Take note, Office for Mac users, Office 2011 isn’t supported in macOS High Sierra and Office 2016 looks sketchy, too.
Microsoft posted a support article noting the status of Office for Mac 2011 saying there is no formal High Sierra support, and that no compatibility testing has been done. The article also makes it clear Office 2011 is at its end of life point.
The note states,
All applications in the Office for Mac 2011 suite are reaching end of support on October 10th, 2017. As a reminder, after that date there will be no new security updates, non-security updates, free or paid assisted support options or technical content updates.
Things aren’t as bleak for Office for Mac 2016, although they aren’t promising. Version 15.34 and older aren’t supported in macOS High Sierra, and may not even launch. Updating to version 15.35 will get you up and running—or more accurately, up and limping.
On Office for Mac 2016, Microsoft says,
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote will install and run on 10.13. Not all Office functionality may be available, and you may encounter stability problems where apps unexpectedly quit.
If you rely on Microsoft Office and are planning to upgrade to macOS High Sierra when it comes out later this year, be sure to back up your important files first. Testing for compatibility issues on another Mac before committing yours to High Sierra is a smart move, too.
For now, it looks like holding off on installing macOS High Sierra is prudent if Office for Mac is a critical part of your workflow.
Microsoft do NOT say that Office 2016 won’t be supported on High Sierra. They say:
“During the beta period for macOS 10.13 High Sierra, no formal support is available for this Office configuration.
“We strongly recommend that you back up your existing data before trying the software.
“If you encounter issues using Office 2016 for Mac on High Sierra, please send us feedback so we can address them. In Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, you can click on the Send a Smile icon in the top-right of the app. For Outlook, choose Contact Support from the Help menu.”
This strongly implies that they are working to have it fully supported when High Sierra moves from beta…
This is either a non-story or designed to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt. Microsoft would be mad (given the installed base of Macs in, for example, IBM) not to support High Sierra!
Unless you’re an MS Office power user who can’t live without it, opt for LibreOffice and you’ll be plenty satisfied with it. Of course I use both iWork and LibreOffice depending on what I’m doing and what the end result needs to be and who needs it.
Those who have Office 2016 should run the AutoUpdater manually. When the AutoUpdater needs an update, it seems to not find it if running automatically. Just open any Office app and go to Help->Check for Updates.
You will first update the Microsoft AutoUpdater. When that updates, it will run the new version of AutoUpdater and show you that all of the apps have updates. I am currently downloading Version 15.37 of all Office apps.
The Office 2016 release notes can be found here.
The High Sierra info can be found here.
One thing those running the High Sierra beta can try is the Office Insider program (link on the High Sierra info page, above). The Insider program contains the upcoming fixes to Office. Think of it as Microsoft’s public beta program. According to a friend, it does work under the High Sierra beta without problems. It was last updated last week.