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Office 365 for Mac - confused

J

JonL12345

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 21, 2012
175
23
I have a subscription to Office 365 business, where I have been using the desktop apps on my Windows laptop. Now I want to do the same on my iMac. So I go into my Apps & devices section in My account and click the Install Office button. All looks good until I find it has installed Office 16. WTF? How do I get it to install Office 365 instead? I presume there are Excel 365 desktop versions for Mac, but cannot seem to get this confirmed.

Where am I going wrong?
 
You're not going wrong. Version 16.45 is the latest Mac desktop app version for the Microsoft 365 suite. You can look at Microsoft 365 in the Mac App Store as well and see the current versions for each individual app.
 
As I understand it, Office 365 is the Subscription service and it currently installs Version 16.45, which is the same as Office 2019, but this version is only available as a one time purchase.
 
njvm said:
As I understand it, Office 365 is the Subscription service and it currently installs Version 16.45, which is the same as Office 2019, but this version is only available as a one time purchase.
Click to expand...
The subscription unlocks features in the apps which are not available in the one-time purchase, but the apps themselves are exactly the same.
 
I found the whole thing really confusing. On Windows, do they not just refer to Excel as Excel 365, or have I got that bit wrong? I got a popup saying that Excel 16 was no longer supported and therefore use at own risk etc. Not exactly filling me with confidence!
 
JonL12345 said:
I found the whole thing really confusing. On Windows, do they not just refer to Excel as Excel 365, or have I got that bit wrong? I got a popup saying that Excel 16 was no longer supported and therefore use at own risk etc. Not exactly filling me with confidence!
Click to expand...
You can find out which Windows app version you're using by going to About Excel, etc.

About Office: What version of Office am I using? - Microsoft Support

Learn how to check what version of Office your using. Find your product name and version number of Office apps.
support.microsoft.com support.microsoft.com
 
JonL12345 said:
I found the whole thing really confusing. On Windows, do they not just refer to Excel as Excel 365, or have I got that bit wrong? I got a popup saying that Excel 16 was no longer supported and therefore use at own risk etc. Not exactly filling me with confidence!
Click to expand...
The apps are just called Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. on Windows too, and is also version 16.

I use Office 365 in Windows and Mac as well. As others have said, Office 365 is just the name of the service, not the apps.

P.S. Another way to install the apps is through the Mac App Store, rather than using Microsoft's installer. They are both the same version - 16.45. If installed with Microsoft's installer, the apps will update using Microsoft's update tool. If installed from the App Store, app updates will be done through there.
 
Last edited:
I got them installed now. Thanks to all for clearing up my brain fade.
 
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