Switching to a Mac - Make Sure You Know These Microsoft Office 2021 Tips

 

Do you require Office for Mac? We compare Microsoft 365 with Office 2021 for Mac, talk about where to buy, and explain how to acquire Office for Mac for the best price.

On a Mac, you may use Microsoft Office, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook (and on your iPad or iPhone). However, it isn't as simple as installing the application and then starting to text. You must decide whether to subscribe to a service or purchase the full version directly. You must select whether you require only one or all of the applications. If you're picking a subscription plan, you'll also need to figure out what kind of subscription you'll need.

You can install the Office programs on your Mac in a variety of ways. In our entire guide to buying Microsoft Office for Mac, we'll help you decide out which edition of Office for Mac is perfect for you.

 

What is the most recent Office version for Mac?

A Microsoft 365 subscription (from £59.99/$69.99 per year or £5.99/$6.99 per month) gets you the latest edition of Office for Mac. If you subscribe, you will receive the most recent software updates on a continuous basis, eliminating the need to purchase the entire program or suite again. On April 21, 2020, the service, which was formerly known as Office 365, was relaunched as Microsoft 365 after undergoing

a slew of upgrades, which you can read about on our sister site Tech Advisor. The pricing stay the same despite the brand change and enhancements.

If you don't want to pay for a subscription, you'll be happy to know that Microsoft's Office suite has been upgraded for 2021. In our article, we go through Microsoft Office for Mac 2021.

Office Home & Student 2021 (£119.99/US$149.99) is the most recent version of Office for Mac for home users. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are all included. There's also a new Office Home & Business 2021 (£249.99/$249.99) that's aimed for families and small businesses who need Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Office LTSC is also available from Microsoft (Long Term Servicing Channel). Details on how to upgrade can be found on Microsoft's website.

Every month, Microsoft 365 members receive upgrades (though organizational subscriptions can choose to upgrade user accounts either semi-annually, every January and July).

Both versions, however, will get security and performance updates. Details about the most recent version can be found here:

• Microsoft Office 365

• Microsoft Office 2019

 

What's the difference between Office 2021 and Microsoft 365?

 

In September 2021, Microsoft released Office 2021 for Mac (three years after Office 2019 launched). Some of the new capabilities, however, were already included in the Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) subscription.

Customers who subscribe to Microsoft 365 pay monthly or yearly to ensure that they always have the most recent version of the program. There are different options depending on whether you'll be the only person using the software, if you'll be sharing the subscription with friends and family, and if you're a small business or a major corporation.

Some customers prefer the subscription model, while others prefer to buy software altogether and know that they will have it for the rest of their lives. As a result, Microsoft also offers a one-time purchase option for the entire Office 2021 suite. Although Microsoft may someday discontinue supporting that version, the license will never expire.

If you're looking for stand-alone software, you can get Office Home & Student 2021 (£119.99/US$149.99), Office Home & Business 2021 (£249.99/$249.99), or the Office LTSC if you're buying for a business or to use professionally (details on Microsoft's site here).

You can also purchase the applications separately; see the section below for additional information.

A free cloud-based version of Office is also available, which you can access via a web browser. Consider it a free version of the app's paid versions. You will still need to create a Microsoft Account. This is useful if you've been forced to work from home due to the pandemic.

Home use: Office 2021 vs Microsoft 365

Office Home & Student 2021 and Office Home & Business 2021	Microsoft 365 (Family or Personal)
Pay once.	Pay monthly or yearly. Stop paying and you lose the license.
Includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint. (Works with Microsoft Teams). Office Home & Business 2021 also include Outlook.	Includes the most up to date version of Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
No services included.	Skype and One Drive included. Family: 6TB (1TB for each person); Personal: 1TB. OneDrive Personal Vault security.
Runs on one Mac or one PC	Runs on Mac, PC, iOS & Android
One person.	Personal: One person; Family: Six people.
Includes security updates, but no feature updates.	Microsoft will update the apps with new features.
Install on one Mac or PC.	Install on all your devices (iPad, iPhone, Mac). Depending on your subscription package you may be able to share your subscription with five others.
You get basic versions of the mobile apps that can be used on iPhones and iPads (as long as the iPad is under 10.1in - so iPad mini only).	You get free versions of the mobile apps with extra features that aren't available in the basic versions.
No online storage.	1TB of cloud storage in OneDrive, to be used by up to 6 users depending on your subscription package.
Installation help. Support for first 60 days at no extra cost.	Ongoing technical help.

 

Microsoft 365 for Business vs. Office LTSC for Business

If you're an enterprise user, you'll want to look into a version that's optimized for corporate deployment. Microsoft has enabled Office LTSC as an option in the Office 2021 release.

