Microsoft announced today that it has released new versions of many Microsoft 365 for Mac apps that run natively on new M1-based Macs.
“Now our core flagship Office apps—Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote—will run faster and take full advantage of the performance improvements on new Macs, making you even more productive on the latest MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini,” Microsoft’s Bill Doll announced. “The new Office apps are Universal, so they will continue to run great on Macs with Intel processors. The apps are not only speedy, but they also look fantastic as they have been redesigned to match the new look of macOS Big Sur.”
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Microsoft Teams, meanwhile, is still an Intel-only application on Mac, so it runs under the M1’s Rosetta 2 translation layer. But Microsoft says that it is working on a universal app version of Teams for M1-based Macs and will share more news as work progresses.
In addition to the M1 news, Microsoft also revealed that has created an updated Office Start experience for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote on Mac that incorporates its Fluent UI design system and will ship next month. “Experiences that feel both unmistakably Microsoft 365 and include elements that are native to the look of macOS so they are also unmistakably made for Mac,” Doll says.
Additionally, the new Outlook for Mac will soon support iCloud accounts for the first time, letting customers organize work and personal emails, contacts, and calendars together in one app. This feature will arrive “in the coming weeks,” Microsoft says.
Finally, Microsoft is also bringing Tell Me, a feature in the Windows and Web versions of Office, to the Mac.
“Tell Me is a search box that quickly gets you to the Office tools you need or actions you want to take by just typing what you are looking for in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote for Mac,” Doll explains. “Microsoft Search in the new Outlook for Mac allows you to type out your query or question using [the] language you use every day to find emails, events, and files—no fancy syntax needed.”
dftf
<p>Any news on when Microsoft will drop support for Access, Project, Publisher and Visio, given these are all only available on Windows (no macOS, Android or iOS ports; nor do Web App versions exist, beyond just previewers — you can't edit them in a browser, though) and none of them have been mentioned as having a future ARM port made for Windows on ARM.</p><p><br></p><p>So… surely they're all just on life-support now?</p>
dftf
<blockquote><em><a href="#600138">In reply to bluvg:</a></em></blockquote><p>Given all Visio essentially does is provide a list of shapes or vector icons, which you can then drag into place and then connect lines between set points, there is really no reason why this couldn't just become a Web App.</p><p><br></p><p>Publisher hasn't really had any new features since the 2013 release, though even in that one, it was mostly just easier image-swapping and some new text-effects. 2010 was the last version where it saw significant new features added (and where it adopted the Ribbon UI).</p>
dftf
<blockquote><em><a href="#600151">In reply to CasualAdventurer:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yeah, merging Project into something like Teams would make-sense.</p><p><br></p><p>Visio could just become a web-app, as surely it can't be too-difficult to replicate the functionality of essentially dragging shapes onto a workspace and linking them together.</p><p><br></p><p>Publisher it is a real shame they do nothing with, as when layout is more-important it's way-better than Word. It really should have always been included in the "Home" editions of Office to help it gain popularity: and given some of the default templates it offers, such as "calendars", "certificates of achievement", "greetings cards" and "celebration invitations and banners" it does feel like it was targeted that way.</p><p><br></p><p>Sadly thesedays you can only create Publications in RGB mode (colour-separations, spot-colours and CMYK modes were removed in the 2013 version) and it can only save to a closed-spec .pub binary format, making third-party import (e.g. Scribus or LibreOffice Draw) tricky.</p><p><br></p><p>Kind of odd they don't just add a "Publication mode" into Word where it defaults to all shapes and text-boxes being set to "in front of text" and "does not move or resize with text", shove in some other features (such as linking text-boxes together) and then discontinue it…</p>
dftf
<blockquote><em><a href="#600187">In reply to red.radar:</a></em></blockquote><p>Project and Visio have both never been considered core members of the Microsoft Office family; they were always separate purchases. ("Visio Viewer" would be something you could install just to open and print Visio files, included on the setup CDs, and was also a free download from Microsoft's site).</p><p><br></p><p>Even now, in the Microsoft365 plans world, I still think Project and Visio are separate and there is no plan which includes them (though thesedays the "Personal" plan does include Access and Publisher for Home users, whereas the old "Home" or "Family" editions never used to)</p>
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<blockquote><em><a href="#600222">In reply to Winner:</a></em></blockquote><p>This complaint comes-up a lot, but where in the main interface are you regularly seeing Windows 95 era 4-bit (16 colour) icons?</p><p><br></p><p>The only places I can find them are generally obscure places most users will never see:</p><p><br></p><p>Internet Explorer settings (IE no-longer supported):</p><p>IE settings > Security tab > click a zone > [Custom Level…] button > ".NET Framework-reliant components" heading</p><p><br></p><p>Phone and Modem settings (most users will use Wi-Fi or LAN thesedays):</p><p>Control Panel > Phone and Modem > Edit Location</p><p>Control Panel > Phone and Modem > Edit Location > Calling Card > [Edit]</p><p><br></p><p>MIDI library information</p><p>Control Panel > Sound > right-click a sound-device > About Software MIDI Synthesiser</p><p><br></p><p>Speech Recognition settings</p><p>Control Panel > Speech Recognition > Advanced speech options</p><p>Control Panel > Speech Recognition > Text-to-Speech</p><p>Control Panel > Speech Recognition > Text-to-Speech > [Advanced…]</p><p><br></p><p>Old OLE insert dialog</p><p>WordPad > Insert object</p><p><br></p><p>Some sections in the "Fax and Scan" app (most users won't send or receive faxes thesedays)</p><p>Windows Fax and Scan > main UI still features a Vista-style toolbar</p><p>Windows Fax and Scan > Tools > Cover Pages… > New (one area that literally does have a Windows 95 UI)</p><p><br></p><p>But outside of those, even within the Administrative Tools MMC consoles, it's rare to find an icon older than Vista era.</p><p><br></p><p>So… where are you finding these icons within the UI yourself on such a regular basis that it bothers you?</p>