Does anyone have a recommendation on the most reliable way to get Office that will run on Catalina? Since Apple gave up on 32 bit apps, Excel no longer runs on my new iMac 2020. I have a lot of spreadsheets. I know I can use Numbers, but I'd really rather use Excel. It's available in the App store or online from various sources from Amazon, to Costco, to Microsoft. Does the App store have any advantages?
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Best way to get Excel (Office) for Catalina
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Do yourself a favor and just buy it directly from Microsoft. By the way, they do still sell the perpetual license version of their Office apps, so you don't have to pay for a subscription. The only advantage to buying it from the App Store is that you don't have to enter your credit card... and that is just not worth the potential headaches, IMO.
Any chance you are connected to a non-profit? If so, check out TechSoup... we pay $39 for the 2019 Office Suite (perpetual license)...
Cheapest way is to buy an annual subscription from Amazon. Normally a little cheaper than buying direct from Microsoft. they will email you a licence code, which you can use to register the apps. I paid £59 in Jan this year for a 365 Home / Family pack that allow it to be installed on 5 Mac's or PC's. To buy from Microsoft would have cost £80. I normally avoid subscription software, but £60 a year for all the office apps with regular updates is great value, and to cover the whole family is great value IMO.
The prices in the US are the same from MS and Amazon with regard to the family subscription. I checked the MS and Amazon sites and I could find no difference for the latest version.
I thought of purchasing through the Apple Store because of the 3% cash back via the Apple Card. However, if there is a problem with the software, will MS provide TA or will they say contact Apple?
Given the product is $99 per year, the cash back difference is negligible.
MS provides updates to Office apps all the time, you can even subscribe to nightly and beta builds if you wish. You don't get that with App Store versions... you get the update when Apple lets you have them.
If there are issues with your purchase, MS is a LOT more helpful than Apple. Sad, but true.
Apple doesn't provide tech support with the apps they sell in the App Store. Getting support from MS with App Store versions is more difficult (not impossible). I'm not sure why, but it is what it is.
When you buy from MS, you get all the office apps, not just Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook. You also get access to their other services, and you don't have to download/update apps like OneNote separately.
Finally, Apple NEVER puts things on sale. No coupons, no special offers, nothing—while MS often honors coupons and has special offers. This of course is only relevant at times of upgrades or the first purchase, but still... I'm not sure, but I don't know if Apple sells the perpetual (one-time purchase) versions of the apps in the App Store, while MS still does.
These were my findings when I first bought Office from the App Store years ago. It was just a royal pain in the behind. Last year I finally upgraded Office to the 365 subscription (which still allows me to install it for 5 users) and it has been so much better and quite frankly, just as easy.
If there are issues with your purchase, MS is a LOT more helpful than Apple. Sad, but true.
Apple doesn't provide tech support with the apps they sell in the App Store. Getting support from MS with App Store versions is more difficult (not impossible). I'm not sure why, but it is what it is.
When you buy from MS, you get all the office apps, not just Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook. You also get access to their other services, and you don't have to download/update apps like OneNote separately.
Finally, Apple NEVER puts things on sale. No coupons, no special offers, nothing—while MS often honors coupons and has special offers. This of course is only relevant at times of upgrades or the first purchase, but still... I'm not sure, but I don't know if Apple sells the perpetual (one-time purchase) versions of the apps in the App Store, while MS still does.
These were my findings when I first bought Office from the App Store years ago. It was just a royal pain in the behind. Last year I finally upgraded Office to the 365 subscription (which still allows me to install it for 5 users) and it has been so much better and quite frankly, just as easy.
I recommend you to buy an Office 365 subscription if you don't have problem with subscriptions. It give you Office to install for 5 devices and you can add up to 5 family members who can install 5 devices with their accounts and all of you get an 1TB for OneDrive for each one.
After that, you can download the Office package from Office.com or just download the apps that you need from the App Store and log in with your office account with the subscription and that's all.
After that, you can download the Office package from Office.com or just download the apps that you need from the App Store and log in with your office account with the subscription and that's all.