Please help! Question re: MS Office for Mac (2011 and 2016 editions)

[Tiskers]

Hi, I have MS Office on my work PC and had MS Office 2011 for Mac on my home Mac.

Well, I read that High Sierra will not support MS Office for Mac 2011. For $9.99 I could buy MS Office for Mac 2016 edition from work, and I did that. I downloaded it yesterday in anticipation of High Sierra this week.

Well, it looks like it is working fine... but I am confused. Does the 2016 edition overwrite the previous 2011 editions? I am assuming so... because all my files seem to be intact and I can't seem to find the old 2011 editions anywhere on my Mac. But granted, I may not know where to look!

Can someone please advise me? Also, is there anything else I should do or am I just "good to go" as is?

I would like to have this figured out before I download High Sierra.

THANK YOU!

Lynn

 

[Uplift]

If they share the same name (I think they do) then yes they'll likely be overwritten.

Mac apps are generally just a single file.

 

[Tiskers]

If they share the same name (I think they do) then yes they'll likely be overwritten.

Mac apps are generally just a single file.

THANK YOU so much for the reply. Is there a way to double check that? (Yes, I am apparently 'toooopid!!! LOL!!!)

 

[chscag]

No, Mac Office 2016 does not overwrite Office 2011. Both can co-exist on your hard drive. The reason you can't deploy 2011 any longer is that Office 2016 has become the default and will open for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

By the way, Office 2011 works just fine with High Sierra. Microsoft has stopped issuing updates and security patches for Office 2011, but it still works OK. Until Apple no longer allows 32 bit apps with the next version of macOS (after High Sierra) you can continue to use Office 2011.

Don't fall for Microsoft propaganda, they just want you to buy Office 2016 which apparently you did.

 

[Tiskers]

No, Mac Office 2016 does not overwrite Office 2011. Both can co-exist on your hard drive. The reason you can't deploy 2011 any longer is that Office 2016 has become the default and will open for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

By the way, Office 2011 works just fine with High Sierra. Microsoft has stopped issuing updates and security patches for Office 2011, but it still works OK. Until Apple no longer allows 32 bit apps with the next version of macOS (after High Sierra) you can continue to use Office 2011.

Don't fall for Microsoft propaganda, they just want you to buy Office 2016 which apparently you did.

THANKS for the reply. Well, I only paid 10 bucks, so at least I didn't get tooooo snookered!

So should I uninstall 2011? And off so, can you please tell me how? And what will that do to my files/documents/etc?

Thank you for your patience. I'm so sorry for such newbie-type questions!!!

 

[chscag]

How to completely remove Office 2011 Just follow those instructions from Microsoft. Note... the removal of Office 2011 will not impact your installation of Office 2016.

 

[Tiskers]

How to completely remove Office 2011 Just follow those instructions from Microsoft. Note... the removal of Office 2011 will not impact your installation of Office 2016.

Thank you so much for the link. It looks very complicated to me, though! I found the MS 2011 application in Finder... can I not just delete it from there and empty the trash?

I am so sorry for so many questions!

 

[chscag]

Thank you so much for the link. It looks very complicated to me, though! I found the MS 2011 application in Finder... can I not just delete it from there and empty the trash?

I am so sorry for so many questions!

Yes, completely removing Office 2011 is somewhat complicated. However, just dragging the Office 2011 apps to the trash does not get rid of all the Microsoft stuff that's been installed. The Office 2011 applications themselves do not take up that much space so it may be best to just leave well enough alone. As long as you're not running out of space on your hard drive you should be OK. As stated above, both versions of Office can co-exist together and not interfere. All your documents, and personal templates will not be touched regardless of what you decide.

 

[EugW]

There is a program called Remove2011. It is not a Microsoft program AFAIK but MS itself links to it in one of its support pages on removing Office 2011.

BTW right I have both 2011 and 2016 but I’m not sure of the advantage to keeping 2011. Why are people keeping dual versions of Office?

 

[-Ryan-]

There is a program called Remove2011. It is not a Microsoft program AFAIK but MS itself links to it in one of its support pages on removing Office 2011.

BTW right I have both 2011 and 2016 but I’m not sure of the advantage to keeping 2011. Why are people keeping dual versions of Office?

I keep Office 2011 due to a very specific use case where Office 2016 does not work correctly with the "update fields" print option. If that worked 100% of the time in all circumstances in Office 2016 I would delete the previous version.

 

[Tiskers]

Yes, completely removing Office 2011 is somewhat complicated. However, just dragging the Office 2011 apps to the trash does not get rid of all the Microsoft stuff that's been installed. The Office 2011 applications themselves do not take up that much space so it may be best to just leave well enough alone. As long as you're not running out of space on your hard drive you should be OK. As stated above, both versions of Office can co-exist together and not interfere. All your documents, and personal templates will not be touched regardless of what you decide.

Thank you for that info — very helpful! I am nervous about trying to uninstall the 2011 version; it doesn’t seem to be giving me any problems, and I have plenty of room on my HD — so for now anyway, I’m living with both of them! Thanks again for your help.