Office for Mac and Windows

I am considering to migrate to a Mac for office use but most importantly is how Office differs between the 2 systems. I don't do much programming but I do utilize Outlook a lot. I am not sure if Mac Office allows users to categorize emails, set priorities and proper archiving like the Windows version?

 

Outlook 2011 can do those things, but how well they will sync up to the server is another story. Outlook 2011 supports POP3, IMAP, and Exchange. That's it.

 

There's a new version of Office for OSX on the way, probably later this year. And Office 2011 for OSX wasn't well-loved, whereas Nadella's goal is to keep people preferring Office regardless of their OS (see: Office for iPad). I'd consider getting an Office subscription instead of straight-up buying the current version.

You can currently get a one-year Office 365 subscription for $72 on Amazon (normally $99/year, but with most Microsoft subscription services, you can get it discounted if you shop around).

 

If you have Windows installed on your Mac, either in a virtual machine or through Boot Camp, the Office 365 subscription will allow you to have both the Mac and Windows versions installed at the same time. It's what I do on my MacBook Pro, and I love having the flexibility. Plus, I was able to use two of the other licenses to upgrade my parents' computers to Office 2013 from Office 2000. On top of the suite of software, you also get an extra 20 GB of cloud storage. It's about what it would cost you for a year's worth of Dropbox, so you're essentially paying for OneDrive every year and getting Office for free. Not a bad deal, IMO. OneDrive has an OS X client, and while not as robust as others, it works well enough.

 

Put this way my institution uses Windows and Office products so I got discount and bought MS Office 2013 for windows and they have it for Mac as well so for no Mac 2013 Office that is wrong. Can't say for sync but if they are all outlook based there shouldn't be a problem to sync. And I don't have to use any Cloud to store my files I just use a USB and move from one computer to another that has Office 2013 this is with or without a Cloud much easier and more secure as I know where the files are and no one else can see it. Also I have a network setup so I can transfer to the Main Tower to store the files and retrieve it so there will be no loose of file. And I do have DropBox as well but I use it for files/data that aren't sensitive. I say for 365 is good if your wifi is constant and going but should you move off of it say Goodbye to your internet access and accessing your flies. This is the biggest downside they don't tell you. I rather have it on my laptop being a Windows a Office 2013 Suite ready to fire up and go rather then say oh were are my files on the Cloud when I can turn it on and get going and not have to wait oh do I have wifi to access your 365 files that are stored on a Cloud(Server) system and should those fail to connect you presentation will determine if you still have a job.

 

Thanks for your replies. I've been waiting for the updated version of Mac Office for about a year now and they keep on postponing the release date. I am more keen on Outlook improvements as we can't categorize emails with the current version.

 

Just that the newer Office is like docx and not doc like the old version that is the main difference so from 2007 up I think they went docx and dropped the doc. But you should check with other Mac users to see for sure if they let the horse out of the bard for Office 2013 but I do recall for my institution when I was making my order for Office 2013 suite it did have a link for Office 2013 for mac which I noticed.

 

Just as Office for Windows is on roughly a three year release cycle, so is Office for Mac. It's been this way for many years. As well, MS keeps hinting they want to scrap Office for Mac entirely. I suspect some OS X cycles got spent instead on the iPad versions, so that only slows things down more, and adds more gloom.

Unless you use an Exchange server, Outlook 2011 has very limited use past what even Mac Mail can do.