Why do some continue using Microsoft Office on Mac?

[adrianlondon]

For simple documents just for my own use: Pages and Numbers. For anything which will be shared or sent to someone else: Word and Excel.

Luckily, I don't need to use Powerpoint or Keynote for anything

 

[Benz63amg]

So if I was to not install the auto updater when doing a custom install of MS Office 2019 then I won’t have any MS Office process running in the background when not in use?

 

[Benz63amg]

No none of these apps should run anything significant in the background when closed. The auto updater may run some background tasks but this will not have any noticeable impact on RAM or other resources.

So if I was to not install the auto updater when doing a custom install of MS Office 2019 then I won’t have any MS Office processes running in the background when office 2019 is not in use? Perhaps I should not install Outlook, One Note and One drive as well as these may have processes running in the background as well?

 

[jeyf]

typical work place supplies a computer grattus
and
the keyboard works

 

[mr.bee]

if you take the opportunity to learn to work with Apple's production apps then you'll notice
* functionality wise they'll cover 99% of most business needs
* they are easy to use and integrate very well with other Mac functionalities (hand over...)
* they are 'free'
* they are best in industry/business

However, Apple doesn't cover the following functionalities vs Ms office
* Sharepoint integration/Sharepoint alternatives
* power bi (there's Tableau but even that does not accept number files)
* advanced excel functionalities (Visual Basic, database connections,...)
* some advanced Word functionalities
* ERP integration (Office and Dynamics D365, SAP,..)
* other industry leading software integration
* add-in functionalities

So I prefer the Apple apps more than I prefer MS office, but as long as they are only better functionality per functionality but not as an integrated app in a process flow, MS will win this for most companies.

keynote is the app that people love the most as it requires the least integration with other apps, and thus shines the most, numbers is on the other side and is used the least as Ms Excel shines through being an industry standard offering high integration, connectivity and synergy.

 

[James_C]

So if I was to not install the auto updater when doing a custom install of MS Office 2019 then I won’t have any MS Office processes running in the background when office 2019 is not in use? Perhaps I should not install Outlook, One Note and One drive as well as these may have processes running in the background as well?

Outlook and OneNote will only run in the background if you open them. However only install them if you think you may use them. I suspect that you will not be given the choice to install the auto updater or not, but I would not worry about it’s impact as you will not notice it, I would install it anyway. One Drive will run in the background, so only install it if you need to use it.

 

[Phil77354]

I have always continued to use Office applications (Excel, Word) on my home Mac, primarily because of familiarity since my work is all Windows based, and to allow sharing of files from home to office. I've never made any real effort to use the Mac equivalents and have not really had any strong reason to do so.

Years ago, the Office product versions for the Mac were not fully equivalent to their Windows versions, sharing files was less straightforward, and so forth. But those issues all seem to have been solved, and as far as I know you can move from the Mac to Windows environment, and vice versa, completely trouble-free.

 

[jamietshaw]

I hate a lot about MS Office – the clunky ways in which some things are done because they haven't changed since 1993, the way PowerPoint makes all images slightly blurry and the way Word has a mind of its own (try getting a table to align with the left margin and stay there!) – but compared with the others it is still the most powerful. LibreOffice copies everything from MS including all the bad parts, adds a few bits of its own including bugs and ugliness. I generally like Apple’s products but you do have to accept that some tasks are achieved in a different way and actually, that way is better once you’re used to it (though not always). I do use Keynote/Numbers/Pages but only when my needs aren’t too complex and I don't need to share the file with someone else. (My needs are never so simple that GoogleDocs suffices though. It’s SO basic.)

 

[ignatius345]

Because others use it.

I have occasion to build PowerPoint decks, and I can't really do that by exporting a version from Keynote, as much as I'd like to. The translation just isn't there. Mac users in other collaboration type scenarios probably have to do the same with Word and Excel.

To be fair, I do believe Excel is the one in that main trio (Powerpoint, Excel, Word) that has a deep deep set of power features that its iWork equivalent Numbers can't touch.

 

[ignatius345]

Apple's iWork apps are "good enough" for maybe 75% of generic consumer usage for 75% of their usage cases. At a certain point, these iWork apps simply fall short.

Don't tar them all with the same brush.

I've used Keynote and PowerPoint a lot in professional design settings and PowerPoint doesn't come close to the smoothness of sophistication that Keynote brings. PPT has gotten better in recent years but Keynote is just gorgeous and works incredibly well with professional design applications. (For example, you can paste vector graphics directly from Illustrator, which is a massive time saver versus exporting everything to PNG or whatever as you must do in PowerPoint.) And the animations in PPT, while they've gotten better, still look pretty primitive compared to Keynote's.

Excel, I can't speak to but from what I've heard you're totally right. I will say Numbers is awesome to work with for a lot of stuff -- but then again I don't (thank god) have to use spreadsheets for hard-core data stuff.

