14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is expected to release the final version of macOS 10.13 High Sierra as soon as the next month, and with the majority of users very likely to upgrade their devices, Microsoft decided to issue a public warning for customers of its Office suite.
The software giant explains that Office for Mac 2011 does not support macOS High Sierra, so upgrading to this version of the operating system basically means that they won’t be able to use the productivity suite anymore.
“Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Lync have not been tested on macOS 10.13 High Sierra, and no formal support for this configuration will be provided,” the company explains.
“All applications in the Office for Mac 2011 suite are reaching end of support on October 10th, 2017. As a reminder, after that date there will be no new security updates, non-security updates, free or paid assisted support options or technical content updates. Refer to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle for more information.”
Office for Mac 2011 end of support
On the other hand, with Office for Mac 2011 scheduled to reach end of support later this year, the transition to a newer version of the productivity suite could become mandatory, especially because end of support means no new security updates would be released.
So by moving to Office 2016, Apple users can not only remain secure when working with documents, but also be allowed to upgrade to High Sierra without any other compatibility issue.
But what’s worth mentioning in the case of Office for Mac 2016 is that versions 15.34 and earlier are not supported on High Sierra, and launching the apps might not work when upgrading.
Office for Mac 2011 was initially projected to reach end of support in January 2016, but because at that time the new 2016 version wasn’t ready, Microsoft decided to extend support by 21 months.