This week, both Apple and Microsoft separately announced that Microsoft Office is now on the Mac App Store, so macOS users can now access the suite much easier than before. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook have all been added which join OneDrive and OneNote, which have been available for the past few years already.

One catch, which does benefit Microsoft is that these versions will only work if you have an active Office 365 subscription, so if you have already purchased a standalone version – then you will need to download those separately from Microsoft.

These versions also support all the latest macOS Mojave features, such as Dark Mode and Continuity Camera.

What benefits are there?

You might be asking, why would I download Office from the Mac App Store? I can easily download these from Microsoft, as I have been doing. Well, when Microsoft updates the Office apps, it’ll now all through the App Store, which the Mac can schedule updates for out of hours or using Power Nap. If you download Office from Microsoft, it usually comes with a fussy updater tool called Microsoft AutoUpdate – but this should make things a bit neater.

Also, for new Mac users, one more app to download from the Mac App Store should make things a bit simpler – rather than hunting out different sites.

Microsoft and Apple blog posts

Both Microsoft and Apple posted separate blog posts about the launch of Office on the Mac App Store.

“We are excited to welcome Microsoft Office 365 to the all new Mac App Store in macOS Mojave. Apple and Microsoft have worked together to bring great Office productivity to Mac users from the very beginning. Now, with Office 365 on the Mac App Store, it’s easier than ever to get the latest and best version of Office 365 for Mac, iPad and iPhone.”

Phil Schiller – Apples SVP, Worldwide marketing

Office 365

Microsoft offers a one month free trail of Office 365, from then on it is £59.99 per year for one user or £5.99 a month. In the US it is $70 a year for one user. But for that you do get 1TB of OneDrive storage bumped in as well.

Source: Apple & Microsoft