 

[cesarvog]

In my opinion, on the word processing and presentation side of things, being able to share files without the need to "save as..." is the only reason. On the spreadsheet side of things Excel is still the leading software.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Where I work, I have 3 --- work Office 365 subscriptions. Yes, 3. I work with 3 different companies and all 3 give me access to the full Office 365 Business suite.

It has been this way for several years now ... so I'm actually looking at getting rid of my own Office 365 family subscription. lol. My wife has an Office 365 subscription through her university (PhD program) as well.

Yeah, we use Sharepoint, Teams, etc.

My work has actively encouraged people to use the 365 subscriptions at home for personal use (for Word, Excel, OneNote, etc).


Personally? I use Numbers and Pages on my Mac when I'm doing my personal computing - so that if I want to cancel my Office 365 I can. Also cuz I like using different things to learn how they work.

I do prefer Word/Excel ... a lot more but Numbers/Pages are usable once you take the time to learn to use them.


Nothing beats Sharepoint though - we can have our whole office changing/editing/writing in a single document.

 

[ssmed]

Where I work, I have 3 --- work Office 365 subscriptions.

That's where I think MS office does need to do some work - three or four different teams logins can cause real issues on occasions. For simplicity I have given some work places their own account on the computer (after all I have the licences) and it saves a lot of faff.

 

[BigMcGuire]

That's where I think MS office does need to do some work - three or four different teams logins can cause real issues on occasions. For simplicity I have given some work places their own account on the computer (after all I have the licences) and it saves a lot of faff.

It is a HUGE pain especially if you accept a teams invite when you're logged into the wrong account. LOL.

I have Brave, Safari, and Edge installed to handle the 3 accounts. Word and Excel do a fairly OK job of handling multiple accounts but sometimes Sharepoint goes nuts and requires a full logout/login.

Earlier on this was a nightmare - it still is in a way lol.


Yeah, don't get me started on Teams. LOL. Especially when it comes time to change your password, it goes nuts and doesn't tell you why.

 

[Makosuke]

I'm another one in the "Word for work" category; not really a lot of choice in a cross-platform Word-centric environment. I use Pages for all my personal needs, but for work documents that I need to be as consistent as possible (Word is far from perfect, even between different versions on the same platform) I don't really have a choice but to use Word. Although we've already migrated to Google Docs for probably 80% of the stuff we do, so Word is getting less and less common.

Excel I actually use by choice for personal things, depending on what I'm doing. I really like how "smooth" Numbers feels, and for some things it works significantly better than Excel. But Excel's "infinite canvas" style of spreadsheet is faster and easier to get some things done than Numbers, so I find myself reaching for it probably 80% of the time I need a spreadsheet at home.

I certainly wouldn't pay for Excel if I didn't get it free from my job, though. It's better for some stuff I do at home, but not enough better to be worth giving money to Microsoft.

 

[tyc0746]

if you take the opportunity to learn to work with Apple's production apps then you'll notice
* functionality wise they'll cover 99% of most business needs
* they are easy to use and integrate very well with other Mac functionalities (hand over...)
* they are 'free'
* they are best in industry/business

However, Apple doesn't cover the following functionalities vs Ms office
* Sharepoint integration/Sharepoint alternatives
* power bi (there's Tableau but even that does not accept number files)
* advanced excel functionalities (Visual Basic, database connections,...)
* some advanced Word functionalities
* ERP integration (Office and Dynamics D365, SAP,..)
* other industry leading software integration
* add-in functionalities

So I prefer the Apple apps more than I prefer MS office, but as long as they are only better functionality per functionality but not as an integrated app in a process flow, MS will win this for most companies.

keynote is the app that people love the most as it requires the least integration with other apps, and thus shines the most, numbers is on the other side and is used the least as Ms Excel shines through being an industry standard offering high integration, connectivity and synergy.

I'd like to caveat the 99% claim with the fact that this only applies to Mac business users...who will be about 10% of business users.

If you have to share with users on any other operating system, the the Apple apps are next to useless (for home use they're fine).

I use Office professional on both Mac and Windows (and have been since the early 90s, along with and some of the other options at the time such as Aldus Persuasion, Informix Wings, Lotus Smartsuite, etc.), and I prefer the experience on Windows (quicker/snappier, more features/tools, less WYSIWYG issues).

However, most of these issues/features will not affect 80% of the general MS Office users (PC or Mac).

 

[ssmed]

... less WYSIWYG issues

I have never seen that, but MS Office is definitely faster and more featured on the PC – except for Outlook. The new look for Outlook for Mac (only when using 365 accounts at present in slow insider) is superior for me.

 

[adrianlondon]

Until Outlook can handle multiple identities / aliases, it's not for me unfortunately.

