14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has released a new Office for Mac update, this time bringing very good news for Apple Silicon users who were waiting for full M1 chip support.
This is because the update indeed includes full support on devices with Apple Silicon CPUs for Microsoft Excel, with the Redmond-based software giant telling users that the app runs natively on their computers, therefore coming with substantial performance improvements.
“Power Query in Excel for Mac is now natively supported on Apple Silicon processors. If you previously used Rosetta emulator to run Excel, you may now disable it and run Excel natively on your devices,” Microsoft explains.
At the same time, Microsoft Excel for Mac is also being updated with additional features, including screen capture protection.
“Office now prevents screen capture and screen sharing of sensitive documents protected with Microsoft Information Protection policies,” the company explains.
Microsoft Word improvements
At the same time, the Redmond-based software giant explains that the screen capture protection is also available in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.
Word, on the other hand, is also getting additional collaboration improvements.
“Get back to work faster when collaborating: When you get disconnected while collaborating with others, Word will automatically refresh your document with the latest changes,” the company says.
Microsoft has been working around the clock on updating its software with support for Apple Silicon, especially as the company wants customers with M1 chips to take full advantage of the performance improvements brought by this new hardware.
Needless to say, Microsoft Office continues to be a very popular productivity suite among Apple users, and its usage has increased substantially in the last couple of years when more and more employees started working remotely.
The new Office update lands as version 16.57, and it can be downloaded via the typical update channels.