Why bother with Office for Mac 'Home and Business'?

Office WatchLast updated: 17 July 2018

Buying Office,Microsoft Office,Office Watch

Why would existing Mac users pay more than they need to for Office 2011?

Sandy J writes:

“For many Macintosh users, I cannot see they would need to pay for the ‘Business’ box of Office 2011. The only important addition is Outlook for Mac which most Mac users don’t need.

Mac users are fairly ‘rusted on’ to Mail, iCal etc which come with their Mac Likely they have seamless links to Mobile Me and their iPhone.

I may get the ‘Home and Student’2011 edition but won’t throw more money at Microsoft for an email/calendar etc program I don’t need. “

Sandy makes a good point. Even if you can make a case for Outlook 2011 being better, there’s the cost, time and trouble of converting.

Another mark against Outlook 2011 has been made forcefully by several Office-Watch readers though in language we can’t repeat here …

While ‘Outlook’ has been around for years in a Windows incarnation, this is the first Macintosh version. Anyone who has used Microsoft products knows to avoid ‘version 1.0’ products from Redmond; with OneNote being the lone exception to the prudent rule.

It has to be said that Office for Mac has always been the poorly resourced cousin of Office for Windows. Just one example is the extended delay before Office for Mac was compatible with Microsoft’s own OpenXML (docx) document formats.

None of the history of Office for Mac or Microsoft bodes well for Outlook 2011 for Mac. But we’ll see, maybe ‘Macintosh Business Unit’ at Microsoft will surprise us.