MS Office on M1 Mac vs. MS Office on Intel Windows PCs

[jlc1978]

And the fact is that not even the shiny new MacBook Pros, in all their glory and power, cannot run this software and have to deal with lesser alternatives, which is a blow to anyone wanting or needing to use office applications in a professional environment.

I'm not sure how you come to this conclusion. I've used a Mac in an Windows central environment for over 15 years; and Macs in a Mac centric environment for several years before that, and never found the office apps unsuitable for use in a professional environment.

 

[Madhatter32]

The elephant in the room is that Microsoft Office for Windows is fully-featured, fast, light, and stable, like nothing else available in the Mac environment. It is even more fully-featured than Microsoft Office for Mac, while also being faster and lighter than Apple iWork. And the fact is that not even the shiny new MacBook Pros, in all their glory and power, cannot run this software and have to deal with lesser alternatives, which is a blow to anyone wanting or needing to use office applications in a professional environment.

I agree with you. The real beauty of Word is its ubiquity. It allows for easy collaboration and compatibility. These features are important in many work places. From a functionality standpoint, Word for Mac, Word for Windows, Pages, LibreOffice, and others are very good tools no matter how many footnotes you are using or really whatever else needs to be done. I have used Word for Mac and Windows and Pages in a professional environment and, frankly, they all function just fine in that I can get work done. However, when it come to collaborative work, Word (on any platform) is the best.

 

[MikeDr206]

Sometimes I feel that addressing word processing and other office applications in a Mac environment is like bringing the elephant to the room. Many Mac users are picky about their hardware and software and are only happy with the very best they can find. I have seen some comparisons on how Adobe Photoshop performs on PCs and Macs. However, I have not found the same level of comparisons between Word and other Microsoft Office applications running on PCs and Macs. I think this is rather strange, because, as popular as Adobe Photoshop is, Microsoft Office is still the most widely used suite of applications in the whole world. Some Mac users just trash Microsoft Office for Mac, calling it "bloated", while praising the swiftness of Apple iWork applications. The elephant in the room is that Microsoft Office for Windows is fully-featured, fast, light, and stable, like nothing else available in the Mac environment. It is even more fully-featured than Microsoft Office for Mac, while also being faster and lighter than Apple iWork. And the fact is that not even the shiny new MacBook Pros, in all their glory and power, cannot run this software and have to deal with lesser alternatives, which is a blow to anyone wanting or needing to use office applications in a professional environment.

I’m not sure I agree. I use a lowly rMB with Big Sur and Microsoft Word (365 subscription) in a professional environment, and have no issues whatsoever with speed, etc.

 

[skaertus]

I'm not sure how you come to this conclusion. I've used a Mac in an Windows central environment for over 15 years; and Macs in a Mac centric environment for several years before that, and never found the office apps unsuitable for use in a professional environment.

I’m not sure I agree. I use a lowly rMB with Big Sur and Microsoft Word (365 subscription) in a professional environment, and have no issues whatsoever with speed, etc.

I am not saying Office for Mac is unsuitable for use in a professional environment. Office for Mac is suitable and capable of handling all required tasks. However, this is not a matter of suitability.

What I am saying is that Office for Windows eats Office for Mac for lunch any day. Office for Windows is miles ahead of Office for Mac or iWork. Hands down. No contest.

Any Office application -- be it Word, Excel, or PowerPoint -- will load much faster in an 8th gen Core i5 Windows PC than in an M1 Mac. MUCH faster. I actually tried that. The superiority of Office for Windows over the Mac version is absolutely clear.

But, for some reason, Mac users do not seem to care about this. I see Mac users being very picky about photo or video editing software. They want the very best out there, and will not settle for less. When it comes to office applications, however, they are usually much less picky. If Office for Mac works, then it is just fine, even though it does not provide the very best experience. If the user thinks that Office for Mac is bloated, he will simply use iWork. Should Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator for Mac be as inferior as Microsoft Office is compared to its Windows counterpart, Mac users would be wildly voicing their frustration. I suppose Mac users are more of the creative type who does not care for this kind of application. I do not know.

 

[skaertus]

I agree with you. The real beauty of Word is its ubiquity. It allows for easy collaboration and compatibility. These features are important in many work places. From a functionality standpoint, Word for Mac, Word for Windows, Pages, LibreOffice, and others are very good tools no matter how many footnotes you are using or really whatever else needs to be done. I have used Word for Mac and Windows and Pages in a professional environment and, frankly, they all function just fine in that I can get work done. However, when it come to collaborative work, Word (on any platform) is the best.

