Microsoft released Office for Mac 2011 on Oct. 26, and since then MIT Information Services and Technology (IS&T), in collaboration with IT colleagues across campus, has tested its core components (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook). While IS&T now offers full support for Office for Mac 2011, IS&T advises members of the MIT community to use caution when deciding to upgrade, based on test results; IS&T recommends that you wait to install Office for Mac 2011 on production machines until your department, lab, center (DLC) or other IT provider is ready to support you locally.
IS&T will continue to support Office for Mac 2008 during the transition.
New features
Office for Mac 2011 provides several new features, including:
There are several issues which you should take into consideration before installing Microsoft Word for Mac 2011:
Licensing
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 is covered by MIT's Microsoft Campus Agreement. MIT departments, faculty and staff may install this software on any MIT-owned computer, provided that it will be used by current MIT faculty, staff or students for MIT purposes only. MIT students are not covered under the general terms of MIT's Microsoft Campus Agreement. Students should contact the software liaison for their department, lab or center (DLC) to determine if their DLC funds student access to Microsoft Office as part of MIT's Microsoft Campus Agreement.
Students who are not covered can obtain Microsoft Office at academic pricing through educational resellers such as GovConnection [certificates required].
How to obtain
MIT faculty and staff and departmentally funded students can download the Office for Mac 2011 installer from IS&T's Microsoft Campus Agreement for MS Office Professional download site [certificates required]. To reduce costs, IS&T will not be providing installation media to software liaisons.
Training
IS&T will soon make available an online training library that covers each of Office for Mac 2011's core components.
Getting help
IS&T's Office for Mac 2011 page includes links to stock answers, installation instructions, and user guides.
If you have questions or need assistance, send e-mail to the IS&T Help Desk or call 617-253-1101. You can also submit a request online.
IS&T will continue to support Office for Mac 2008 during the transition.
New features
Office for Mac 2011 provides several new features, including:
- Replacement of Entourage with Outlook for Mac (Note: Although Outlook for Mac looks similar, it does not contain all of the features found in its Windows counterpart.)
- Support for the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language.
There are several issues which you should take into consideration before installing Microsoft Word for Mac 2011:
- It does not support PowerPC (PPC) hardware.
- It is not compatible with EndNote X4.
- Some characters, including < > | \ " and /, must be removed from a file name before it can be opened.
- The new user interface may take some time to learn.
- Exchange accounts are excluded when importing accounts from Mail.app into Outlook for Mac 2011.
- Outlook for Mac 2011 does not support a way to replace signatures.
Licensing
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 is covered by MIT's Microsoft Campus Agreement. MIT departments, faculty and staff may install this software on any MIT-owned computer, provided that it will be used by current MIT faculty, staff or students for MIT purposes only. MIT students are not covered under the general terms of MIT's Microsoft Campus Agreement. Students should contact the software liaison for their department, lab or center (DLC) to determine if their DLC funds student access to Microsoft Office as part of MIT's Microsoft Campus Agreement.
Students who are not covered can obtain Microsoft Office at academic pricing through educational resellers such as GovConnection [certificates required].
How to obtain
MIT faculty and staff and departmentally funded students can download the Office for Mac 2011 installer from IS&T's Microsoft Campus Agreement for MS Office Professional download site [certificates required]. To reduce costs, IS&T will not be providing installation media to software liaisons.
Training
IS&T will soon make available an online training library that covers each of Office for Mac 2011's core components.
Getting help
IS&T's Office for Mac 2011 page includes links to stock answers, installation instructions, and user guides.
If you have questions or need assistance, send e-mail to the IS&T Help Desk or call 617-253-1101. You can also submit a request online.
