In this guide, we will show you how to update Microsoft Office On Mac step-by-step.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Microsoft Office is a bundle of services designed to make tasks easier for you. You can make presentations, documents, spreadsheets, and much more using these applications.
Microsoft releases regular updates for these applications. You must update MS Office because the newer versions come with bug fixes and are more compatible with the latest Mac OS.
Here is how you can update Microsoft Office on Mac.
Update Office From MS Apps
In this method, you will download the updates for MS Office apps individually. Sometimes you can update all programs from one place, but here we will show you how to update each office app separately.
Step 1- Go To Help
Open the Word app and in the top menu, click on “Help”.
Select the last option of “Check for updates” in the drop-down menu.
Step 2- Check For Updates
A Microsoft Autoupdate dialogue box will appear. Here, you can set your preference of whether you want to check for updates manually or automatically (daily, weekly or monthly).
Click on “check for updates” and it will show the updates available for the current version of MS word you have. There will also be a link that will take you to a browser window with detailed information about this update.
Step 3- Install The Update
Select the update and click on install. When the download is finished, the install window will show up. Hit “continue”. It will show you the disk space the update will occupy and the install location, which you can change.
Click “Install”, and fill in your credentials to authorize the installation.
You can only download one update at a time, so if more than one update is available, you will have to go through multiple installation processes.
Update Office Through Mac App Store
Another way of updating the Microsoft Office application is through the app store. Here is the step-by-step process:
Click on the Apple logo in the top-right corner of your screen. In the drop-down menu, select the app store option. Sometimes it shows you the number of updates pending right beside the option.
For those with the latest version of Mac OS, some updates appear in system preferences, but the updates for MS Office apps will be in the app store.
Step 2- Go To Updates
In the app store, click on “updates” in the menu. Here, you will see a bunch of apps that have new updates available.
If you cannot find the apps you are looking for, go to the search bar and type in the name of the app. Click on the app you want to update, and in the top-right corner, you will see the update button.
Step 3- Update Microsoft Office Apps
In the updates menu, you can check what the new update offers by clicking on “more”. A dialogue box will appear with the new features and size of the update.
Click on update to start downloading. A circle will appear and when it completes the rotation, the download will finish. If you start updating multiple apps at once, some will start and others will be in the queue.
It can take a few seconds or minutes, depending on the file size and the speed of your internet. After the update is finished, you can the apps under the “updated recently” heading.
You can also enable the auto-update feature in your app store preferences to automatically install new app updates.
Update Early with Microsoft Insider Program
There are several insider programs for Windows, MS Office, Xbox, etc. Microsoft insider is an exclusive program that gives you access to new updates and features before they are released for everyone.
The feedback you give after testing the features early will also have more impact on the final release.
Here is how you can access the Office insider updates:
1) Open a Microsoft Office app, let’s say Word.
2) Click on “help” and select “check for updates”.
3) Click on “advanced” in the bottom-left corner.
4) Under “update channel”, you can either select “current channel (preview)” or “beta channel”.
- Current Channel (Preview) – With this channel, you will get access to fully-supported latest builds.
- Beta Channel – This will give you early access to the unsupported beta build, which is released more often.
5) Select the channel you prefer and review the License Agreement.
6) If you agree to the information collected when the app is in use, click on “accept”.
7) With insider access, click on “check for updates” and install the early updates, whenever available.
MS 365 Vs Office 2021: What is The Difference?
If you want to download the bundle of MS Office apps, it will be through one of these two options: MS 365 or Office 2021 (the older versions were Office 2016 and 2011).
Let us compare these options based on the following parameters:
Price
With Office 2021, you get lifetime access to office apps by paying a one-time fee. Within Office 2021, there are two categories: “Home and Student”, which costs 150 dollars, and “Home and Business,” which costs 250 dollars and can be used for commercial purposes.
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based bundle. You have to keep paying a monthly or yearly charge to get continued access to MS Office apps.
Number Of Devices
Office 2021 can only be installed on one device. So, if you want to use it on another device, you have to buy it again on that device.
Features
There are no updates in the Office 2021 bundle. You will be stuck with the same version of MS Office apps until you decide to buy another bundle.
With Microsoft 365, you get 1TB storage with the personal plan and 6TB storage with the family plan.
And the best part of Microsoft 365 is that you get access to updates, which offer bug fixes and improvements.
Conclusion
In this article, we showed you how to update Microsoft Office On Mac easily and discussed what is difference between Microsoft 365 and Office 2021.
If you have the MS Office 2021 plan, then there will be no updates to any of the MS Office apps. But if you have a subscription to Microsoft 365, then you should check for new updates regularly.
It is recommended to keep the auto-update enabled. If you encounter any errors with this feature, you can try troubleshooting or contact Microsoft support.
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-Charbel Nemnom-