All of them can get the work done. But one certainly can be more effective than the other. In a professional environment, you may need some advanced features that are not present in all software. Still, most people do not use these features. This is why Google Docs has become so popular.

But the real thing, as you mentioned, is collaboration. You simply cannot effectively collaborate with others if you use Pages. Are going to send a draft to a client edited in Apple Pages? What are the odds that he will be able to even open the file? And if you convert the file to Word format, would you trust that the document will look exactly the same? Word is hands down the winner in this department.

 

[anthover]

I will briefly mention two things> Libreoffice and I understand MS is trying to combine its Windows and MAC Office apps code base. That would be the best of both worlds for MS office mac fans.

 

[StoneJack]

Did you self-published the book you wrote? Did you use Pages for the page layout as well?

Apple Pages is a solid piece of software, do not get me wrong. In my testing, it performed better than all word processors for Mac, except for Mellel, which was the only serious contender. However, Word for Windows was still better.

My impression is that Pages is very much focused on page layout and lacks some word processing features that have been present in other software for years or even decades. It particularly frustrates me that Pages lacks cross-references, which is a feature that saves a lot of time and effort. And other features, such as indexing, are not there either.

I use Microsoft Word for Windows to create and edit some large documents. At this very moment, I am writing an article that is already 22,000 words long. Just before Christmas, I finished an 8,000-word long memorandum. And I have written at least three documents that are over 100,000 words long. All of them are packed with footnotes and cross-references. Word for Windows handles all of them with ease as if it were a walk in the park. Word for Mac can handle these documents as well, but it sometimes struggles in doing so. As for Pages, I am pretty sure it would be able to handle the documents well, but it would require me lots of extra effort as it lacks some features that are useful for me.

Sometimes I feel that addressing word processing and other office applications in a Mac environment is like bringing the elephant to the room. Many Mac users are picky about their hardware and software and are only happy with the very best they can find. I have seen some comparisons on how Adobe Photoshop performs on PCs and Macs. However, I have not found the same level of comparisons between Word and other Microsoft Office applications running on PCs and Macs. I think this is rather strange, because, as popular as Adobe Photoshop is, Microsoft Office is still the most widely used suite of applications in the whole world. Some Mac users just trash Microsoft Office for Mac, calling it "bloated", while praising the swiftness of Apple iWork applications. The elephant in the room is that Microsoft Office for Windows is fully-featured, fast, light, and stable, like nothing else available in the Mac environment. It is even more fully-featured than Microsoft Office for Mac, while also being faster and lighter than Apple iWork. And the fact is that not even the shiny new MacBook Pros, in all their glory and power, cannot run this software and have to deal with lesser alternatives, which is a blow to anyone wanting or needing to use office applications in a professional environment.

I have published the book at the publishing company; they also printed it. I did general layout in Pages, used Drops, TOC, text boxes with shading, end and footnotes, styles and they preserved the style (though worked on page layout and spaces). It was a very good experience for me.

I originally worked in desktop publishing field, starting from Adobe Pagemaker (then Aldus) in tandem with Word, then Indesign etc, so I do have a general knowledge of Word related workflow. However, I found Pages to be more universal than Word, with both page layout, word processor and design capacity coupled together in a very robust package. Yes, Word has more functions, but I am not looking for quantity of functions, but only those which I need, for which Pages is more than sufficient. Word is good package, but it does for me have some problems with inserting images (and downscaling them), tables and graphs move all over place to degree I can't put them where I want, etc. Pages don't have such problems and have very precise placement functions, so I like Pages more.

 

[jlc1978]

What I am saying is that Office for Windows eats Office for Mac for lunch any day. Office for Windows is miles ahead of Office for Mac or iWork. Hands down. No contest.

Any Office application -- be it Word, Excel, or PowerPoint -- will load much faster in an 8th gen Core i5 Windows PC than in an M1 Mac. MUCH faster. I actually tried that. The superiority of Office for Windows over the Mac version is absolutely clear.

Load time is hardly the standard for superiority since most users won’t be loading a program that often, and even then the time to load is minor compared to the time spent actually using the program. In my experience, I notice no delta in load times between Office on a PC, OS X or even Parallels.

But, for some reason, Mac users do not seem to care about this.

Because it doesn’t matter to them as far as usability or user experience is concerned.

f Office for Mac works, then it is just fine, even though it does not provide the very best experience.

