In this beta incarnation, Word 2016 alone is bigger than the entire Office for Mac 2011 suite. (Outlook 2016 has been updated precious little in the past year and not at all since January it’s still an embarrassment.) If you already have Office 2011 installed, the new Office 2016 will run side by side on the same Mac with no interference. This preview edition includes new beta versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as the previously released beta versions of OneNote and Outlook 2016 for Mac. Naturally, we’ll have to wait for the final, shipping products to draw detailed conclusions. Surprisingly, the feature set of Office 2016 for Mac is nearly on par with that of the Windows version, with the gaps lying mainly in Excel and PowerPoint. Last week, Microsoft made a preview edition of Office 2016 for Mac available to the masses, runnable on any OS X Yosemite computer.
If you’ve been struggling with Office for Mac 2011 and suffering from Windows envy, your time has finally come. For many years, Office for Mac has played second fiddle to its Windows cousin.
