Best Option For Microsoft Office For Mac

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When you want more than a printout with the default of every Word 2011 for Mac printer setting, you can find more options by choosing File→Print or pressing Command-P to bring up the Print dialog. You can even find an option here to expose every possible printer control.

Picking a printer in Word 2011 for Mac

The Printer pop-up menu enables you to choose from three options:

  • List of printers: All available printers are shown, and you can choose which one to use.

  • Add Printer: Opens the Mac OS X printer options dialog and allows you to add a printer.

  • Print and Fax Preferences: Opens the Mac OS X Print & Fax system preferences dialog.

Familiarity, compatibility and a rich set of features for power users are the main benefits of opting for Office on your Mac. If your office is a Microsoft shop it will probably be easiest to use. Get the Office 365 Personal at Microsoft Store and compare products with the latest customer reviews and ratings. Cheat sheets, tips and tricks and training courses on how you can make the best use of Office. See all our FAQs, search through our comprehensive Office Support articles or chat with an expert. Office 2008 for Mac and Office.

Picking a set of preset printing options in Word 2011 for Mac

The Presets pop-up menu enables you to choose from several different printing presets:

  • Standard: Most of the time, this is the best one to use.

  • Last Used Settings: Might be the one for you if you have some special customized presets.

  • List of Customized Presets: If you’ve created customized presets in the advanced printing options, you can choose one of them.

Printing to PDF in Word 2011 for Mac

One of the really neat things about having a Mac is that every application that can print prints to PDF (Portable Document Format). Word is no exception, except that in Word, you can choose File→Save As and in the Format pop-up menu, choose PDF.

Unless you need one of the other PDF options in the following list, you don’t have to go through the Print dialog to make a PDF. Here’s a rundown on the PDF printing options:

  • Save as PDF: Opens the Save dialog to save your document as PDF.

  • Save as PostScript: Opens the Save dialog to save your document as a .ps postscript file. A PostScript printer is needed to print the file.

  • Fax PDF: Opens the Print dialog to a Mac OS X Fax cover sheet. If your Mac has a dialup modem, you can use this option to fax your file.

  • Mail PDF: Opens an e-mail message in Apple Mail, not Microsoft Outlook, and adds the PDF as an attachment.

  • Save as PDF-X: This option flattens transparency and changes colors to CYMK.

  • Save PDF to iPhoto: Creates a PDF and sends the PDF to iPhoto.

  • Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder: Creates a PDF and puts it into your Web Receipts folder.

  • Edit Menu: Allows you to add custom PDF workflows. Click the Help button in the Print dialog for more details.

Previewing in Mac OS X Preview

The Print dialog is standard for all applications that can print. Mac OS X offers a preview of your document when you click the Preview button. The File→Print Preview command path is no longer available.

While Pages is a great word processor, Microsoft Word and other programs available with Microsoft Office are still widely used. It can be frustrating to pass documents between Apple's applications and Microsoft Office. I have dealt with getting Word documents from friends, only to open them in Pages a realize they aren't formatting correctly, or the spacing is off, etc.

The good news is Microsoft Office for Mac is pretty great. If you've ever used a PC before, you're likely familiar with the interface, and personally, I think the design of the Office programs for Mac is stellar. Of course, Microsoft offers two versions of Office for Mac, Microsoft Office 2016 and Microsoft Office 365, so here's a breakdown of each one so you can choose the right one for you.

Users and devices

When deciding what Microsoft Office package you want, you're going to need to know how you intend to use it. Are you one of those people who want to use Office on your Mac, iPad, and iPhone, or do you only need it on your MacBook Pro you use for work or school every day?

  • Office 2016 Home & Student: Installed on one Mac
  • Office 2016 Home & Business: Installed on one Mac
  • Office 365 Personal: Installed on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad with only one user allowed to access the 1TB One Drive storage.
  • Office 365 Personal: Installed on up to five Macs, PCs, iPhones, and iPads with five users allowed to access the 1TB One Drive storage.

Programs

Which programs you need in your Microsoft Office suite will also be a critical deciding factor in which version you buy.

  • Office 2016 Home & Student: Comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote
  • Office 2016 Home & Business: Comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook
  • Office 365 Personal: Comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher (PC only), and Access (PC only).
  • Office 365 Home: Comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher (PC only), and Access (PC only).

Cloud storage

Microsoft OneDrive is a cloud storage service that you can use to store files, photos, documents, and other data. If you get either version of Microsoft Office 365, you'll get a free TB of OneDrive storage to access and use.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012 - 2015). iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017). MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012 - 2015). iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017). Need to do need do. MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015 - 2017).

  • Office 365 Personal: 1TB of OneDrive storage for one user, plus 60 minutes per month for Skype calls.
  • Office 365 Home: 1TB of OneDrive storage accessible by up to five users, plus 60 minutes per month for Skype calls.

Neither tier of Microsoft Office 2016 comes with OneDrive storage.

Pricing

The most significant difference by far is pricing and payment model. Microsoft Office 2016 is a one-time payment, while Office 365 is a monthly subscription model.

  • Office 2016 Home & Student: $149.99 and doesn't come with updates.
  • Office 2016 Home & Business: $229.99 and doesn't come with updates.
  • Office 365 Personal: $69.99 per year (or $6.99 per month), includes updates.
  • Office 365 Home: $99.99 per year (or 9.99 per month), includes updates.

The bottom line

Office 365

The enormous benefit to Office 365 is the 1TB of OneDrive storage. This means all your work documents, personal finance spreadsheets, or school presentations can be saved locally and in your OneDrive, keeping all your data safe and accessible to you whenever you need it.

Microsoft office for mac download

Chances are Office 365 Personal is the best bet for most people, but if you love the free cloud storage and you need Office for your entire family, the Office 365 Home version is your best bet.

Office 2016

If you're looking for the basic Office program like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, and don't need OneDrive cloud storage, Office 2016 is perfectly fine for one person.

You'll only have to pay once, meaning you don't have to worry about that yearly subscription fee hitting your credit card every year. Of course, the lack of updates is a little annoying, but for most users, you'll probably not even notice or miss the extra features Office 365 provides anyways.

Office 2016 Home & Student is going to be all the majority of people will need; however, if you do want Outlook your can always get the Home & Business version as well.

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