That’s true of virtually all software - if it works and meets a user’s needs that it’s fine. As a user of PC and OS X versions of Office, neither is ”better” than the other. Both work and my experience with they are teh same on either platform except for keyboard shortcuts. The ones that I find frustrating are teh web versions and iPadOS ones as they are sub sets of the desktop versions.

All of them can get the work done. But one certainly can be more effective than the other. In a professional environment, you may need some advanced features that are not present in all software. Still, most people do not use these features. This is why Google Docs has become so popular.

That’s the key with any software; if you need a feature only in one version then that is teh best for you. If I needed adds that are only available in the PC version of Office I’d buy a PC and use it; instead of using the OS X version and Parallels to check compatibility.

But the real thing, as you mentioned, is collaboration. You simply cannot effectively collaborate with others if you use Pages. Are going to send a draft to a client edited in Apple Pages? What are the odds that he will be able to even open the file? And if you convert the file to Word format, would you trust that the document will look exactly the same? Word is hands down the winner in this department.

Collaboration is often the driver behind software choice In a work environment. I recently did a project that involved mapping a process and while OmniGraffle is a very good tool, the client is a PC shop so I had to use Visio as Omnigraffle’s Visio export often required fixing conversion artifacts.

When I do PowerBI development work I have to use a PC as their is no OS X version available so I’m stuck.

It would be great if MS made their entire Office family available on OS X and had 100% feature parity. Maybe if ARM becomes a widely used Windows standard microprocessor they may decide to build a single ARM codebase For their Office suite.

 

[jlc1978]

Word is good package, but it does for me have some problems with inserting images (and downscaling them), tables and graphs move all over place to degree I can't put them where I want, etc. Pages don't have such problems and have very precise placement functions, so I like Pages more.

Word can be downright maddening in the way it decides to position non-text objects automatically. Don’t even get me started on it’s desire to decide what is a next in a numbered list and when to continue numbering. The whole “hide the formatting in the paragraph code” can result in a number of odd behaviors.

 

[skaertus]

I will briefly mention two things> Libreoffice and I understand MS is trying to combine its Windows and MAC Office apps code base. That would be the best of both worlds for MS office mac fans.

I have used LibreOffice in the past. It is a robust package and has many features. I would say it is quite impressive for being free and open source. However, the interface is clunked and hardly improves over time, as there is clearly a lack of resources to do it. There is a community of active developers, but they do not seem to focus the development of features on what the general base of users would most want or need.

I hope Microsoft combines the code base of Office for Windows and Mac. Office for Mac has improved a lot over the years but still falls short of the Windows version. I remember how Office 2008, with Entourage instead of Outlook, was definitely not on par.

 

[skaertus]

I have published the book at the publishing company; they also printed it. I did general layout in Pages, used Drops, TOC, text boxes with shading, end and footnotes, styles and they preserved the style (though worked on page layout and spaces). It was a very good experience for me.

I originally worked in desktop publishing field, starting from Adobe Pagemaker (then Aldus) in tandem with Word, then Indesign etc, so I do have a general knowledge of Word related workflow. However, I found Pages to be more universal than Word, with both page layout, word processor and design capacity coupled together in a very robust package. Yes, Word has more functions, but I am not looking for quantity of functions, but only those which I need, for which Pages is more than sufficient. Word is good package, but it does for me have some problems with inserting images (and downscaling them), tables and graphs move all over place to degree I can't put them where I want, etc. Pages don't have such problems and have very precise placement functions, so I like Pages more.

That is very nice! I have used Aldus Pagemaker prior to being purchased by Adobe, and I liked it (and even missed it when Adobe replaced it with InDesign).

Indeed, Pages is good at combining page layout with word processing features. It is not particularly strong as a word processor, and I suppose it is not the best desktop publishing app either. However, it can certainly handle graphic elements better than Word. This is why I mentioned I found it weak as a word processor: the sheer word processing capabilities are lacking, although it has what most people will need or use. Word, on the other hand, excels at word processing; it has added many page layout features over the years, but it was never meant to be desktop publishing software. In this respect, Pages, being an unprecedented combination of basic word processing and page layout software, beats Word.

Although I used desktop publishing software in the past, my current needs are to produce text-only documents. I also do not prepare these documents for printing, as I always send them to a published who will format them according to the standards of their own publications (and they usually require the document to be sent in Word format). I occasionally insert a table or two, but my needs are mostly for advanced word processing features that Word has, but Pages lacks.

