Over the past few years, Microsoft has definitely made strides to get the Mac version up to speed with the Windows version. He also included one table of the overall Office differences. He created four charts detailing several versions of Office for Mac and PC for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. If you are interested in the specific variations between Mac and PC on the application level, check out Kurt Schmucker’s article. The “x” lets you know that it is using XML.

You will notice that in the later versions of Office, you have file extensions of. The addition of the Open Office XML formats allows you to go back and forth pretty seamlessly. Open Office XMLĬurrently, the Office products are more compatible across platforms. If you do need to run both versions, you can do so in Mac using the Parallels Desktop for Mac and a subscription to Office 365. Overall, when I need to do more expert level tasks in Office, I would use the PC version. Mac does have a better layout look for more of the publishing aspects.

And, some of the visual basic functions are missing in Mac. Outside of the interface differences, you will notice that Mac Office doesn’t have all of the apps that the PC version has. In my opinion, the Mac version looks a little rougher around the edges than the more streamlined look on the PC. Even though the release for Mac was first, the PC version often received the focus for improvement and added features. The Windows version has had more improvements and updates than the Mac version, even though Office was created for Mac before the PC. Over the years, I’ve worked in a Microsoft Office application on PC and Mac.

Using microsoft office 365 on mac