Have you ever been curious about running Microsoft Office on your Mac, but just didn’t want to shell out the money? If so, you are not alone.
On my Mac I have Microsoft Office 2011 installed, but only because it was a gift from a client…if I had to buy it, I wouldn’t have done so!
However, one of this rare opportunities to get something for free from Microsoft has just appeared! You can download Microsoft Office for Mac preview and install it on your Mac for free!
It includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote and Outlook. All are fully functional products, but there is a caveat, and that is that this is beta software and it may contain features that won’t be there when the production software is released later this year. Also, there will be bugs and you are requested to notify Microsoft when and if you run across one. Another issue is that this beta will stop working shortly after the production version gets released, which mean that if you fell in love with the product you’ll need to purchase the new version in order to keep using it.
If you already have Office 2011 for Mac installed, the literature says that the Preview can be run side by side with the older vesrion. This means that the new install will not affect your existing software. However, another caveat, the new versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote and Outlook MAY render your files unreadable in the older 2011 version, so proceed with caution.
The ONLY reason that I have Office 2011 installed is so that I can use Outlook. I like Outlook better than I do the Mac Mail program that comes with every Mac, and find it hard to give it up. I think that Apple’s word processor, Pages, beats Microsoft Word in every area that I can think of, Keynote beats Powerpoint hands down, and I have never used OneNote, so why start now?
Excel on the other hand beats Apple Numbers in nearly every way, so if you are a power user of Excel, you’ll want to check out the new version in the Office Preview.
For everyone else, stick with the Mac products. Aside from this freebie preview, the Mac Products Pages and Keynote are much, much better than Word and Powerpoint. If you love Outlook, then by all means take a look at the Preview.
Here is the link to get the preview: http://products.office.com/en-us/mac/mac-preview
Let me know what you think if you decide to get this.
