Microsoft word on MAC OS Catalina

The automatic forwarding of most recent word documents happens to be my problem. Trying to restore the corrupt files from the .zip files seems to have to go through pages so clearly this has to be Bill Gates' fault.

I have Microsoft Office for Mac 2016 (version 16.16.15) and have had no problems after updating to Catalina (as far as Office goes). Your version is undoubtedly a 32 bit version and WILL NOT work with Catalina.

Here is something else to consider. Over the years I have always kept and external drive which I partitioned to have two partitions. One was used to back up my files and the other was kept with an OS on it. That is in case something happens to the OS on my hard drive, I can still function until I get it fixed. Whenever the OS on my hard drive was upgraded, I held off changing the OS on the external drive until I was satisfied that the new OS functioned as I wanted it to.

When I did my last hard drive upgrade to Catalena I purposely left the older OS on the external drive because its enabled me to use it on those few occasions when I needed to use one of my two 32 bit apps that I was unwilling to pay to upgrade. I have since decided I don't really need them any longer, so I finally upgraded the OS on the external drive and removed the two old apps.

What I am suggesting is this - if you have an external drive and can partition it, then you can install the older OS there and still use your 32 bit software if it's something you don't use often. Just a thought.

I didn't even get a warning on my iMac before updating with Catalina. Would have been nice, and no, I would definitely not have installed Catalina if I knew this. I got some article or list of things to look out for and none applied to me, and losing Word was not on the list. Now Word crashes the minute I try to open any of my many Word documents. If I don't shut down Word completely, my computer makes loud noises like they do right before they die. Do not install Catalina if you need Word.

Gentlemen, as we have said earlier, this change was coming. We were told by Apple, if we chose to listen. Some of us took action to be ready and some of us didn't. It's done. So, now I suggest that those of you who are affected by the change from 32 bit to 64 bit apps only, re-read the answers above to see which one you choose to use. There are solutions which have been offered. Good luck to all of you.

Word in MS Office 2016 is now working just fine on my IMac running Catalina. Here's what it took: I contacted MS Help via chat, as I was preparing to just purchase a newer version of MS Office to solve this problem, and just had some questions about the specifics of the purchase. The help/chat guy said all I needed to do was uninstall, then reinstall, MS Office 2016. I was skeptical, but he walked me through it and... voila! It didn't work. Haha. But then I read the error message log and saw something about WordRake ( a grammar/writing/editing application). I vaguely recalled seeing a post somewhere stating that WordRake caused problems after an update. So I uninstalled WordRake, and now the MS Office 2016 that I reinstalled works just fine for Word. So if you are a WordRake user, find it an uninstall. Not sure if you still need to un- and reinstall MS Office 2016, too.

After installing Catalina, I went ahead and installed the latest MSWord, but I still can't open files or save to files. I saw the notice about WordRake, but I searched for that on my computer but it's not there....so what could be the issue??

It was from my MS Office from my other computer, Version 16.31. I asked MS Help to call me tonight to see what they might say/do/offer.

(WordRake was mentioned as a possible issue from the comment from dimac from Nov 30 in this thread.)

I made the same mistake. I always like to keep up with the updates and quickly clicked to get the Catalina. I am very sorry I did. It has caused a lot of problems for me plus a big headache. I wish there was a Warning before clicking for it. I am 73 yrs old, retired, living on limited fixed income and I cannot afford the new Office 365; moreover I am quite comfortable with my old ms 2011. It is hard to adjust to newer versions at this age- believe me.

Very true. I have opted for a free 30 days trial of Office 365 but I cannot open anything-Word, Xl, etc. Did anyone have problems with upgrading the Apple Pages? I don't know why it won't let me upgrade. I definitely need help. PLEASE HELP!!!!

I have Office 365 and just installed Catalina. The Word, which I use all the time, is very slow. From what i read, an updated version of word which Office 365 should have, should work. Please advise.

Slow is a relative term. We don't know what you're comparing it to.

Regardless, one of the things that slows down all of the Office apps of MS's new design (2016, 2019, 365) is every application package has a very large number of fonts within it. This slows down the launch times of each app quite a bit.

Most of these can be removed, and the apps will launch much more quickly afterwards.

not_hppy wrote:

I lost my Word access with $$ grab upgrade at a critical moment. Furious. Apple lost one clearly unimportant customer.

Your post makes no sense. Apple does not charge you for the OS upgrade and Apple does not make one cent on the sale of Microsoft products. Apple did not force you to upgrade. If Microsoft wants to charge you for an upgrade that is between you and Microsoft. When you change to Windows products don't forget that you will still have to pay for Microsoft products.

not_hppy wrote:

I lost my Word access with $$ grab upgrade at a critical moment. Furious. Apple lost one clearly unimportant customer.

Apple has been warning people for a year that they would lose access to 32-bit apps when they updated to Catalina. The fact that you chose to do a major system update at a critical moment is not Apple's fault.

And, thread jacking is rude.

Old Toad, I strongly endorse your comments. Reading through many posts on this forum has made it clear to me that there are many people who do not, or will not read important notices. Then they complain about the problem they caused themselves. Many of us are not tech experts and this forum is what helps us solve problems. This MS Office problem has been all over the forum with answers posted over and over, yet it is clear that many people do not take the time to look for them. They post a new request for help and then complain about the answers they are given. This is just my observation.