Microsoft Office Standard For Mac 2016

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Note

Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.

Summary

Existing Office 2016 for Mac customers will be seamlessly upgraded to 64-bit versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote as part of the August product release (version 15.25). This affects customers of all license types: Retail, Office 365 Consumer, Office 365 Commercial, and Volume License installations.

Microsoft Office 2016 For Macs

Deployment options for the 64-bit update

Office 2016 include applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. They’re available as a one-time purchase for use on a single PC. Microsoft 365 plans include premium versions of these applications plus other services that are enabled over the Internet, including online storage with OneDrive and Skype minutes for home use. If you already use Office on a PC or iPad, you will find yourself right at home in Office 2016 for Mac. It works the way you expect, with the familiar ribbon interface and powerful task panes. Mac users will appreciate the modernized Office experience and the integration of Mac capabilities like Full Screen view and Multi-Touch TM gestures. Microsoft Office 2016 (codenamed Office 16) is a version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite, succeeding both Office 2013 and Office for Mac 2011 and preceding Office 2019 for both platforms. It was released on macOS on July 9, 2015, and on Microsoft Windows on September 22, 2015, for Office.

AutoUpdate (MAU)

Customers who use Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) to keep their Office applications up-to-date will see a 'regular' monthly update notification when their selected channel is upgraded to 64-bit builds. Depending on which version is installed on the local computer, MAU will offer either a delta or full update. The update package size does not change between 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Also, MAU can deliver a delta update when applicable to update a user from 32-bit to 64-bit applications. Therefore, customers won't experience a sharp increase in download activity. For the release to the Production channel, customers will see '(64-bit)' in the update title to make them aware that this is a 64-bit update.

For information about how to use the MAU, see Check for Office for Mac updates automatically.

Manual updates

The August release of Office for Mac is available for manual download. The following file provides a 64-bit package to replace existing 32-bit applications with 64-bit variants during installation:

Download the Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac August update package now.

Virus-scan claim

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Volume License Service Center

Volume License customers typically get their Office 2016 software from the Volume License Service Center (VLSC). These builds are refreshed infrequently and are typically aligned with new language editions. The VLSC will continue to offer 32-bit installers (15.23) until November 2016. However, all updater packages that are released after August will be based on 64-bit builds. Therefore, a VLSC customer who updates either manually or through AutoUpdate will be transitioned to 64-bit builds.

More Information

64-bit only

The Mac operating system has been 64-bit for several years. Unlike for Windows, there's no choice between running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of the Mac operating system. Similarly, we won't offer a choice between 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Office 2016 for Mac. After each 'channel' is transitioned per the rollout schedule, only 64-bit builds will be available.

Effect on third-party applications and add-ins

The transition to 64-bit Office for Mac was announced in April 2016. IT Pros will want to understand which compiled add-ins are deployed to the users whom they manage so that they can assess the effect of the upgrade. The following Microsoft Office website summarizes the issues that affect the more common add-ins that are used together with Office 2016 for Mac:

Tools for inspecting product architecture

To verify the architecture of an Office application (that is, to understand whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit build), start the application, open the Activity Monitor, and then enable the Kind column.

You can also use the file command in a terminal session to inspect the binary. For this use, type file -N <path of binary>.This method can be used with for any binary file, including third-party add-ins.

The file command returns one of three values.

Return value	Meaning
Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64	64-bit binary
Mach-O executable i386	32-bit binary
Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64	FAT binary (compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit processes)
Mach-O executable i386	FAT binary (compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit processes)

Options for reverting to 32-bit installations

There may be situations in which the customer has to change code that's not 64-bit ready. If customers can't immediately move forward to 64-bit builds, we will make available a one-time 32-bit update for the 15.25 release in addition to the default 64-bit updates. The 32-bit updates will be available only for manual download from the Office CDN.

The latest 32-bit release of Office 2016 for Mac (15.25.160818) can be downloaded from https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=823192.