PC owners look way now, this is for Mac users, to whom I’d like to ask: have you updated to High Sierra?
Reason I enquire is that I’ve been holding off the update after reading that my version of MS Word (2011) won’t work on High Sierra. But now with all this talk of the Spectre bug I’m well frit that I’ll be bombarded with malignant viral whatsits if I don’t update.
All advice, experience, thoughts welcome.
I plan on updating this weekend. I’ve held off until a key piece of software is ready for the latest OS. They usually take many months to update but I’ve had notification that the update is ready now.
I have an Office 365 subscription so hopefully no issues there.
I updated my 2013 MacBook over Christmas, is running fine. Don’t run office though so can’t comment on that. Needed around 15gb free to install, but once it is it’s smaller than the previous os.
The word 2011 not working thing will happen. On my previous macbook when I updated to the OS in about 2012 the version of word on it (about 2007) stopped working.
Oh, bloody hell. (Thanks, though!)
You could use the Mac programs (Pages, Numbers) and export as Word/Excel documents. Not sure I’d convert a complicated spread sheet but most stuff should be OK.
That’s an option. I guess I’ll have to lose all my customised stuff.
That’s what I do too. You can export to ancient versions of Word for those that don’t have the latest version. The formatting stays the same, and if comments are made in Word and I open THAT doc in Pages, the comments all open up.
That’s odd – I installed High Sierra a couple of week ago on my 2011 iMac and my Office 2011 Word and Excel have been working just fine.
I did however have one major fright a few days ago though when Little Snitch threw a wobbly during an update and took down my entire system, meaning I had to reinstall High Sierra before I could get into my Mac again. Now I don’t know who exactly I should be pointing the finger at, but it does seem to me that a robust OS shouldn’t be knocked out by something as everyday as a botched software installation.
Being largely luddite, I wondered whether Little Snitch might be the name of your beloved…….
I’m very wary. I use so many third-party plugins for music software that compatibility is a bit of a nightmare. I’m holding off until I can be sure.
I updated as soon as it became available and then installed the update that fixed the problem of bypassing passwords. It’s working fine, and I’ve had no problems with MS Office other than the fact that it seems to run more slowly than on my old Windows PC, and opening Word documents takes an eternity. (Should add that I’m on a subscription version of MS Office which is always bang up to date, so can’t speak for older versions).
I’m not going to do my desktop. Gonna risk it on the laptop and report back.
Apparently the new HPFS file system won’t work on a Fusion Drive, which is what my iMac has, so I won’t be going there until Fusion Drives are properly supported.
Updated mine when it became available and it’s working fine. Ive got Microsoft Office for Mac and that seems OK
I upgraded and it turned into a bit of a nightmare.
There was an error in the download process that meant, after a few days of discussions with Apple help-desk and attempting various fixes, (a nod of appreciation here to the Apple staff, who do their damnedest to help resolve your problem unlike, say, BT) I ultimately had to reformat the hard drive. While I had a lot of stuff backed up, I hadn’t done a back up for some time and we did end up losing some photos, torrents and documents. My wife was especially annoyed about losing some photos.
So word to the wise, back-up everything you might possibly want to keep before carrying out the upgrade.
I updated as soon as it was available on my home iMac and had no issues – I think I had Office 2011 at that point and don’t remember any issues (since upgraded to Office 2016 through the kids office 365 subscription)
Held of until a few weeks ago on my work MacBook as they told us to hold off until all tested – since given the all clear, updated and no issues seen.
Just because they tell you something will no longer work doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work. It just means it’s no longer supported and you’ll get no help if it fails. Be prepared for the worst but hope for the best.
And yes, do a full backup first.
Running High Sierra on a 2012 iMac (with fusion drive). I use Office 365 now, but still have Office 2011 installed – a quick test showed that Word 2011 seems to be working fine (at least it’s opening documents ok)
The update on the update is that I’ve updated my MacBook. MS Office was a bit slow at first but I ran Onyx and it all seems okay now, fingers crossed. I still think I’ll wait to do the iMac.
Not sure what your work situation is, but for a lot of companies that use Windows and Office under an enterprise agreement with Software Assurance, they often have Home Use rights for their employees. At our place we get a copy of Office for AU$15 as a one-off charge. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Licensing/licensing-programs/software-assurance-home-use-program.aspx
All you should need is your company’s HUP code and you arrange it yourself through the site.
If you want to be able to open, edit and save MS office files without changing filetypes etc then you could do worse than install Libre Office. I don’t have any experience of using it on Mac but the PC version is excellent. You’ll probably lose some or all of your macros but everything else (including very good support for long documents) is pretty seamless. It even opens (well the PC version does) Access database files for editting.
If it’s viruses you’re worried about, have you considered simply installing a mac anti virus application? The last virus I had on a Windows PC was just before I started using free virus scanners nearly 20 years ago. It’s not nearly the problem some claim it to be.
If anyone has a Mac that won’t officially run High Sierra, all may not be lost – I used this resource (including his video) to install on an early 2009 iMac. It took quite a bit of headscratching and a couple of false starts (largely though not exclusively caused by a nasty case of RTFM), but if I can do it – with a friend to, as he put it, “hold the torch” – anyone can.
http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/