Best Office 2016 For Mac
While Pages is a great word processor, Microsoft Word and other programs available with Microsoft Office are still widely used. It can be frustrating to pass documents between Apple's applications and Microsoft Office. I have dealt with getting Word documents from friends, only to open them in Pages a realize they aren't formatting correctly, or the spacing is off, etc.
The good news is Microsoft Office for Mac is pretty great. If you've ever used a PC before, you're likely familiar with the interface, and personally, I think the design of the Office programs for Mac is stellar.
Of course, Microsoft offers two versions of Office for Mac, Microsoft Office 2016 and Microsoft Office 365, so here's a breakdown of each one so you can choose the right one for you. Users and devices When deciding what Microsoft Office package you want, you're going to need to know how you intend to use it. Are you one of those people who want to use Office on your Mac, iPad, and iPhone, or do you only need it on your MacBook Pro you use for work or school every day?. Office 2016 Home & Student: Installed on one Mac. Office 2016 Home & Business: Installed on one Mac.
Office 365 Personal: Installed on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad with only one user allowed to access the 1TB One Drive storage. Office 365 Personal: Installed on up to five Macs, PCs, iPhones, and iPads with five users allowed to access the 1TB One Drive storage. Programs Which programs you need in your Microsoft Office suite will also be a critical deciding factor in which version you buy.
Office 2016 Home & Student: Comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Office 2016 Home & Business: Comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook.
Office 365 Personal: Comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher (PC only), and Access (PC only). Office 365 Home: Comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher (PC only), and Access (PC only). Cloud storage Microsoft OneDrive is a cloud storage service that you can use to store files, photos, documents, and other data. If you get either version of Microsoft Office 365, you'll get a free TB of OneDrive storage to access and use.
Office 365 Personal: 1TB of OneDrive storage for one user, plus 60 minutes per month for Skype calls. Office 365 Home: 1TB of OneDrive storage accessible by up to five users, plus 60 minutes per month for Skype calls. Neither tier of Microsoft Office 2016 comes with OneDrive storage. Pricing The most significant difference by far is pricing and payment model. Microsoft Office 2016 is a one-time payment, while Office 365 is a monthly subscription model. Office 2016 Home & Student: $149.99 and doesn't come with updates.
Office 2016 For Mac Price
Office 2016 Home & Business: $229.99 and doesn't come with updates. Office 365 Personal: $69.99 per year (or $6.99 per month), includes updates. Office 365 Home: $99.99 per year (or 9.99 per month), includes updates. The bottom line. If you're looking for the basic Office program like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, and don't need OneDrive cloud storage, Office 2016 is perfectly fine for one person. You'll only have to pay once, meaning you don't have to worry about that yearly subscription fee hitting your credit card every year.
Of course, the lack of updates is a little annoying, but for most users, you'll probably not even notice or miss the extra features Office 365 provides anyways. Office 2016 Home & Student is going to be all the majority of people will need; however, if you do want Outlook your can always get the version as well.
Table of Contents. Intro Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac had a. With that being said things have gotten better and quite rapidly. This post will focus on where Office 2016 for Mac currently stands, commonly asked questions, best practices, and solutions for updates. This post should serve as a overview of the changes to Office 2016 (O2016) for Mac from about November 2015 to Present (January 14th). Before we can get too far into this post it needs to be noted that none of this would be possible without the hard work and support of the following individuals. Contact info is in the form of Twitter/Slack handle.
William Smith (/) took it on himself to reach out to the Apple Platform Experience (APEX) Team at Microsoft and helped push them into our community Slack group. Paul Bowden (/) and Erik Schwiebert (/) are both Software Engineers at Microsoft inside the APEX team. They have been very responsive to feedback from the community. And so you don’t think I’m making up facts I will be supplying quotes from Microsoft’s pbowden on almost everything. You will need to join our MacAdmins Slack group if you wish to view the source.
Sign up page is. Video Presentation: Paul Bowden gave a presentation, 2016.01.20, at the University of Utah’s Mac Managers meeting which can be viewed.
It covers many of the topics from this post in video form. Office Packages Five months into Office 2016 being out and there are five six different kinds of installers/updaters. Plus a bonus serializer package.
This table should help clarify what is available and the differences between each package. Name Type Comments Requires Live System File Size★ SKU-less★★ Installer Contains all apps. Good for O365 installations. Can be used in combination with the VL Serializer to create a VL Installer without needing to visit Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). Yes 1.3 GB Volume License (VL) Installer Contains all apps. Available from VLSC only. Has Serializer package embed.
Yes 1.3 GB Standalone Installer Available from. These install packages can be combined with the VL Serializer below to have a custom install solution of just “one” or a “handful” of O2016 apps★★★. These will also work with O365 installs. OneNote standalone not available (obtain from Mac App Store MAS if needed). No 550 MB per app Standalone VL Installer Available from VLSC only. These are standalone install packages that contain your VL serial. They can be used to have a custom install solution of just “one” or a “handful” of O2016 apps★★★.
Yes 1 GB per app Combo Update These updates can take any previous Office 2016 installed app and make them current. These are per app upgrade packages, a difference from Office 2011’s combo update packages. Yes 1 GB per app Delta Update These were first publicly available with 15.18.
These significantly reduce the file size that is required to update an Office app. Also per app upgrade packages. Yes 780 MB for suite VL Serializer Serializer This is a special package that was released with 15.17. The purpose of this package is to apply the Office serialization process to the SKU-less installations.
Yes 5 MB If Requires Live System, is ‘yes’ these installers must be ran on fully booted Mac. IE - You must see the loginwindow or be logged into the physical Mac that you are installing O2016 on. If this option is ‘no’ you can bake these installers into a base image using tools like, or Casper’s Image creation process.