 

[skaertus]

Load time is hardly the standard for superiority since most users won’t be loading a program that often, and even then the time to load is minor compared to the time spent actually using the program. In my experience, I notice no delta in load times between Office on a PC, OS X or even Parallels.



Because it doesn’t matter to them as far as usability or user experience is concerned.



That’s true of virtually all software - if it works and meets a user’s needs that it’s fine. As a user of PC and OS X versions of Office, neither is ”better” than the other. Both work and my experience with they are teh same on either platform except for keyboard shortcuts. The ones that I find frustrating are teh web versions and iPadOS ones as they are sub sets of the desktop versions.



That’s the key with any software; if you need a feature only in one version then that is teh best for you. If I needed adds that are only available in the PC version of Office I’d buy a PC and use it; instead of using the OS X version and Parallels to check compatibility.



Collaboration is often the driver behind software choice In a work environment. I recently did a project that involved mapping a process and while OmniGraffle is a very good tool, the client is a PC shop so I had to use Visio as Omnigraffle’s Visio export often required fixing conversion artifacts.

When I do PowerBI development work I have to use a PC as their is no OS X version available so I’m stuck.

It would be great if MS made their entire Office family available on OS X and had 100% feature parity. Maybe if ARM becomes a widely used Windows standard microprocessor they may decide to build a single ARM codebase For their Office suite.

The load times are just an example of how heavy and bloated Office for Mac is compared to the Windows version. The Mac Office applications use far more memory and resources than Office for Windows. While virtually any Windows PC can run Office seamlessly, I would need a minimally powerful Mac to do the same. For instance, I still have a 2008 white MacBook, which can run Office for Windows just fine on Bootcamp, but which, for many years now, has a very hard time running Office for Mac.

Office for Windows and Mac are not equivalent in terms of features. Most of the features are there, but the Windows version has some additional ones that are still not present in the Mac version. And there are apps that are only available in the Windows version such as Access, Publisher, or Visio. The version of Office for iPad, Android, and the web is, as you mentioned, a set of stripped-down applications that fall short of both the Windows and Mac versions.

Microsoft keeps improving Office for Mac over the years and I hope one day there is feature parity, as you also mentioned. However, over a decade is gone now without the two versions being exactly the same, so I am not keeping my hopes that the two sets of applications will be the same any time soon.

 

[mj_]

However, I have not found the same level of comparisons between Word and other Microsoft Office applications running on PCs and Macs. I think this is rather strange, because, as popular as Adobe Photoshop is, Microsoft Office is still the most widely used suite of applications in the whole world.

I used to do that. Back in the early to mid 2000s when we still had PowerPC Macs. I had an expensive iBook G4 and a dirt cheap and rather old Windows XP PC and guess which one ran Microsoft Office much better than the other? Even back then the two seemingly and allegedly identical software suites were miles apart.

The elephant in the room is that Microsoft Office for Windows is fully-featured, fast, light, and stable, like nothing else available in the Mac environment. It is even more fully-featured than Microsoft Office for Mac, while also being faster and lighter than Apple iWork. And the fact is that not even the shiny new MacBook Pros, in all their glory and power, cannot run this software and have to deal with lesser alternatives, which is a blow to anyone wanting or needing to use office applications in a professional environment.

I 100% agree with you. I believe the reason is that it works well enough for most Mac users, and the heavy lifting is done by power users on Windows machines. I use Excel quite extensively on my Macs and it can be a real sh*tty experience at times but quite frankly it is good enough to keep me from switching back to Windows. And I guess that's the bottom line. Is it a good or even great experience? Most certainly not, every 10-year old Goodwill leftover running Windows 10 will easily outperform a $20,000 Mac Pro or $7,000 MacBook Pro without breaking a sweat when it comes to running Microsoft Office. Is it good enough? Barely so.

Plus, most home users will do just fine with Pages and Numbers as it does 95% of what people do with their word processing or spreadsheet applications anyway. I remember writing semi-short papers at university using Pages because Word performed so poorly but ultimately bought a Dell Vostro laptop for my master's thesis to run Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 because Word on Mac simply couldn't handle my requirements back then, which included among others integration with EndNote that was very unreliable and painstakingly slow in Word for Mac.

 

[jlc1978]

The load times are just an example of how heavy and bloated Office for Mac is compared to the Windows version. The Mac Office applications use far more memory and resources than Office for Windows.

WHich really is irrelevant if it does the job. I didn't see any load time numbers, just RAM usage which is necessarily indicative of efficiency.

