Office 2016

Two 'Office 2016' stories March 2015 - February 2016

Microsoft looks to be ending its short-lived Office Accreditation Program for Mac

Since 2013, Microsoft has consistently offered something it called its “Accredited Support Professional Program” for iOS and Mac users. Essentially, this program allowed the company to train and accredit Apple techs and consultants on Microsoft Office for Mac and iOS. In the past, the courses have been conducted alongside the MacTech events across various cities and states. This year, however, there’s no sign of Microsoft offering its Accredited Support program, despite the release of Office 2016 for Mac.

Back to the Mac: Microsoft releases redesigned Office for Mac 2016 Preview w/ Retina support, collaboration, more

Before today, the latest versions of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel for OS X came with Office for Mac 2011, a suite of productivity apps which you can tell from the name included dated software without many modern features Mac users expect. Office for Mac 2011 was actually first released in October 2010. A lot has changed since then.

Microsoft moved Office from a paid upgrade approach to a cloud subscription model, saw its CEO Steve Ballmer retire and buy a basketball team, appointed Satya Nadella as head of the company, and even released Office for iPad and iPhone.

For the Mac, though, the most capable versions of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel have only been available as Web apps—not native—until now. As promised, Microsoft is today releasing the public beta of Office for Mac 2016 including all new versions of the company’s go-to productivity apps.
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