Microsoft tells some Mac Office users to pass on Apple’s High Sierra

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Macworld:
>Microsoft has warned users of Office for Mac 2011 not to upgrade to Apple’s macOS High Sierra when the new operating system launches next month.
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>“Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Lync have not been tested on macOS 10.13 High Sierra, and no formal support for this configuration will be provided,” Microsoft wrote in a support document.
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In the same document, Microsoft told those running the newer Office 2016 for Mac that they must update its applications to version 15.35 or later, if they intend to upgrade their Macs to High Sierra.
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>Microsoft’s advice about Office for Mac 2011 wasn’t unexpected, since support for the application suite is slated to end Oct. 10, a date Microsoft first stamped on the calendar two years ago, but has not widely publicized since.

Office isn’t officially dead on the Mac but it might be on life support.

UPDATE for clarification (not that it will help): Fewer and fewer Mac users use/need/want Office. At some point, Microsoft will face diminishing returns in their effort to support, sell and develop the software. That point may be coming sooner rather than later, in my opinion. My apologies for not more clearly stating my point in the original post.



89 thoughts on “Microsoft tells some Mac Office users to pass on Apple’s High Sierra”

  1. A bit of an over reaction? Office 2011 is the problem here, not Office on the Mac. That’s an app released back in 2010 – and we’re weeping that it’s not supported in an OS designed for late 2017 and 2018?

  2. Gregg Keizer has been writing absolute bullshit clickbait articles for IDG for years, and this is another example. Back when I worked at Macworld, I assiduously avoided linking to his stuff whenever I could avoid it, because if he wasn’t outright wrong (he often was), he was quite content to mislead and obfuscate into making readers see something there that wasn’t actually there.

    Plus ça change…

    Office on the Mac isn’t dead at all. 2016 is a thriving product, albeit not at parity with its Windows version, and it’s actively (in fact, constantly) updated with new features, bug fixes and security patches.

    Microsoft already moved the goalposts on Office 2011 deprecation once to accommodate legacy customers who haven’t upgraded. But no one is owed free updates for life.

  3. Office 2011

    Fortunately, there’s Office 2016 which is in fact, not only fully supported, but being rapidly updated as per the Fast Track Betas and the “normal” update cycle.

    It is neither dead nor on life support, and the implication of either is completely false.

  4. I think Microsoft has been a stellar supporter of Apple on both iOS and Mac. Their products might not be your cup of tea but you can’t doubt their commitment to the platforms.

  8. “Office on the Mac isn’t dead at all.” No one said it was. Everyone seems to want to read their own slant into this issue, ignoring what was actually written.

  9. Then don’t finish your story with a doom and gloom comment. “Might be on life support” is not the innocent remark you’re making it out to be in the comments.

  10. Probably because you posted a misleading headline and added an inflammatory opinion based on… I’m not sure what.

    Yes, technically “some Mac Office users” need to pass on High Sierra. Where “some” is the users who are still using a 6 year old version. In the same way, I would imagine “some” users of a bunch of other software (including Apple’s own apps) have to pass as well. Would have been much better to title the article “Microsoft tells Office 2011 users to pass on High Sierra”.

    Then you throw in the commentary that Office “might be on life support”. Based on what? Have they said anything to that effect? They just released a new version last year.

  12. Sorry Shawn but I think you’re also perpetuating link bait:

    1. You left “2011” out of your headline
    2. You closed with the claim “Office isn’t officially dead on the Mac but it might be on life support”

    It’s dishonest to use Office 2011 as “proof” that Office Mac is dead. It would be equally dishonest to write a headline “Apple tells some iPhone users to pass on iOS 11” and bury the detail that only ancient models like the iPhone 5 are unsupported.

  13. You literally typed “Office isn’t officially dead on the Mac but it might be on life support.” Your words. Don’t make me screenshot it. It may be the first sloppy commentary I’ve seen you write in this space. Office is in heavy active development with weekly fast builds that are adding features all the time. Look it up.

  14. This is such click-baity, passive-aggressive bullshit, and the “author” gets defensive and petulant when people point that out… Makes me long for the days when Dalrymple ran a solo show. Readers of The Loop expect better, both in terms of the story itself and the author’s reaction.

  15. I feel like a more nuanced note is needed — as others have noted, it is fair to say that the 2011 version of Office should be considered legacy software.

    But MS is constantly updating Office 2016, and upon reading your note it sounded like all versions of Office “might be on life support”.

  16. The Macworld article also trying to couch Office as an odd app for Microsoft simply because it doesn’t develop it with the same strategy as the Windows ecosystem is also flawed. By that reasoning, Word on Mac has been a poor odd-app-out for Microsoft for decades since it was released as the first version of Word ever. The Mac app ecosystem is, gasp, different than Windows, and Microsoft is treating it as such, with monthly feature updates rather than twice a year big feature updates. Poor Office!