While virtually any Windows PC can run Office seamlessly, I would need a minimally powerful Mac to do the same. For instance, I still have a 2008 white MacBook, which can run Office for Windows just fine on Bootcamp, but which, for many years now, has a very hard time running Office for Mac.

You're running Win11/Office365 on a 2008 Mac?

Office for Windows and Mac are not equivalent in terms of features. Most of the features are there, but the Windows version has some additional ones that are still not present in the Mac version.

True, but how many people actually need those features? When it comes down to if it does the job that's all that matters, no mater what OS you use.

 

[skaertus]

I used to do that. Back in the early to mid 2000s when we still had PowerPC Macs. I had an expensive iBook G4 and a dirt cheap and rather old Windows XP PC and guess which one ran Microsoft Office much better than the other? Even back then the two seemingly and allegedly identical software suites were miles apart.


I 100% agree with you. I believe the reason is that it works well enough for most Mac users, and the heavy lifting is done by power users on Windows machines. I use Excel quite extensively on my Macs and it can be a real sh*tty experience at times but quite frankly it is good enough to keep me from switching back to Windows. And I guess that's the bottom line. Is it a good or even great experience? Most certainly not, every 10-year old Goodwill leftover running Windows 10 will easily outperform a $20,000 Mac Pro or $7,000 MacBook Pro without breaking a sweat when it comes to running Microsoft Office. Is it good enough? Barely so.

Plus, most home users will do just fine with Pages and Numbers as it does 95% of what people do with their word processing or spreadsheet applications anyway. I remember writing semi-short papers at university using Pages because Word performed so poorly but ultimately bought a Dell Vostro laptop for my master's thesis to run Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 because Word on Mac simply couldn't handle my requirements back then, which included among others integration with EndNote that was very unreliable and painstakingly slow in Word for Mac.

I suppose most Mac users fall into one of the following categories:

1. Home users who think Microsoft Office is boring work software. Most of these users will take no pleasure in using Microsoft Office and avoid it when out of the office. They will use Microsoft Office at work on a Windows PC and only when strictly necessary they will open the Mac version at home. If Microsoft Office is not required for work, they will use iWork for any productivity tasks they need, which tend to be very simple. Kids may even have more fun making their homework in Pages, as it allows easier handling of graphical elements.
2. Creative professionals. These users mostly do not care about Microsoft Office. They will use photo or video or music editing software, or something else instead. Creative writers may even use Scrivener or other writing software to write their own books, as they resemble less an office environment than Microsoft Word.
3. Other non-heavy Office users. These professionals may even use Microsoft Office, but only lightly. The user may be a CEO of a company, an executive, an attorney, a physician, or someone else. But not someone who uses Microsoft Office thoroughly and who relies on it to get the job done every hour of the day. People constantly crunching numbers on Excel or drafting long reports on Word will prefer using a PC instead of a Mac. But people whose work would consist in reviewing a report or answering e-mails now and then may use a Mac without even noticing the difference.

In any case, I do not think the demographics of Mac users include heavy users of office software. Apple may have carefully excluded these guys from its preferred user base (just like it did with gamers), as it knows it cannot deliver what the competition can. Just look at the old "Mac vs. PC" ads to see how office software is pictured as boring PC stuff, while the focus of Macs is on media and exciting stuff. Or just look at current Mac ads to check how Apple emphasizes media creation and consumption and leaves office applications aside, despite the fact that office software is hugely disseminated and used around the world.

 

[jlc1978]

Home users who think Microsoft Office is boring work software.

I would guess most would use Office if it was free as part of a work license, at least from my experience since:

a. the are familar with it
b. it's free
c. they may do some work at home and thus must use Office

Creative professionals. These users mostly do not care about Microsoft Office.

Chances are, IMHO, they may use it simply beacuse it's teh standard and may already have it for work reasons anyway.

People constantly crunching numbers on Excel or drafting long reports on Word will prefer using a PC instead of a Mac.

I think it depends on what they like to use. Both versions work just fine for most use cases with little difference otehr than hot keys I use Office a lot - for presentations, data analysis and dashboarding, as well as writing reports as part of my consulting practice. A PC or a Mac would meet my needs but I prefer the OS X environment so I use a Mac. Many of my colleagues use PCs because that is what tehy have form work and are used to it; so from my anecdotal experience what you used depends on what you are used to and prefer.

YMMV

 

[nothingtoseehere]

What I am saying is that Office for Windows eats Office for Mac for lunch any day. Office for Windows is miles ahead of Office for Mac or iWork. Hands down. No contest.