★All file sizes should be considered estimates and subject to change ★★This installer is often the most confusing as it is also commonly called: Full Suite, O365, or a Retail installer. They are all the same. ★★★This level of customization can also be achieved by using a with the SKU-less and VL installers.
How do I install O2016? You should install the package that Microsoft is giving you. End of story. Stop taking their package apart and “fixing things”.
It is fine to poke your nose under the hood but there is absolutely no reason for you to be re-packaging anything Office 2016 related. This was a common practice with Office 2011 and at the start of Office 2016. All issues that were resolved with re-packaging have been fixed by Microsoft. Microsoft has listened and now it is your turn. Method 1 - Office 365 installation You can download a SKU-less installer from your VLSC dashboard or from.
Both locations point to the same file as it a public release. This installer is deployed via Apple’s Installer Application (command line & GUI) and can be deployed via:. Apple Remote Desktop. Munki. Casper.
While at the loginwindow. And can be baked into an image There is currently a bug in the postflight script such that the correct target drive is not selected. It all-around should be good to go!
Method 2 - Volume License Installation If you are a Volume License (VL) customer your first step is to log into the VLSC and download the latest Office 2016 for Mac iso file. Inside of this file you will find the latest VL Installer package and the VL Serializer package. At this time, the VLSC has 15.17 however 15.18 has been released. Microsoft is working to sync the development and VLSC teams so that the latest update is available on the VLSC faster. This installer is deployed via Apple’s Installer Application (command line & GUI) and can be deployed via:. Apple Remote Desktop.
Munki. Casper. While at the loginwindow. And can NOT be baked into an image. This is due to how the serialization process works.
Office 2016 Pro For Mac
Your options are to now deploy the VL installer package or you can now download the latest SKU-less installer package to deploy. When you use the second option you are able to deploy the SKU-less installer and then apply your VL Serializer package to create a supported install. This is a kind of “future proof” solution as you would not have to access the VLSC again to receive updates.
A third, and slightly less preferred (personal opinion) option would be to download the Standalone Installer(s) from. After one or more Standalone installs have taken place you can run the VL Serializer in order to properly serialize your computers. This solution looks like it might be the most flexible upfront however, the same can be accomplished by using a (detail later in this post). Plus, after two standalone installers you would be much better off with the SKU-less installer package due to file size.
With that said it is supported, I however do not believe it is the correct workflow for 99% of Mac Admins. VLSC won’t be updated with the 15.17 build until first week of January. While the portal team is working on getting faster at making new builds available, the underlying reason for releasing the VL Serializer separately is so that you can take the Office 365/Retail (aka SKU-less) installer from future builds (15.18, 15.19, etc), deploy it, run the Serializer, and you have a fully up to date VL install. This is a fully supported mechanism for deployment. @pbowden – Munki If you are a munki shop pick one of the methods above and run the following to import Office 2016 into your repo: ## VL Installer or SKU-less Installer $ munkiimport /path/to/MicrosoftOffice2016Installer.pkg -name=MSOffice2016 -catalog=testing -minimumosversion=10.10 -developer=Microsoft -category=Productivity -description='Unmistakably Office, designed for Mac. The new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote provide the best of both worlds for Mac users - the familiar Office experience paired with the best of Mac.
If you already use Office on a PC or iPad, you will find yourself right at home in Office 2016 for Mac. It works the way you expect, with the familiar ribbon interface and powerful task panes. Mac users will appreciate the modernized Office experience and the integration of Mac capabilities like Full Screen view and Multi-TouchTM gestures. With full Retina display support, your Office documents look sharper and more vibrant than ever. Office for Mac is cloud-connected, so you can quickly get to the documents you’ve recently used on other devices and pick up where you left off.
New, built-in document sharing tools make it easy to invite teammates to work on a document together. When sharing documents, you won’t have to worry about losing content or formatting, as Office for Mac offers unparalleled compatibility with Office on PCs, tablets, phones and online.' -blockingapplication='Microsoft Autoupdate' -blockingapplication='Microsoft Outlook' -blockingapplication='Microsoft Excel' -blockingapplication='Microsoft PowerPoint' -blockingapplication='Microsoft Word' -blockingapplication='Microsoft OneNote' -unattendedinstall ## VL Installer (only required if using the SKU-less Installer). The preinstallscript is located below. $ munkiimport /path/to/MicrosoftOffice2016VLSerializer.pkg -name=MSOffice2016Serializer -catalog=testing -developer=Microsoft -category=Productivity -updatefor=MSOffice2016 -preinstallscript=/path/to/preinstallscript -unattendedinstall The VL Serializer should have the following preinstall script. This will help users who incorrectly copied com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.plist to their machine.
Best Office 2016 For Mac Download
If you wish to implement a choice xml file for munki you will want to copy and paste the installerchoicesxml array from the office2016munki.xml file into your Office 2016 pkginfo. Also, if you wish to apply an icon supply the -iconpath=/path/to/MSOffice2016.png key (the icon I used can be downloaded below). Right Click Save Image As Munki - Installs Arrays If you are planning on having a hybrid setup with MAU and munki both pushing updates to Office 2016 applications I highly recommend adding an install array to your Office 2016 installer. I also recommend this if your users have admin access and might “accidentally” delete an office application that you want to make sure doesn’t disappear. This can be done two ways, during the munkiimport of your installer or by running makepkginfo and manually pasting the install array into your pkginfo: NOTE: In order for the following to work the installer you are importing must be first installed on your admin machine.