Microsoft Office 2019 For Mac Review

The Office 2019 suite will include the standard complement of Office apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, plus server apps like Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype for Business. Office 365, Office 2019, Office 2016, Office 2013, Office 2010, Office 2007, Office for Mac 2011, and Office for Mac 2008 applications can open your documents without any additional action. Customers using earlier versions of Office may need to download and install a compatibility pack. Microsoft releases Office 2019 for Mac and Windows. The company is rolling out Office 2019 for Mac and Windows, giving you a 'subset' of the upgrades that have come to Office 365 ProPlus in. Mac users who prefer Microsoft's suite of productivity tools but aren't keen on Office 365 are getting their first chance to try Office 2019 for Mac. A preview of the suite (including Word, Excel.

Video: Microsoft data center: Undersea project to bring cloud servers closer to people

Two months after rolling out to commercial testers its Office 2019 for Windows preview, Microsoft is delivering a test build of its Mac counterpart.

Read also: Apple makes iTunes available in the Microsoft Store

Featured

Microsoft is releasing on June 12 a preview of Office 2019 for Mac, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. It's the next 'perpetual' update to Office on Mac. Perpetual means this won't require an Office 365 subscription and will be available for purchase to run on a single device once it rolls out in the second half of 2018.

Like Office 2019 for Windows, Office 2019 for Mac includes features that Microsoft already has delivered to Office 365 ProPlus customers. Among the new features:

  • The roaming pencil case and ribbon customizations across Office apps
  • Focus mode in Word
  • Morph transitions, in-click sequence and 4K video export in PowerPoint
  • New charts and functions in Excel
  • Focused Inbox in Outlook

Office 2019 for Mac also will include: IT-targeted features, like command-line tools for controlling how and when Office updates are applied to users' devices; and support for mobile-device-management and organization-wide security policies, including Visual Basic macros and app settings.

Office 2019 for Mac is supported on the two most recent versions of macOS. Office 2019 for Mac and Office 2016 for Mac cannot run concurrently on either Windows or Mac machines.

A full list of new features for Office 2019 for Mac is available on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

The Office 2019 for Mac preview, like the Windows variant, is meant to be tested by business users with volume-license agreements with Microsoft, not consumers, as the FAQ page notes.

Read also: Apple started making iPad because Jobs 'hated' a Microsoft exec (CNET)

The previews for Microsoft's next release of its on-premises/perpetual Office Servers (Exchange Server 2019, SharePoint Server 2019, Project Server 2019, and Skype for Business Server 2019) are expected sometime in the next few months.

NEXT PREV

Windows 10

Related Topics:

Apple Smart Office CXO SMBs Tech Industry Enterprise Software

Six weeks after shipping a preview of Office 2019 to commercial customers running Windows, Microsoft this week followed with a beta for the Mac edition of the application suite.

'Office 2019 for Mac ... is set to ship alongside Office 2019 for Windows in the second half of 2018.,' wrote Jared Spataro, the Microsoft executive in charge of Office's product marketing, in a June 12 post to a company blog. The vague release window of 'second half of 2018' is as granular as Microsoft will get at this point.

Like the preview offered to Windows users in April, the beta of Office 2019 for Mac is meant for volume license customers who intend to run the 'perpetual' version of the suite, not the applications provided to Office 365 subscribers.

Office 365 subscribers have no reason to bother beta testing Office 2019 on Mac or Windows in any case: They've already seen what it will offer. The perpetually-licensed Office 2019 will be built from the changes that have accumulated in Office 365's core, Office 365 ProPlus, over the last three years.

But for those still running Office for Mac sans a 365 sub, the beta will sport new tools and functionality, including customizable top-of-the-window 'ribbons,' email delivery scheduling and Excel funnel charts.

The process of registering for the Office 2019 for Mac beta is identical to the steps Windows users took to get their preview. This Computerworld piece from April spelled out the steps; they apply for the Mac beta, too.

The 2GB-sized preview installer and associated documentation for the bundle - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote - can be downloaded from the Microsoft Collaborate portal. According to information elsewhere, Office 2019 for Mac, including the preview, will be supported on the 'two most recent versions of macOS' at any point in time.

That means the beta of Office 2019 for Mac will be supported with security patches and other bug fixes on macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and 10.12 (Sierra). If the production-grade version of the suite ships after Apple has refreshed macOS this fall, Office 2019 for Mac will be supported on macOS 10.14 (Mojave) and 10.13 (High Sierra). 'For the best experience, use the latest version of any operating system,' Microsoft urged.

Microsoft Office 2019 For Dummies

Office 2019 for Mac and its predecessor, Office 2016 for Mac, cannot be run concurrently, the Redmond, Wash. firm added.

Outlook 2019 Mac

Review microsoft office 2019 for mac

Microsoft Office 2019 For Windows

Microsoft has not set a release date for a more broadly-distributed Office 2019 for Mac beta available to the general public.