Any Office application -- be it Word, Excel, or PowerPoint -- will load much faster in an 8th gen Core i5 Windows PC than in an M1 Mac. MUCH faster. I actually tried that. The superiority of Office for Windows over the Mac version is absolutely clear.

For my use case (office, professional, every day), I respectfully disagree. I use Word (and, to a lesser extent, Excel and PowerPoint) on an office PC laptop and, WFH, on a M1 Mac within a BYOD arrangement.

I cannot confirm the terms „miles ahead“, „much faster“, „clear superiority“. It more or less feels the same.

 

[skaertus]

I think it depends on what they like to use. Both versions work just fine for most use cases with little difference otehr than hot keys I use Office a lot - for presentations, data analysis and dashboarding, as well as writing reports as part of my consulting practice. A PC or a Mac would meet my needs but I prefer the OS X environment so I use a Mac. Many of my colleagues use PCs because that is what tehy have form work and are used to it; so from my anecdotal experience what you used depends on what you are used to and prefer.

YMMV

For my use case (office, professional, every day), I respectfully disagree. I use Word (and, to a lesser extent, Excel and PowerPoint) on an office PC laptop and, WFH, on a M1 Mac within a BYOD arrangement.

I cannot confirm the terms „miles ahead“, „much faster“, „clear superiority“. It more or less feels the same.

I suppose use cases may vary. If you do not notice a difference in terms of speed and use of resources, you are either using a very powerful Mac or you are making non-heavy use of Microsoft Office.

I ran into this article according to which it is faster to run Microsoft Office in a Parallels virtual machine (with the additional burden of a second operating system) than natively under macOS: https://thesweetsetup.com/three-rea...rallels-rather-than-through-a-native-mac-app/.

 

[BrownyQ]

I suppose use cases may vary. If you do not notice a difference in terms of speed and use of resources, you are either using a very powerful Mac or you are making non-heavy use of Microsoft Office.

Going by the discussion I've read on this thread, and from the experiences I've personally had across a few different jobs, a good portion of the working populace that makes use of Word or Excel do so at a novice or intermediate level, rarely an expert one.

As such, it makes sense that most people wouldn't really notice a difference between using it on Windows or Mac, outside interface differences. I work on my 2012 MBP, but also have access to a Win10 machine at my job. I don't notice much of a difference myself between the two, but I've also not gone out of my way to look for a difference, either. At most I'm bothered by the interface differences when I'm looking for something, but it never lasts more than a few seconds.

Suppose your points would hit differently if I was an expert user of the suite like yourself. But as a simple office worker, and even an avid writer/author, I just don't see enough difference between the two for it to be a concern.

 

[skaertus]

Going by the discussion I've read on this thread, and from the experiences I've personally had across a few different jobs, a good portion of the working populace that makes use of Word or Excel do so at a novice or intermediate level, rarely an expert one.

As such, it makes sense that most people wouldn't really notice a difference between using it on Windows or Mac, outside interface differences. I work on my 2012 MBP, but also have access to a Win10 machine at my job. I don't notice much of a difference myself between the two, but I've also not gone out of my way to look for a difference, either. At most I'm bothered by the interface differences when I'm looking for something, but it never lasts more than a few seconds.

Suppose your points would hit differently if I was an expert user of the suite like yourself. But as a simple office worker, and even an avid writer/author, I just don't see enough difference between the two for it to be a concern.

I suppose user cases will vary. Many users will not notice much of a difference as they make only casual use of Office.

One difference that strikes me, though, is how much heavier Mac Office is to run compared to its Windows counterpart. I have several anecdotal examples of this. A Samsung Flash F30 laptop, which I once bought, equipped with an Intel Celeron N4000 processor, ran all Microsoft Office apps effortlessly. I once tried to edit a PowerPoint presentation in an old white MacBook of mine, and I had to use Bootcamp as the Mac version of Office was being impossibly slow for the task. I can even notice the difference when running Office in my current 2016 Core i7 MacBook Pro; the Windows version feels much faster and responsive.

Of course, both Office for Windows and for Mac are very capable suites and able to handle many tasks. However, I cannot stop noticing how much more responsive the Windows version is.

 

[mk313]

I suppose user cases will vary. Many users will not notice much of a difference as they make only casual use of Office.

One difference that strikes me, though, is how much heavier Mac Office is to run compared to its Windows counterpart. I have several anecdotal examples of this. A Samsung Flash F30 laptop, which I once bought, equipped with an Intel Celeron N4000 processor, ran all Microsoft Office apps effortlessly. I once tried to edit a PowerPoint presentation in an old white MacBook of mine, and I had to use Bootcamp as the Mac version of Office was being impossibly slow for the task. I can even notice the difference when running Office in my current 2016 Core i7 MacBook Pro; the Windows version feels much faster and responsive.

