Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Who is using Microsoft software with the M series Macs?
- Thread starter The point and shoot pro
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I use Word and PowerPoint quite a bit. No issues at all. I'm not a big Excel user, so I can't comment beyond noting that basic spreadsheets seem fine. Excel is probably fine for most things, but I think some extensive macros and such might be better on Windows (or so I've read).
I occasionally use OneNote -- used to use it more, but I'm not thrilled with the iPad version of OneNote so I don't use it as much (which is where most of my notes come from). OneNote on the Mac is more similar to the Windows App Store version of OneNote for Windows versus the bigger version that used to come with Office.
No issues with OneDrive.
I occasionally use OneNote -- used to use it more, but I'm not thrilled with the iPad version of OneNote so I don't use it as much (which is where most of my notes come from). OneNote on the Mac is more similar to the Windows App Store version of OneNote for Windows versus the bigger version that used to come with Office.
No issues with OneDrive.
I use Office suite (mainly excel, word and PP), Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, Remote Desktop and Teams.
All work good for me, I have historically had some pretty bad issues with OneDrive (both on intel mac and M1) but nowadays it seems to work properly.
Only one I really can complain about is Teams. Teams has never been a good application no matter if it was on intel or M-series mac nor on Windows PC. So my Teams issues are more down to it being junk software.
All work good for me, I have historically had some pretty bad issues with OneDrive (both on intel mac and M1) but nowadays it seems to work properly.
Only one I really can complain about is Teams. Teams has never been a good application no matter if it was on intel or M-series mac nor on Windows PC. So my Teams issues are more down to it being junk software.
The Office suite is well done on macOS, but it lacks pro features and other apps like 95% of Power Query in Excel, Power BI, the Power Automate app, Access (although it's dying)...
I don't use the Office Suite that much, but when I do, it works fine. There are likely some features missing for advanced power users of the software on the Mac side. That has generally been the case, and I doubt that has changed.
The university switched a couple years ago from a combination of MS and Google services to full MS services. Because of that switch, I've migrated a lot of stuff from Google Drive to OneDrive. OneDrive works very well for me at keeping my documents in sync between my M1 MBP and M1 mini.
I use Teams a good bit for remote lectures, and while I find it to have a confusing as hell UI, it gets the job done for me.
The university switched a couple years ago from a combination of MS and Google services to full MS services. Because of that switch, I've migrated a lot of stuff from Google Drive to OneDrive. OneDrive works very well for me at keeping my documents in sync between my M1 MBP and M1 mini.
I use Teams a good bit for remote lectures, and while I find it to have a confusing as hell UI, it gets the job done for me.
Seems I will be fine. I write scripts, articles and other things using word, so I would be fine with that. I will be starting to use powerpoint more as well for presentation creation but again, that looks to work fine as well! I am done with not having everything working in sync natively. I have an iPad and iPhone but use windows systems.
The only M$ app I use is their native Remote Desktop client for iOS/macOS. The price is exactly right.
macOS comes with its own free office suite and there are open source alternatives that will read/write to M$ file formats, e.g. LibreOffice. Unless of course you enjoy paying a recurring extortion fee for something that can be had for free.
macOS comes with its own free office suite and there are open source alternatives that will read/write to M$ file formats, e.g. LibreOffice. Unless of course you enjoy paying a recurring extortion fee for something that can be had for free.
Last edited:
I find the macOS version of office is inferior to that of windows. I find on the Mac Word and Excel display text so small that you have to increase the magnification. General usage and performance is such that I find Office to be much more responsive on PCs
OneDrive has given me so much headaches on, that I don't even have that installed.
Thanks. I was just all excited about maybe going to the store today and buying a base model to try out! ha ha!
Definitely check it since only you can decide if a Mac is a good fit for your needs
I used to prefer Office on Windows, but Microsoft has tuned it up enough in recent years I actually prefer the Mac one now. Agree about the text size, though -- first thing I do is zoom in!
Office works great on M1 and M2. No noticeable bugs or performance problems.
You're going to be over the moon: even on a base m1 macBook Air the Microsoft Office products are fast, responsive, and super stable.
OP I don't know how hardcore of an Excel user you are -- but the Mac version does NOT allow for keyboard navigation (i.e. on Windows I don't even use a Mouse when I am working in Excel, but on Mac it's not possible).
Other than that, I use: Excel, Word, PPT, and some light Visio and they get the job done (minus the non keyboard annoyance on Excel).
Other than that, I use: Excel, Word, PPT, and some light Visio and they get the job done (minus the non keyboard annoyance on Excel).
