Skip to main content

Microsoft confirms new version of Office for Mac coming this year

office-for-mac-2011

According to a new report from Computerwoche (via Macworld), Microsoft representatives have apparently confirmed that a new version of Office for Mac will arrive this year. The update would be the first major release of Office for Mac since Office Mac 2011 released almost four years ago.

The news apparently came straight from a Microsoft representative at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany who told the publication to expect a new version by the end of 2014 and more news in the second quarter of the year.

Macworld was able to get a comment from Microsoft confirming that development of a new version of Office for Mac is underway. It wouldn’t confirm a specific release date in the statement, but it said Office 365 subscribers will get the update for free:

A representative for Microsoft confirmed that development work for the next version of Office for Mac is ongoing. “The team is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac,” she said in an email. “While I don’t have details to share on timing, when it’s available, Office 365 subscribers will automatically get the next Office for Mac at no additional cost.”

Microsoft has long been rumored to bring a version of Microsoft Office to iOS devices. Recent reports claimed that Office for iPad is under development and coming soon, but the company has never officially confirmed the reports.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. scumbolt2014 - 10 years ago

    So it’ll release december

  2. tilalabubakr - 10 years ago

    using iWork for over a year,
    still missing few functionalities, but it’s ok with me so far….
    actually, all my windows friends envy me cuz my reports look waaaay appealing than their’s :)

    • jrox16 - 10 years ago

      I agree completely… I don’t miss anything in iWork and find Pages an absolute joy to use over Word.

  3. rlowhit - 10 years ago

    Unless it is free it doesnt matter anymore. iWork and Google Apps are very capable alternatives.

  4. Rune Ydstebo - 10 years ago

    Too late, i switched A year ago…… Needed something that worked both iPad and Mac …. Can’t think of one thing I miss… So why pay more?

  5. A little late now Microsoft… I’m so used to Pages and iWork that I don’t miss Word at all and everyone that works/designs graphically around me is already being converted to iWork because of it’s ease of use.

  6. Does anyone care? I don’t :D

  7. oxfdblue (@oxfdblue) - 10 years ago

    I would be happier to see a new version of WordPerfect for the Mac. WP was always light years better than Word.

  8. Don Wise (@doncwise) - 10 years ago

    After having Entourage and Outlook completely screw my email profiles and my Office for Mac software suddenly become a “subscription” service all on its own, I have no desire to use anything from Microsoft beyond what I’m required to use it for at work.

    Their previous versions of Office for Mac were of no use and as noted, the iWork venue works as well if not better in many instances. My reports developed in Numbers and Pages and especially Keynote blow away anything that MS-Office 365 has been able to provide to date. MS-Excel has pivot tables and better text-to-table and data manipulation features, which is about the only thing i would miss.

  9. Scophi - 10 years ago

    I have Office for Mac 2011 installed, but just as a backup in case a document’s formatting goes awry.

    Pages and Keynote are fine, but Numbers still feels a little off. iCloud.com is just too slow for regular use.

    Google Apps is my preferred office suite. It’s more than sufficient, fast, and free.

    • weakguy - 10 years ago

      I also have 2011 installed, but that’s a long story. If you just wanna check the format, you can always use OneDrive, which is really decent IMO.

  10. shareef777 - 10 years ago

    Ugh, last I heard it was supposed to be released some time next month and now it’s some time this year. I’m dying for a new Outlook. Ver2011 is utterly worthless compared to its Windows counterpart. When working in an office environment with Exchange, there really is no good substitute for Outlook.

  11. I ended up subscribing to Office 365 and even as a self-confessed Apple fanboy I think Microsoft have done a good job there. They are giving away lots of free space of OneDrive and it’s simple to save your documents to the cloud or your local machine. Word may not be the world’s best word processor but it is ubiquitous in business and if you want to be sure that your documents are going to come out the same way at the other end you need to use it. I’m looking forward to the new release and seeing the Mac version work as well as the PC one.

  12. Sarath Jaladanki - 10 years ago

    Hi OneNote, can we expect you atleast this time pls ?

  13. g04uld - 10 years ago

    Let’s hope they put a LOT of effort into their lacklustre Outlook app. As a user of this within the corporate environment it drives me absolutely mental. For the past 18 months mac users within our organisation connecting to the exchange server have had continuous problems with connectivity, the inability to send attachments some days, emails you thought that had be sent instead went to drafts. Add to this, type several forms of contractions like “I’ve” and it spits the dummy. Are there app awards equivalent of the Razzies, for this app surely deserves it.

  14. Jeff Kresse - 10 years ago

    If they can only improve one thing, a stable Outlook is what i am hoping for

  15. mcneale2014 - 9 years ago

    2011 is horribly broken under Mavericks with multiple monitors. It grabs focus when switching to other apps. This interrupts workflow enough to switch to alternative products. Yet, it is still useful at times, with better support for reference manager software and the like, which the poor unfortunates still using Windows have to bear. If 2014/5 eliminates this problem it would be worth the upgrade. Otherwise Pages wins. Mac mail beats outlook by a rather large margin, IMO.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.