Of course, both Office for Windows and for Mac are very capable suites and able to handle many tasks. However, I cannot stop noticing how much more responsive the Windows version is.

While I have no argument against the Windows version of Office being better than the Mac version, I think your thinking on why Mac users don't seem upset about it misses some key points.

Most people don't compare software on multiple OS's to see which one runs faster. They settle on a computer & then buy software that fits their needs. While Office for Windows might be 10% (or 50%) faster, the Mac version works fine for their needs and they don't think their current software is deficient.

Also, there is the fact that speeds are relative. I'm working on a 2017 MacBook 12". It works great for my needs and is super compact to boot. Several others on this forum have moved on the from 12" to the new M1 MacBooks & reported huge speed increases. While it's obviously true, without that reference point, my MacBook seems fast to me & I'm satisfied with the speed of use (combined with the portability). I suspect that most users are in that demographic where what they are using (nowadays at least, maybe not 20 years ago) is fast enough that it's not a huge concern.

And maybe Office for Mac is bloated, but most modern Macs can handle it pretty well. Sure there may be an occasional slowdown but it's not like it's barely grinding along every day. While you mentioned that you had issues trying to edit a PPT on an old white MacBook, that's got to be 10 years old or older. Newer Macs are plenty fast for most uses.

Also, I think that the casual use of office apps is a misnomer. Sure they might not use some specific feature that is built in to Word, or might not write 1,000 page books in it, but lot of people use Office to make a living every day. I use it on my work provided laptop, but could easily use the Mac version (with the obvious caveat about VBA in Excel) if they let us. I don't consider myself a casual user at all.

 

[MikeDr206]

Also, there is the fact that speeds are relative. I'm working on a 2017 MacBook 12". It works great for my needs and is super compact to boot. Several others on this forum have moved on the from 12" to the new M1 MacBooks & reported huge speed increases. While it's obviously true, without that reference point, my MacBook seems fast to me & I'm satisfied with the speed of use (combined with the portability). I suspect that most users are in that demographic where what they are using (nowadays at least, maybe not 20 years ago) is fast enough that it's not a huge concern.

And maybe Office for Mac is bloated, but most modern Macs can handle it pretty well. Sure there may be an occasional slowdown but it's not like it's barely grinding along every day. While you mentioned that you had issues trying to edit a PPT on an old white MacBook, that's got to be 10 years old or older. Newer Macs are plenty fast for most uses.

Also, I think that the casual use of office apps is a misnomer. Sure they might not use some specific feature that is built in to Word, or might not write 1,000 page books in it, but lot of people use Office to make a living every day. I use it on my work provided laptop, but could easily use the Mac version (with the obvious caveat about VBA in Excel) if they let us. I don't consider myself a casual user at all.

when traveling, as I am now, I work off a 12 inch MacBook as well. I have no issues with Word. While there are many features I don’t use, the ones I do use are unavailable on other platforms, get messed up when opened with Libreoffice I’ve found, etc.

I’ve also been pleasantly surprised that Word is completely controllable with AppleScript, which allows me to integrate it into my workflow quite nicely. Now only if Adobe would listen on this front…

 

[skaertus]

While I have no argument against the Windows version of Office being better than the Mac version, I think your thinking on why Mac users don't seem upset about it misses some key points.

Most people don't compare software on multiple OS's to see which one runs faster. They settle on a computer & then buy software that fits their needs. While Office for Windows might be 10% (or 50%) faster, the Mac version works fine for their needs and they don't think their current software is deficient.

Also, there is the fact that speeds are relative. I'm working on a 2017 MacBook 12". It works great for my needs and is super compact to boot. Several others on this forum have moved on the from 12" to the new M1 MacBooks & reported huge speed increases. While it's obviously true, without that reference point, my MacBook seems fast to me & I'm satisfied with the speed of use (combined with the portability). I suspect that most users are in that demographic where what they are using (nowadays at least, maybe not 20 years ago) is fast enough that it's not a huge concern.

And maybe Office for Mac is bloated, but most modern Macs can handle it pretty well. Sure there may be an occasional slowdown but it's not like it's barely grinding along every day. While you mentioned that you had issues trying to edit a PPT on an old white MacBook, that's got to be 10 years old or older. Newer Macs are plenty fast for most uses.

