Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac is End of Life...

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Microsoft has announced that support for Microsoft Office 2011 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) for Mac is ending October 10, 2017. What does this mean to you?

First, it only means something if you're still running the old Microsoft Office 2011. In late 2015, Microsoft released Office 2016 for Mac and it's available as a full retail purchase or as part of their Office 365 subscription package (highly recommended). If you're using Office 2016, then you can skip this article altogether. If you're still using Office 2011, you should consider upgrading to the new version for a few reasons:

  • Microsoft has announced that, as of October 10, 2017, they will no longer release updates for Office 2011. This means that no more bug fixes or security updates will be coming from Microsoft and they will no longer help you with any issues you may have if you're still running Office 2011.
  • Microsoft has announced that Office 2011 is not supported with the new macOS High Sierra released in September 2017. Again, this means that the program hasn't been tested with High Sierra and, if there are any problems, Microsoft will not fix them. So, if you're still using Office 2011, it's recommended that you don't upgrade to High Sierra unless you either purchase Office 2016 (part of Office 365) or you migrate to Apple's iWork suite (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) which can read/write Microsoft Office documents.
  • If you need to re-download Office 2011 from the Office 365 portal, you will no longer find it there. 

If you have an Office 365 subscription but your computer can't run Office 2016 (if it's too old), you can use Office in the Cloud. Microsoft says you can go to "portal.office.com. This includes Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, along with Skype and OneDrive for Business.... Otherwise, you will have to either purchase a new device or continue using the now unsupported Office 2011 for Mac."

More info at Microsoft's site. 

If you need support in upgrading to Office 365 and the Office 2016 suite, please contact us!