arrogant direction that MS has decided to go.

I will instead use the iWork apps when I can and probably purchase the SoftMaker Suite when macOS 10.15 goes public.

chscag said:

I have used MS Office for years on end. From Office 95 through Office 2010 in Windows and from Office 2008 through Office 2011 for the Mac. Office 2016/2019 can only be customized if you have an Office 365 subscription which seems to me to be an arrogant direction that MS has decided to go.

I will instead use the iWork apps when I can and probably purchase the SoftMaker Suite when macOS 10.15 goes public.

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I don't see how that's any more "arrogant" than any other software that has tiers of functionality depending on what version you paid for. Yes, it wasn't always this way with MS Office, but now it is. Not arrogance; just a different business direction. Such is life. Things change. Office 365 is the "premium" version of Office, if you will. If they were charging $500/year for Office 365, it might something to write home about. But $100 (or $70 for the Personal subscription) per year is peanuts for those who use these apps often (and if someone's wanting to customize it, they're using it frequently) and want the latest updates/features. And combined with the cloud storage they give you, it's almost a steal. I just don't see what's to complain about. Obviously there are alternative apps, but I've never gotten along with those. To each his own, of course.

Yes, it wasn't always this way with MS Office, but now it is.

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And that's why many faithful users of MS Office are abandoning it. But it is good to see that there are alternatives that work. Obviously, everyone has to make their own decision about whether they wish to continue to use MS Office or not. Fortunately for me, I no longer exchange documents with others as I have done in the past. And it appears that alternatives (SoftMaker) are able to open, edit, and save my older Office documents.