Also, I think that the casual use of office apps is a misnomer. Sure they might not use some specific feature that is built in to Word, or might not write 1,000 page books in it, but lot of people use Office to make a living every day. I use it on my work provided laptop, but could easily use the Mac version (with the obvious caveat about VBA in Excel) if they let us. I don't consider myself a casual user at all.

Yes, I suppose you are right. Office for Mac is bloated, but it is usable and meets user expectations. I also suppose the vast majority of Mac users do not use Office to the extreme of its capabilities or simply do not care enough about the differences.

when traveling, as I am now, I work off a 12 inch MacBook as well. I have no issues with Word. While there are many features I don’t use, the ones I do use are unavailable on other platforms, get messed up when opened with Libreoffice I’ve found, etc.

I’ve also been pleasantly surprised that Word is completely controllable with AppleScript, which allows me to integrate it into my workflow quite nicely. Now only if Adobe would listen on this front…

OK. The experience may vary. I have nearly no issues with Word for Mac either (running on a Core i7 13-inch MacBook Pro). However, despite not having issues, I feel that the Windows version is much faster and smoother when I run it on Bootcamp.

If Office for Windows did not exist, I would not care. But, as I have been a Windows user for the most part of my life, I simply cannot stop noticing how much slower and sluggish the Mac version is (and keeps being no matter how the interface evolves).

There is one particular issue that bothers me on Word. When using Zotero with many citations, it may get terribly slow, to the point that using the Windows version instead becomes a no-brainer.

 

[jlc1978]

I ran into this article according to which it is faster to run Microsoft Office in a Parallels virtual machine (with the additional burden of a second operating system) than natively under macOS: https://thesweetsetup.com/three-rea...rallels-rather-than-through-a-native-mac-app/.

Interestingly, in that article the speed differences are all subjective, using terms such as “while native macOS Excel feels a smidge slower. If you only tinker with Excel and Word from time to time, the speed difference may not make much difference. If you’re a power user, I imagine the speed differences are instantly — and frustratingly — recognizable.”

The author goes on to say Mac Office bounces 5 - 6 times on load. IIRC, Windows does not bounce so times would be needed to ensure it’s not simply the lack of visual feedback that makes it seem faster. For example, if you delay teh appearance for a progress bar by a few seconds an app may seem to be loading faster when compared to one that shows actual progress.

As an engineer, in the absence of any hard data it is hard to draw accurate conclusions on relative speed.

Is WinOffice365 faster? Maybe? Does it matter for most users? Probably not.

Much the authors reasoning is around look and feel differences, a valid argument for a choice as one can prefer one over the other.

 

[skaertus]

Interestingly, in that article the speed differences are all subjective, using terms such as “while native macOS Excel feels a smidge slower. If you only tinker with Excel and Word from time to time, the speed difference may not make much difference. If you’re a power user, I imagine the speed differences are instantly — and frustratingly — recognizable.”

The author goes on to say Mac Office bounces 5 - 6 times on load. IIRC, Windows does not bounce so times would be needed to ensure it’s not simply the lack of visual feedback that makes it seem faster. For example, if you delay teh appearance for a progress bar by a few seconds an app may seem to be loading faster when compared to one that shows actual progress.

As an engineer, in the absence of any hard data it is hard to draw accurate conclusions on relative speed.

Is WinOffice365 faster? Maybe? Does it matter for most users? Probably not.

Much the authors reasoning is around look and feel differences, a valid argument for a choice as one can prefer one over the other.

I can understand your skepticism, but the review is not entirely subjective, despite the lack of hard data. There is definitely an objective factor there.

It is not, as you say, that one may prefer one over the other. I have heard many people mention that Office for Windows is far better than Office for Mac. I have read reviews mentioning that as well. I have never, even once, read or heard anyone mention that Office for Mac is better than Office for Windows. If you want hard data, just collect all the reviews and comparisons that prefer Office for Windows over Office for Mac and vice-versa.

Plus, look at the chart I made on top of this thread (the first post). I opened several files on Microsoft Word for Windows and for Mac, and on other word processors as well. Word for Windows uses far less memory than Word for Mac. I followed the same method in opening all the files in all software listed. You may replicate this at home and I doubt your conclusions will be much different.

Even in the absence of hard data (which exists or can be created), it is not that the analysis is entirely subjective. Even subjective arguments have some degree of objectivity, even when they cannot be measured by numbers. And the objective conclusion is that Office for Windows is better than Office for Mac.