  17. The article was titled as it appears on the linked story. We’ve always done that on The Loop. If the article title is misleading (and it very well may be), it’s the fault of the original story. And no, Microsoft has not said anything to that effect. But they wouldn’t until they did it.

  19. Fewer and fewer Mac users use/need/want Office. At some point, Microsoft will face diminishing returns in their effort to support, sell and develop the software. That point may be coming sooner rather than later, in my opinion.

  23. No one’s issue is with the article – it is with the provided commentary.

    The commentary treats something that Apple regularly does (leaving legacy behind in favor of newer, less-burdened technology), as being a possible sign of MS putting Office on the Mac on life support.

  25. Though I’m no particular fan of Microsoft software in general, I use it because I have to when customers send us Word files.

    For readers’ information, I have Office ’16 on my MacBook which is running Mac OS High Sierra public beta, and it updated to v15.37 without incident.

  26. Knowing nothing about Office, the impression I took away from the post is that Office in general is all but dead on the Mac. Maybe my fault, but having been set straight in the comments, the post was certainly misleading to me.

  27. And this right here is why Gruber doesn’t allow comments on DF.

    First of all, the MS memo is right there for the reading; Keizer didn’t make something up. Second, the headline isn’t misleading, it’s exactly what MS said. Third, the High Sierra issue isn’t Office 2011 as much as it’s 2016 still doesn’t work very well with it, either (again, see the MS memo). Fourth, Office for Mac is and always has been a second class citizen to it’s older sibling (five years between iterations, Office/Mac didn’t get to 64-bit until last year, they greatly restricted the 2016 licenses, and on and on).

    And last, Shawn offered his take on the state Office on the Mac. It wasn’t a take based on 2011, but on the overall state of Office on the Mac. He gets to do that; he’s one of the contributors to this site.

  28. I come to the Loop as much for the comment section, which is often very good, as for the interesting original content. And I wish Daring Fireball did have comments.

    In the case of this particular post, the comment section was more informative to me than the post itself.

    (Not everybody is going to take a deep dive into the linked content to get all the facts straight. In fact, almost nobody is. Most people want to believe they can trust the impression they get from the post by itself. In this case, a lot of readers seem to feel that was not the case here. Politely pointing this out seems to me to be an excellent feedback mechanism both to the poster and to other readers.)

  29. OK, step away from the guns.

    In a nutshell, Office 2011 for Mac is a 32-bit app and end of life for support. Starting in January 2018 Apple is requiring apps submitted to the App Store to be 64 bit, and existing apps by June 2018. Granted Office is distributed by MS itself but it’s pretty obvious that 32 bit is on life support.

    As for comments that Office 2016 doesn’t run on High Sierra, you might want to switch your Mac updates to “Office Insider Fast” which gives you beta builds which are appropriate for a beta OS. Or try Office on an iPad Pro which gives you some sweet features that Windows users would like.

    Lastly, go spend time having some fun in the sun on this long weekend. Our summer is hitting end of support and I intend to enjoy it before the next release.

  30. And people can upgrade. Sorry, but this is no different than Apple dropping support for 32 bit apps in iOS, etc. At some point, support for old versions goes away. If this were Apple dropping support for something 6 years old you would not have the same issue.

  31. You make it sound like Mac Office users will have no choice but to use Windows or last year’s macOS, conveniently failing to mention the existence and presumed compatibility of Office for Mac 2016. This is a non-issue.

  32. Ok, thanks. Adding your comment to an unrelated story (essentially: Office 2011 not supported on macOS 2018) has, as you can see, created a fair bit of confusion.

  33. I read all the comments. Shawn of course you can have an opinion about Office on the Mac and it’s your right to put it here; but making it connected that article, which (with its clickbait title) is only talking about Office 2011, comes across as piling on or misinformed. Nadella’s Microsoft strategy is to have an excellent Microsoft experience across all platforms.

  34. Given that until the past year the overwhelming majority of Mac users were CONSUMERS, not corporate types, that belief would be true. However, the successful efforts of IBM, SAP, Cisco and others to bring Mac into the enterprise WHERE OFFICE IS WIDELY USED will counter the drain of Office users on Mac.

    MSFT will be forced to support Office on Mac in order to offset loses of Office on Windows in the enterprise.

    Your opinions are uniformed as to what is happening in the Mac space.

  35. “We’ve always done that on The Loop.”

    Then maybe you shouldn’t!! Copying trash makes you a purveyor of trash.

  36. I upgraded to Office 2016 because Office 2011 had started to act belligerently when I upgraded to Sierra. Other than the usual issue of having to relearn a MSFT product it works beautifully.

