Compitability of MacOS Monterery with MS office 2016,2019,2021

@ John Galt,

We don't need their bloatware any more.

Truer words were never spoken. There are many free or much cheaper compatible apps out there, so I don't know why people insist on sticking with MS Office (even more confusingly now called Microsoft 365 Copilot).

@ Mac4Vinod,

I'm going to list as many alternatives as I know of. Some have already been given, but I'll list them anyway. None of them provide an email client to replace Outlook.

1. LibreOffice. Does it look like MS Office? No, not really, but it does pretty much everything Office does for free.
2. SoftMaker Office. They offer a couple of options. This link is for the paid perpetual version. They also have what they call the NX version, which is subscription.
3. SoftMaker Office, Free. Same as number two in this list, but free. Main difference is there's no spell check, and it displays ads on the side. But keep an eye on the ads. When I started off with the free version, one of the ads was to get the perpetual paid version for $30. That when it usually cost $89.
4. MS Office online. If you really, really want to stick with MS Office, this version is free. Downside is if you routinely produce complex documents, these won't work for you. They're free because they're pared down, crippled versions.
5. OnlyOffice. Another free alternative. It's relatively new, and a bit buggy at the moment. At least it was when I tested it several months ago.
6. WPS Office. Subscription based. Haven't tried this one myself.

For an Outlook alternative, I use eM Client. Looks and behaves almost identically to Outlook. The free version limits you to having two active email accounts listed in the app. The paid version is unlimited. My main reason for using it? I 100% despise how Apple changed its Mail app to show attachments inline with the body copy.

Microsoft supports the current release of macOS and the previous two releases for installation. Because macOS Monterey is outside of that criterion, you would need at minimum macOS Sonoma (14.*) or later.

If you do not have Apple's applications currently installed on Monterey, you cannot install the current versions from the Mac App Store as they now require macOS Sonoma (14.0) or later. Although there is a means to obtain the versions of these compatible¹ with Monterey, if they were preinstalled by Apple or a third-party, or you never installed them prior to Monterey, then you won't be able to now. Since Apple's applications are not clones of Microsoft applications, there is no guarantee that these applications can open and accurately convert Microsoft documents which may have feature or font incompatibilities.

The free LibreOffice has been under develop by one name or another ever since StarOffice in the 1990s. It has a high degree of MS Office document compatibility since it is a deliberate clone. There is a learning curve somewhat ameliorated by thorough documentation PDFs on their site. The current version of LIbreOffice wants macOS Big Sur (11.0) or later. Be careful to choose the correct download architecture for your Mac.

Softmaker has an Office suite that is a clone of MS Office and related document compatibility. Even the user interface is better than LibreOffice and SoftMaker's Office product is supported on Catalina and later. There is a short free trial, but is a paid application solution either as a single, or subscription purchase.

¹ One can launch the Mac App Store and sign in with the original Apple ID previously used to install Apple's applications. One then presses cmd+0 (zero) to open the past purchases screen, and if there are download indicators adjacent to Apple's Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, one can select these. There will be one or more screens where one does not click Cancel, and then a dialog asking to install the last compatible version of these applications for the current installed operating system. Click OK and it is done.

Microsoft Support – Upgrade macOS to continue receiving Microsoft 365 and Office for Mac updates

"Note: As new major versions of macOS are made generally available, Microsoft will remove support for the oldest major version and support the newest and previous two major versions of macOS."

"Note that new installs of Microsoft 365 for Mac require macOS Sonoma or later."

"Note that new installs of Office 2024 for Mac​​​​​​​ require macOS Ventura or later."

Either of those 3 versions should work on Monterey (2016 must be the 64 bit version though). Do note, however, Microsoft tends to remove activation servers for older Office versions and I believe office 2016 can no longer be directly activated and may require a phone call to Microsoft.

But Office 2019 or 2021 should work and still be possible to activate if you have an installer and a product key for it.

As suggested, LibreOffice may be a better alternative at this point.

When you have decided ChatGPT has wasted enough of your money already, forget about Microsoft. We don't need their bloatware any more.

Either use what you may already have, specifically Apple's Pages / Numbers / Keynote ("may" because you would have needed to obtain them in the past) or the very reasonably priced one time fee LibreOffice.

Pages - App Store

‎Numbers - App Store

‎Keynote - App Store

‎LibreOffice on the Mac App Store

Forget about ChatGPT also. It's a waste of your time (and money). If it's Microsoft assistance you require, then contact Microsoft: Contact a third-party vendor - Apple Support. Good luck with that.

FWIW, LibreOffice is free if you download it from their site.

Thanks, I seem to recall that. Its modest App Store fee merely represents the price of convenience for me.

Microsoft is the antithesis of convenience. Paying to be inconvenienced is the antithesis of my business plan.

I used to use a plain text app in MS-DOS for most of my writing. Somewhere in there, I had an early copy of Word for DOS. WordPerfect was the more popular one of the time, though. Mainly because (for office purposes) if there was a printer out there, that app had a driver for it.

This is beginning to sound like an old Monty Python skit. 😃

But I'll keep the regression going. 😁

You had an electric typewriter! I wish we had one. Ours was a clunky manual typewriter with a worn out ribbon. (Or it was true before my oldest sister bought a fancy schmansy electric typewriter for college.)

John Galt wrote:

Microsoft is the antithesis of convenience. Paying to be inconvenienced is the antithesis of my business plan.

I agree. I have a total of zero Microsoft apps installed on my Macs.

Office 2024 for Mac, according to current Microsoft documents, requires the three most recent versions of macOS. That excludes Ventura.

That was a quote directly from thst Microsoft site, which probably means that their technical writers overlooked and forgot to update that particular statement.

I can remember when the only writing tools I had available were in the AT&T Documenter's Workbench and Microsoft wasn't even a twinkle in Mr. Gates eye yet.

I remember writing book reports in middle school n the late 80's on AppleWorks for the Apple //e.

I can remember when the only writing tools I had were a typewriter and a dictionary.

At least the typewriter was electric.