Microsoft Office is now updated for M1 Macs

[Karlston]

Microsoft Office is now updated for M1 Macs

Teams support isn’t here yet, though 

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If you’ve been using Microsoft Office on an M1 Mac, it’s about to get better — Microsoft is announcing an update today that brings native support for Apple’s new custom chip architecture to the Windows productivity suite. The apps getting the updates are Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Notably absent, however, is Teams.

 

The updates are making the apps universal ones — meaning these versions will run on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, so any upcoming updates or features will be coming at the same time for both platforms.

 

If you’re a heavy user of Teams, you may be disappointed to hear that it hasn’t been included in today’s rollout of updates. Microsoft promises they’re working on that platform in their blog post, but the company hasn’t announced any sort of timeline. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s main communications competitor, Slack, has native support available in a public beta. It seems like you’ll have to stick with the emulated version for now, if your team uses Teams.

 

Office users who have automatic updates turned on should have the new versions sometime today, and anyone else can update it through the Mac App Store or Microsoft’s AutoUpdate software (depending on if you downloaded Office through the App Store or directly from Microsoft). Outlook users will get not only native Apple Silicon support, but support for iCloud accounts as well, allowing them to sync their email, contacts, and calendars to the app if they use Apple’s service to store them.

 

 

Microsoft Office is now updated for M1 Macs

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From preview to release

 

Microsoft is rolling out native Apple silicon versions of its office apps while browser maker Mozilla does the same with its Firefox browser.

 

A Universal build of Microsoft's cash cow Office suite seeped out in preview form back in November. Those who have acquired Apple hardware based on the company's M1 silicon can now get their hands on the finished product, at least as far as the core apps are concerned. Teams, alas, must be run in Rosetta emulation mode for the time being.

 

The team has also given Outlook for Mac a buffing to match the look (if not some of the iffier bits) of macOS Big Sur. The "Office Start experience" has also been updated, this time with the Fluent UI design system, although won't turn up until next month.

 

The rest of the core apps should be slithering down via Microsoft's AutoUpdate or via the Mac App Store. Alternatively, users can force the matter via a "Check for Updates" in the app's Help menu.

 

Users of Microsoft's own Arm-based hardware, the Surface Pro X, who are still waiting for their native version, might look on enviously at the Windows giant's keenness to get its wares on Apple's new platform.

 

But as Microsoft has said: "We are committed to delivering great Microsoft 365 experiences that help our customers work easier and faster on their favorite devices."

 

We fear that there are only a committed few that would describe the Surface Pro X as their "favourite device", x64 emulation preview or not. Still, at least it has a native version of Teams.

 

Office was joined by version 84.0 of Firefox, which also included native support for Apple's new chips. Mozilla described the performance boost from dropping emulation as "dramatic", reckoning users will see the venerable browser launching 2.5 times faster along with a similar improvement in web app responsiveness.

 

However, it is a circular world, and there was a final farewell from Mozilla to an old friend. Version 84 was confirmed as the last release that would support Adobe Flash. No flowers. ®

 

Source

[Karlston]

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