I use excel with keyboard navigation on a Mac and really see major differences in capability.
One thing is that some commands have different key combinations.
Some stuff that would be for example ctrl+b on Windows is cmd+b on mac and a different command is bound to ctrl+b on mac (that in turn has a different key-bind in windows).
Also F-key commands you need to either press fn+F-key unless you change the basic setting etc.
With all that said most stuff, that I use, are the same.
Just to clarify: Alt-key commands don't exist on Mac Excel, they are not supported -- You are talking about basic shortcuts.
It works fine. I’m just not a fan of MS apps, but I’m required to use them for work. Just know that iCloud (or Google services) integration in Office 365 is a joke. I have to use two calendar apps side by side to synchronize.
I use them for both work and home. For work, it's more serious - lots of Powerpoint, some Excel and Word.
I have M1 Pro in my work 14" MacBook Pro. I really can't recall a time I got a beachball or hang up. This used to happen all the time with my Intel-based MacBook Pros.
I don't know if it's the improvement with the Microsoft apps, or M1. Either way, I would not want to go back to Intel for the Microsoft suite.
I have M1 Pro in my work 14" MacBook Pro. I really can't recall a time I got a beachball or hang up. This used to happen all the time with my Intel-based MacBook Pros.
I don't know if it's the improvement with the Microsoft apps, or M1. Either way, I would not want to go back to Intel for the Microsoft suite.
Visual Studio Code is pretty solid, I feel like it works slightly better than its windows counterpart
OK I have to agree I didn't think of that.
I use alt commands for special characters and not that frequent and I will agree that is more cumbersome to run ctrl+cmd+shift and then have to use the mouse.
It is *slightly* inferior to Windows, but I've used it for years with absolutely no trouble. Then again, I do basic stuff.
You can always go the Parallels + Windows 11 + Windows versions of Office if you desire. You have the extra cost of Windows itself and Parallels of course, but it runs buttery smooth on the Mx processors.
I occasionally use Word and excel on my Mac's but just basic stuff. All my automated excel stuff for reporting I do with the Windows version. The Windows version running under Parallels and Windows on Arm actually works pretty well, but maybe a little slower.
I also use Outlook on my mac for email. Not wild about it, but it gets the job done.
I also use Outlook on my mac for email. Not wild about it, but it gets the job done.
Why should it be any different? I have used office 365 for years, it’s been better than ever and lot of excel adding work on office 365 for mac. Few years ago Office experience was very inferior on Macs, most of the gaps are bridged.
Edit: Outside of minor annoyances, like keyboard navigations and commands, Excel has come long way. Office on Mac till few years back was missing analysis tools. It was major pain if I had to do descriptive statistical analysis or do hypothesis testing. Glad MS finally added it to excel.
Edit: Outside of minor annoyances, like keyboard navigations and commands, Excel has come long way. Office on Mac till few years back was missing analysis tools. It was major pain if I had to do descriptive statistical analysis or do hypothesis testing. Glad MS finally added it to excel.
Last edited:
I'm using mostly Word and OneDrive (sometimes Excel) and I find the experience on macOS nicer than on Windows somehow.
In Word, pages are dark when using dark mode, whereas in Windows they are still white. This may be a minor point to some, but I use dark mode a lot and having a blinding white page when writing late at night sucks.
OneDrive integrates very well with Finder - and you don't get the annoying ads about using OneDrive for backups you get on Windows.
In Windows I accidentally once activated backup to OneDrive and it took me the better part of 2 hours to restore everything to the way it was before. Some parts of Windows still seem to think I have it activated but it's no longer automatically sending files to OneDrive - so I guess that's a bug? 🤔
I used to love Outlook, but it seems to have problems with Gmail for me (not showing certain emails; deleting emails from Trash doesn't work at all; sending emails messed up formatting) so I stopped using it.
In Word, pages are dark when using dark mode, whereas in Windows they are still white. This may be a minor point to some, but I use dark mode a lot and having a blinding white page when writing late at night sucks.
OneDrive integrates very well with Finder - and you don't get the annoying ads about using OneDrive for backups you get on Windows.
In Windows I accidentally once activated backup to OneDrive and it took me the better part of 2 hours to restore everything to the way it was before. Some parts of Windows still seem to think I have it activated but it's no longer automatically sending files to OneDrive - so I guess that's a bug? 🤔
I used to love Outlook, but it seems to have problems with Gmail for me (not showing certain emails; deleting emails from Trash doesn't work at all; sending emails messed up formatting) so I stopped using it.