    Given MSFT’s historic support life cycle (not unlike Apple’s) Office 2016 will be supported until about 2022.

    The article, headline and especially the opinions, are/were poorly researched and written.

  37. “Sorry if you don’t like my reaction. Not sure what part of it you take offense to.”

    Then, not only are you a poor excuse for a journalist, you’re an idiot as well.

    Not that The Loop will miss me, but The Loop will no longer be part of my reading list. Time is too valuable to waste it on this kind of crap. Bye Bye.

  38. Research? The “life support” line’s already being walked back to mean 2011 only, which MS has said they’re ending support for. In October if memory serves. But it this kind of thing does create attention.

  40. I’ve never claimed to be a journalist and there is no need to be personally insulting to me or anyone other commenter. You’ll notice many people disagreeing and you are the only one resorting to name calling.

  41. That’s your opinion and you are welcome to it but it has always been the policy of The Loop to leave the original headline stand as is. Sorry that you believe that makes us “a purveyor of trash”.

  42. I think Apple is getting more Macs into business via its partnerships with IBM, SAP etc. Yes these partnerships start with iPads and iPhones, but there are plenty of stories of this leading to more Macs.

    So more and more Mac users are using/needing/wanting Office for their work – and this is where Office 365 comes in. Olde Office isn’t being developed much for any platform – MS wants everyone on 365.

  43. Agreed, the issue here is the commentary. Odd to see such an error from you Shawn. Office 2011 was replace with Office 2016, which was replaced with Office 365, which receives constant updates (every 2 weeks or so new builds are pushed out to users). My build of Outlook for Mac is only 4 days old (I’m using the Office Insider version [anyone can use it, just check off the option when ‘checking for updates’]). Clearly not on life support.

  47. How about clarifying in the headline that this story is about a 6 year old version of Office, not the current version. s/Some Mac Office Users/Mac Office 2011 Users/. Same number of characters, but probably less drama and clicks. I never expected this site to go for drama and clicks over accuracy.

  48. Because, as mentioned before, The Loop doesn’t change the original story’s headline. And this story wasn’t posted for drama or clicks, regardless of the opinion of others. Like all stories I post, they are because I think they are of interest and I hope they are to Loop readers. How many people click on it is immaterial. As a matter of fact, I have no idea how many people click on or through any particular story. It’s not information I have access to nor is it information we are judged on as writers. I hope that clears that up.

  49. “At some point” the solar system will cease to be. As will the universe.

    If that’s the basis for your logic, then everything currently being used is in fact on life support and on a geologic timescale, will cease to be in the blink of an eye.

  50. “UPDATE for clarification (not that it will help): Fewer and fewer Mac users use/need/want Office. At some point, Microsoft will face diminishing returns in their effort to support, sell and develop the software. That point may be coming sooner rather than later, in my opinion. My apologies for not more clearly stating my point in the original post.”

    It won’t help because it’s still not grounded in reality. What, exactly, data do you have other than “I don’t use Office at all” do you base this on? Sales figures? ANYTHING other than the voices in your head telling you to never back down, never surrender, corners are WAY more comfortable than people think.

  52. You know what is funny to me? In the rush to bash Shawn for his writing, all of you also rushed to a whole-hearted defense of Office 2016 as an awesome software suite. I have been using Office for years and Office 2011 was the best version of the suite EVER, and it still is. When I’m writing for myself I use Pages. However, I’m working on my doctorate and I have to turn work in using Word. This means I’ve been using it heavily for the past three years. When Office 2016 was released, I thought it was a joke. For people who are heavy Word users and use many of the features of this application, Word 2016 is an abomination. They removed so many features that were part of Word 2011 and that I used every day. And they still have not added them back. If you’re curious, just take a look at the settings windows for 2011 and 2016. You’ll be amazed at how many settings and features are no longer part of the application. I have no idea why they did this but they took a really good application and made it so much worse.

  53. Actually, let’s say they kill each other and call it a day. Ahh, wouldn’t that be nice.

  54. Have you tried InDesign? I don’t know what the learning curve would be since I’ve been using it since it was beta, but it blows away Word. Much as Quark did before it.
    Give it a shot. You won’t regret it.
    If you’ve tried it and don’t agree, maybe you need to give it another go. Possibly for longer or maybe the new version will be surprising.

  55. Just to be clear I have been running Office 2011 on High Sierra developer builds since June. No issues to report.
    Microsoft’s statement simply states the obvious – they don’t intend to write updates for the 2011 version. For many that’s ok, however corporate types may show more concern.

  56. It never really occurred to me how so many people care so much about MS Word for Mac. I’ll be glad when its no longer the de facto word processor

  57. No. Please note that I have to turn in my documents using Word and the documents go back and forth between me and my dissertation advisor using track changes. I am unable to use another application for this purpose.