Like quite a few people I suspect, I have my own domain for emails. Let's say "octopus.com". I can receive emails sent to anything @octopus.com and Apple Mail not only automatically replies using that alias (if it's defined as a valid one) but you can pick an alias each time you send an email. Outlook doesn't handle this, despite many threads across many forums from people asking for this functionality for a number of years.

 

[MacBH928]

1-People say iWork suite is not suitable for office/corporate. What does Apple use then to calculate their billions?!

2-Apple is to blame for the extremely niche user base of iWork Suite. They have their own format locked in Apple eco system. This locks Mac users from the outside world. They should create free version on Windows or adapt/make iWork files open standard for everyone to use.

3-Sad to see great software go neglected, office suites are complex programs that I don't imagine many people willing to build and compete against MS Office.

4-Apple is looking to expand their money source, maybe develop the iWork Suite to be an MS Office competitor. Free for home users and paid for businesses. This will also break MS monopoly clutch on business/organizations world wide. Options are good.

 

[ssmed]

1-People say iWork suite is not suitable for office/corporate. What does Apple use then to calculate their billions?!

2-Apple is to blame for the extremely niche user base of iWork Suite. They have their own format locked in Apple eco system. This locks Mac users from the outside world. They should create free version on Windows or adapt/make iWork files open standard for everyone to use.

3-Sad to see great software go neglected, office suites are complex programs that I don't imagine many people willing to build and compete against MS Office.

4-Apple is looking to expand their money source, maybe develop the iWork Suite to be an MS Office competitor. Free for home users and paid for businesses. This will also break MS monopoly clutch on business/organizations world wide. Options are good.

Apple have a long history of not liking its own software. Clarisworks in its day was good, Aperture was good etc. Even of people loved the previous iWork iterations, a few years ago this had a lot of functionality pulled out of it, to only be slowly built back up over time. It is not just about format.

I bet you there are a few copies of Excel at Apple!

 

[MacBH928]

Apple have a long history of not liking its own software. Clarisworks in its day was good, Aperture was good etc. Even of people loved the previous iWork iterations, a few years ago this had a lot of functionality pulled out of it, to only be slowly built back up over time. It is not just about format.

I bet you there are a few copies of Excel at Apple!

Sad since Apple really is a software company, as the hardware side of things can be mimicked by anyone. Apple was the best software for form+function. Stuff like iSuite, iTunes, iDVD, Safari, and OS 9/X not only made software accessible to common people but actually a pleasurable experience to use.

 

[skaertus]

1-People say iWork suite is not suitable for office/corporate. What does Apple use then to calculate their billions?!

This is an interesting question, you know? I have asked this question myself a couple of times, and I got some different answers. I found this article which provides some insight on what Apple uses, and that would indicate that Microsoft Office is part of what keeps the company running:

Not invented here: Apple's secret applications

Computerworld covers a range of technology topics, with a focus on these core areas of IT: Windows, Mobile, Apple/enterprise, Office and productivity suites, collaboration, web browsers and blockchain, as well as relevant information about companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google.

www.computerworld.com

 

[skaertus]

4-Apple is looking to expand their money source, maybe develop the iWork Suite to be an MS Office competitor. Free for home users and paid for businesses. This will also break MS monopoly clutch on business/organizations world wide. Options are good.

I am not sure where you took this from. Apple has neglected iWork for many years. Pages does not even have cross-references, which is a basic feature for a serious word processor.

I am also not sure how would Apple would gain a significant market share on this front. Microsoft Office can run on every PC, computers which can be far cheaper than a Mac. Many businesses would not even have the budget to buy Macs to run iWork. And why would they?

Microsoft Office is full-featured and fully compatible with documents produced around the world. Switching to an alternative might break this compatibility. LibreOffice/OpenOffice has tried to be compatible with Microsoft Office for years now, but it is still not 100% compatible.

People are already trained on Microsoft Office. Switching to iWork might require additional training, which costs a lot of money.

Companies use add-ons to Microsoft Office software. iWork would not have such add-ons. It would cost money to buy or develop such add-ons for iWork.

Microsoft has a history of reliability. It has released a new version of Office every three years for many years now. Businesses can rely that Microsoft Office will be around for the foreseeable future. Apple is unreliable in respect to iWork. Apple has neglected iWork and even removed features once. And Apple has ceased development on iLife and other software. A serious business would hardly trust Apple to keep delivering updated versions of iWork.

Microsoft Office is part of the core Microsoft business. It is great software that trounces its competitors. Perhaps Microsoft Office is clunky on macOS, but it runs smoothly on Windows, and integrates very well with it. Apple would have to spend many billions to compete with Microsoft Office, and it does not seem to me it would be part of Apple's core strategy right now.

 

[AZhappyjack]

I’m a lifelong MS Office user. Started at work in the PC environment. Still prefer it over Apple’s suite. Pages is too ‘cutesy’ for me. And Numbers is a train wreck IMO.

 

[jeyf]

its only a word processor