Morning all. I did a fresh install of 10.11.6 last night on my MBP 3,1 which went well until I reinstalled Office using the last version for 10.11 as provided by MS on their downloads page. The apps install fine but when I try to sign in to my account for activation, instead of being asked for a password, I get a blank window. There's lots of reports of this behaviour on various forums but none of the work arounds work now. Thinking it was a duff "last version" problem I tried earlier versions including the version I originally used to install a couple of years ago but no luck. I've tried different Internet connections, dns servers and turned off 2FA but no joy. Has anyone else seen this problem or know how to fix?
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MS Office broken for older Macs?
- Thread starter SecretSquirrel
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According to their website Microsoft supports only the last three versions of MacOS.
So if you want to install the latest version of Office 365 you will need Mojave as a minimum.
You should be able to find an older version on their website, but you will need to go back a long way to find a supported version for El Capitan.
However, unsupported does not mean ‘not working’, so I would suggest you go back in time until you find a working version, or get hold of a standalone version of Office 2016 or 2011.
So if you want to install the latest version of Office 365 you will need Mojave as a minimum.
Microsoft 365 and Office Resources
Get information about the version of Office you’re considering buying or are beginning to use.
www.microsoft.com
You should be able to find an older version on their website, but you will need to go back a long way to find a supported version for El Capitan.
However, unsupported does not mean ‘not working’, so I would suggest you go back in time until you find a working version, or get hold of a standalone version of Office 2016 or 2011.
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Thanks for the suggestions. I already have 365 cos the rest of the family are windows users. It's just annoying that it worked ok a couple of weeks ago but doesn't now. 😩
It isn't MS Office, but LibreOffice only requires 10.10 or better.
www.libreoffice.org
Download LibreOffice | LibreOffice - Free and private office suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft
Download free office suite for Windows, macOS and Linux. Microsoft compatible, based on OpenOffice, and updated regularly.
Just a warning, I use 2011 with El Capitan and whilst installing it recently on my MacBook Air, I discovered that the updater no longer works properly but I managed to find the entire collection here. You don't need to download the whole lot. The main ones which are necessary in order to bring 2011 up to date are AutoUpdate 3.4.0, updates 1410, 1456, 1472 and 1477.
It isn't MS Office, but LibreOffice only requires 10.10 or better.
Download LibreOffice | LibreOffice - Free and private office suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft
Download free office suite for Windows, macOS and Linux. Microsoft compatible, based on OpenOffice, and updated regularly.
Good call on LibreOffice and there's also OpenOffice with Intel versions available all the way down to Snow Leopard.
This changes the situation somewhat.
Have you tried a full Office uninstall before re-installing from scratch?
Unfortunately a full uninstall is not a straight forward as one would hope, but there are instructions on the MS website.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-for-mac-eefa1199-5b58-43af-8a3d-b73dc1a8cae3
There's also Office Online (for free) if you have a Hotmail account. All the Office anyone who isn't a power user really needs. And there is Google Docs. And there is WPS and ONLYOFFICE on Linux. I gotta say I like Only Office a lot and its the most "Office" like of all the free Office suites out there.Just a warning, I use 2011 with El Capitan and whilst installing it recently on my MacBook Air, I discovered that the updater no longer works properly but I managed to find the entire collection here. You don't need to download the whole lot. The main ones which are necessary in order to bring 2011 up to date are AutoUpdate 3.4.0, updates 1410, 1456, 1472 and 1477.
Good call on LibreOffice and there's also OpenOffice with Intel versions available all the way down to Snow Leopard.
Edit: Only Office has a Mac version with support back to 10.11
Since all all stuff, that is hooked to online-activation, upgrades or cloud-connections will expire sooner or later, I personally stick with 32-bit Office 2008 and Mojave or earlier.
No love for iWork in this thread? 🙁
I write everything in iWork '09, and export documents as PDFs where possible. When a document has complicated formatting and I need to save out an MS Office file, I also do a quick spot check in Office Online, where I fix any minor discrepancies (if needed).
(Doing quick spot checks in the cloud is okay!)
I write everything in iWork '09, and export documents as PDFs where possible. When a document has complicated formatting and I need to save out an MS Office file, I also do a quick spot check in Office Online, where I fix any minor discrepancies (if needed).
(Doing quick spot checks in the cloud is okay!)
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A shameful oversight, which you've now corrected.
Pages actually became my favourite word processor due to problems with MS Word 2011 that drove me to insanity. It's intuitive, reliable and also free. I've also noticed that Pages automatically provides a much more thorough word count than Word (Pages calculates the main text and the footnotes - unlike Word), which is invaluable for me when I need to total up my completed chapters and plan accordingly for the upcoming instalments.
Just to be on the safe side, whenever I send copies of my latest drafts to my thesis supervisor and the panel review members, I always check the exported .doc file in Word, to confirm that there aren't any formatting issues - which has been an intermittent occurrence when exporting files to Word users.
Pages '09, which I still prefer to the later versions, isn't but can be picked up for peanuts.
Yes I have tried full uninstall several times using these instructions. The software appears to install fine but its the activation process which is broken.
Thanks - I think this is what I'll do from now on using whatever version of Pages I can use with 10.11.
Again, as another option You can also use MS Office 2008 throughout the whole line of your PowerBooks (Tiger/Leopard) and early Intels (up to Mojave) ...
One final comment from me. At one point I was having activation problems as well and it turned out that Microsoft people were a aware of it and helped me out.
With your 365 subscription you are entitled to Microsoft remote support. Have you called them yet?
With your 365 subscription you are entitled to Microsoft remote support. Have you called them yet?
As per M$ as of Office 2011 new "Anti-Piracy" security measures were put in. I was a Apple Beta Tester for a long time and was installing Office everywhere through the phone activation with no issues.
That's until you change drives or machines. I bought a new WD Black 7200rpm 4TB drive and want to move into it forever with Mojave. Just can't take Office with me unless I upgrade. I did get the base install working. But once I updated to the last revision so I can use my current database and it wanted me to activate again and failed. I talked to M$ about it and they didn't care. "Go subscribe to 365!"
Right now all I really need is Outlook and will use Apples other stuff. Now Outlook is broken as complaints rifle all over the net. It works as it last did before M$ changed something and you can no longer make changes to the setup or accounts. Of I need to update an IMAP account and can't, WHICH has screwed up everything.
I'm thoroughly amazed that by now no one has come up with a converter so you can move to another client.
That's until you change drives or machines. I bought a new WD Black 7200rpm 4TB drive and want to move into it forever with Mojave. Just can't take Office with me unless I upgrade. I did get the base install working. But once I updated to the last revision so I can use my current database and it wanted me to activate again and failed. I talked to M$ about it and they didn't care. "Go subscribe to 365!"
Right now all I really need is Outlook and will use Apples other stuff. Now Outlook is broken as complaints rifle all over the net. It works as it last did before M$ changed something and you can no longer make changes to the setup or accounts. Of I need to update an IMAP account and can't, WHICH has screwed up everything.
I'm thoroughly amazed that by now no one has come up with a converter so you can move to another client.
Why do you need a converter if you are using IMAP? The essence of IMAP is that everything is stored on an external (to you) server.
Just open another client and add your account.
I have a copy which has had these security measures removed and it doesn't attempt to phone home, it doesn't care about hardware changes - or any other kinds of changes, for that matter. A few days ago I upgraded my El Capitan installation to High Sierra and it continued to work without any issues.
It will but be blurry. Retinizer might help with that but I've not tried it yet.
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