  59. I’ve heard this sort of thing a lot over the years. Almost every new version of Word is an “abomination” compared to the one you’ve spent the most time using.

    Word was almost never “really good.” It was, and is, a repository for every feature that survived both interdepartmental competition and committee-driven UI design.

    We’ve all had a chance to see what truly well-designed apps look like, even ones with an enormous features list. None of the MS Office apps qualify.

  60. Seriously. But I’m rarely surprised to see people expressing praise for something they’ve expended so much non-intuitive effort to learn. One tends to defend all that effort, regardless of whether the tool in question is deserving of it.

  61. Happy I’ve never had to use a Microsoft product. I used Nisus in the 80s, and now use Scrivener. Seems like I didn’t miss much. (Except rabid commenters.)

  62. I don’t think Word is the most popular app in Office. I think Excel is. I personally don’t like any of them.

  63. What’s your evidence for the assertion that “fewer and fewer Mac users use/need/want Office”?

  64. I guess there is some disagreement here, but at least Godwins Law hasn’t been invoked. Yet. Anyone?

  65. Some things are just annoying to some people. Jim has his own.. Apple Music comes to mind. Humans are messy creatures. Trump comes to mind here.

  67. Actually I’m with you there. I still choose to use Excel since it really is a good spreadsheet. I have Word and PP around due to work and interop – and I honestly they are fine but I don’t choose to use them myself.

    For writing, I think Ulysses is the best thing going. It means a little work to produce something for consumption, but it’s not a lot of overhead. I love Keynote for my own presentations which are few. For collaboration, Google docs can be really productive when multiple people are working on something.

    The reality is most people use multiple apps now and Office is not a standard or necessary anymore.

  69. MS is retooling Office for 365 just like Apple retooled/rewrote iWork for after V ’09. Google is really eating up a lot of their market share with live collaboration tools so they have no choice.

    Obviously they have a lot more problems to solve than Apple.

  70. Exactly. What else is unsupported on modern OSes? Office 2010. And Office 2007. And come Q1 next year, Office 2013. All of which are Windows versions.

    Microsoft has no interest in continually making your legacy version run on modern OSes, whether that’s macOS or Windows.

  72. “Life support” is a really strong statement. As for “fewer and fewer”, can you cite evidence for this? Outlook? Yes. But I don’t know a single Mac user in my professional circle who has abandoned Word, Excel or Powerpoint.

  73. I think it’s very good that we have a range of choices with which to assess the work that Microsoft has chosen not to do.

  74. Based upon my very limited observation, it seems to me that Word might be the most ubiquitous for casual use, but that Excel might be the most deeply used, albeit by fewer people.

  77. MS has been an OK supporter of MacOS/macOS and so-so with iOS. Microsoft did drop the ball, for a long time on iOS… and maybe worse MS over reacted to the “post computer” world with Windows 8/8.1 … the tragedy!

  80. agreed — the ONLY reason i come to The Loop is for the comments. the re-gurgitated links (often from DF) surely isn’t the reason.

    (and this is exactly why i dont read on my iPhone — because this is the ONLY mac site i visit that won’t serve the comments to iPhones, instead treating it as a second-class device. lame.)

  81. Wow an 7 year old program can’t run in Apple’s new hard drive format, color me surprised! ?

  82. The Update won’t help because it’s still an a poorly reasoned assertion that’s not relevant or related to the link you chose to run.

    Current versions of Office are not being scaled down by MS, nor is there any indication that they have plans to. None. In fact they’re adding iOS versions which is great. The Mac versions are healthy and the doom is simply pure FUD with no facts.

    Lame commentary.

  83. Nobody rushed to a “whole-hearted defense of Office 2016.” They just pointed out that the article was needlessly sensationalist.

  86. Considering the large number of professionals that use their product, this is causing real harm. And it has been in release for well over a year, so when should we expect it to be at feature parity with 2011?

  88. Okay lazy:

    “But MS is constantly updating Office 2016”

    “Office on the Mac isn’t dead at all. 2016 is a thriving product”

    “Fortunately, there’s Office 2016 which is in fact, not only fully supported, but being rapidly updated as per the Fast Track Betas and the “normal” update cycle.

    It is neither dead nor on life support, and the implication of either is completely false.”

  89. Those quotes are enormously far from people arguing that Office is an “awesome software suite.”

    I mean really, are you arguing that someone saying that it’s “neither dead nor on life support” is an argument that it’s an “awesome software suite”? I’m pretty sure it’s someone saying that it’s neither dead nor on life support. “Constantly updating” = “awesome software suite”? Stop it.

    If those are the best you can come up with, then I’m quite happy with my position, thanks.

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