LTSC Office

This version of Office 2021 is offered to volume license customers who do not wish to subscribe to Microsoft 365 and instead prefer to make a one-time payment. It comes with the same software as Office Home & Business 2021, but it also includes Outlook LTSC for Mac users (PC users also get Access and Publisher LTSC versions).

The cost is 10% higher than Office Home & Business 2021, and it will vary depending on how many Macs or PCs are being deployed.

Microsoft 365 for Business is a service provided by Microsoft.

Microsoft 365 subscription packages are also available for corporations and enterprises. Each is charged per month per user, with cheaper monthly costs available if you sign up for an annual contract.

At £3.80/$5 per user per month, Microsoft 365 Business Basic (previously Office 365 Business Essentials) is the cheapest option. Only the web and mobile versions of the Office apps are included. OneDrive, Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams are also available to subscribers.

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business only gives you access to apps and OneDrive. You get the desktop versions as well, but not the extra features like Teams or threat prevention that come with the software. It costs £7.90/$8.25 per month for each user.

 

Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook (plus Access on a PC) are included with Microsoft 365 Business Standard (previously Office 365 Business Premium), as well as business email, Microsoft Teams access, and OneDrive cloud storage. This tier costs £9.40/$12.50 per month for each user.

Everything in Office 365 Business Premium (previously Microsoft 365 Business) plus cyber-threat protection is included in the Business Standard package. At £15.10/$20 per user per month, this is the most expensive option.

 

What is the price of Microsoft 365 for Mac?

Pricing varies depending on the sort of license you want and how you want to pay with so many alternatives available. In the table below, we've broken it all down.

The most cost-effective method of obtaining Microsoft Office

As you can see from the list above, there are a variety of ways to get Office, or individual Office products, on your Mac. You might subscribe for the amount of time you require access to the software and then cancel it. You could obtain Office for Mac's basic version for £5.99/month and cancel after 30 days. However, you should be aware that you may lose access to your data. You can continue use Office in View Only mode after you cancel.

When it comes to View Only mode, it's useful if all you want to do is read Word documents or PowerPoint slides. You may view but not edit in this mode. If that's all you need to accomplish, then this is the cheapest alternative - because it's free.

If you do need to modify documents, you can do it using Apple's iWork tools. Pages is an Apple word processor that can handle Word documents, Keynote can open PowerPoint presentations, and Numbers can open Excel spreadsheets. Without ever having to open Office, these choices will allow you to open, modify, and save Office documents in the Office format. The formatting can be a little off at times, but it's an excellent solution. And, most importantly, it will not cost you anything because these apps are available for free to Mac users.

You don't have to buy all of the Office apps if all you need is Word, for example. As seen in the table above, you can purchase Word, Excel, and PowerPoint separately. If you don't want to pay more for the other applications included in the suite, it could be a viable option at just over £100 per app.

I'm not sure whether I should get Office 365 or Office 2021.

You'll pay £119.98 for a two-year subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal. That's about the same as purchasing the software outright.

Of course, there are other drawbacks to this circumstance. Throughout those two years, Office 365 members will receive new feature updates, which means you will miss out on some exciting new features. With a 365 subscription, you may be eligible for technical help. Perhaps you require access to the software's iOS and Android versions. This post explains how to download free Office programs for your iPad.

Another element that may influence your selection is the fact that Microsoft will end mainstream support for Office Home & Student 2021 and Home & Business 2021 for Mac in October 2026. (which means Microsoft is only supporting it for five years, rather than the usual ten). This implies it will no longer get security or non-security updates, such as design modifications or new features. If this is a problem for you, a subscription might be a better option.

 

Will Microsoft 365 or Office 2021 for Mac work on my Mac?

Both Microsoft 365 and Office 2021 will work on macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, and High Sierra, as far as system requirements go (Microsoft will always endeavour to support the current and two previous versions of macOS). A minimum of 10GB of disk space is required for Mac users.

It's worth noting that previous 32-bit Office versions, such as Office 2011, will not run on Macs running Catalina or later. Click on the Apple symbol in your menu and select About This Mac, then System Report to see if your version is 64 bit. Select Applications from the Software drop-down menu. This is where you'll find out if any of your apps are 32-bit.

Another difficulty with M1 Macs is compatibility. Microsoft made sure that Office functioned natively on the M1 Chip soon after the M1 Macs were released in November 2020. The M1 Macs support Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. The updated version of the software would have been installed automatically for Microsoft 365 users. If compatibility difficulties arise again in the future, if you aren't a Microsoft subscriber, you may have to wait longer for an upgrade.