We’ve talked before about font embedding in documents – or rather the lack of it in Word for Mac. They are complaints that Microsoft does hear with convenient selective deafness. We regularly hear complaints about Word for Mac documents that look wrong when opened in Word for Windows. There’s one missing part of Office 2016 for Mac that makes document compatibility very difficult.

Over the years ’round tripping’ has gradually become more reliable. Like many Microsoft promises, ’round tripping’ was dynamite in demos but less than perfect in the real world. Microsoft calls this ’round tripping’ of Office documents. If the program strikes something it can’t deal with (like the Equation Editor) then it should ignore that part but still save it back to the edited document. Office 2016 for Mac is almost fully document compatible with Office for Windows and other Office apps.įor many common purposes, you can open an Office document, worksheet or presentation in any Microsoft Office program. There’s a Developer Tab and tools for Word and Excel. The Design tab, familiar to users of Word 2013 for Windows is now available for Mac users: Note that the top buttons (File, Save, Undo, Redo) aren’t customizable like the Office for Windows equivalent ‘Quick Access Toolbar’.

Here’s a look at some of the ribbons in Office 2016 for mac … a more detailed view than Microsoft is providing. There’s always the option to include other cloud storage options by installing the sync software separately then opening documents from the synced copy. Then choose OneDrive or OneDrive for Business. To enable an OneDrive connection, click on the ‘File’ button on the top row.Ĭlick on your account icon at the top of the File menu, then the plus sign next to ‘Connected Services’. No surprise that there’s direct connections to OneDrive and OneDrive for Business accounts, but disappointingly not Dropbox or Box. There’s no way to add more buttons or menus. Unlike the Office for Windows QAT, the Mac equivalent isn’t configurable at all. You might think those buttons above the tabs are a QAT.

There is no Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) in Office 2016 for Mac. There are left/right buttons to scroll through the styles plus a down arrow to display a full list. The Styles gallery is a little different in Word 2016 for Mac. The Word Home ribbon looks much the same in Word 2016 for Windows (top) and Word 2016 for Mac (bottom) If you’re thinking of switching to a Mac computer, you can simply download and install Office for Mac without paying more.

One advantage of the Office 365 subscription/rental is that you can switch between Windows and Mac without cost. Stand-alone, single purchase Office 2016 for Mac will be available in September. There’s a 1.1GB download, then installation. Office 365 customers (personal, student or organization) can go to their My Account page, choose Office 2016 for Mac. That’s a nuisance because, until now, we’ve been able to tell Mac and Windows versions of Office apart simply by the ‘year’ – for example Office 2011 always meant the Mac version because there was no ‘2011’ Office for Windows. One for Mac and the upcoming Office 2016 for Windows.

Word 2016 quick guide for mac