I have OS Mojave (latest version) on my late-2012 Mac Mini. I use standalone MS Office 2011, which may not work on OS Catalina. I am considering buying Office Home & Student 2019; will it be compatible with OS Catalina? Should I buy the new Office 1st then upgrade to Catalina? Or the reverse?
Mac mini 2018 or later
Be certain to have a last Mojave Time Machine backup before upgrading to Catalina, and do not resuse that same backup drive for Catalina.
Office 2011 for Mac is a 32-bit application suite and definitely will not run on Catalina which requires 64-bit on applications. The single-purchase Office 2019 for Mac is 64-bit and compatible with Catalina. Just do not install any 32-bit helper plug-ins into these applications.
I would completely uninstall Office 2011 for Mac, and then install Office 2019 for Mac — before the upgrade. Also, check other third-party applications with there vendors for availability of 64-bit support, and this goes for printer and scanner drivers which are likely to still be 32-bit. See if there is an uninstaller in the Applications/Microsoft folder. If not then this Microsoft article on complete Office 2011 for Mac removal may help.
With Catalina, it is very important to apply new released updates for Office 2019 for Mac as they become available.
Be certain to have a last Mojave Time Machine backup before upgrading to Catalina, and do not resuse that same backup drive for Catalina.
Office 2011 for Mac is a 32-bit application suite and definitely will not run on Catalina which requires 64-bit on applications. The single-purchase Office 2019 for Mac is 64-bit and compatible with Catalina. Just do not install any 32-bit helper plug-ins into these applications.
I would completely uninstall Office 2011 for Mac, and then install Office 2019 for Mac — before the upgrade. Also, check other third-party applications with there vendors for availability of 64-bit support, and this goes for printer and scanner drivers which are likely to still be 32-bit. See if there is an uninstaller in the Applications/Microsoft folder. If not then this Microsoft article on complete Office 2011 for Mac removal may help.
With Catalina, it is very important to apply new released updates for Office 2019 for Mac as they become available.
I have office 2016 64 bit version and i have not yet upgraded to Catalina.
I would be wary of upgrading until you pass by your local apple store and speak face to face with an apple tech. So far i have not seen any Microsoft e-mail software running on computers in my local apple store so if i was you i would check first to see if you can see the software in action on a new apple computer running Catalina and a suitable Microsoft office for mac e-mail program.
Best of luck.
office 2016 and up is compatible with Catalina.
The Apple iWork Numbers, Keynote, and Pages apps can read and write most Office documents, as can the OpenOffice and LibreOffice apps. As potential alternatives.
To answer your questions, Office Home & Student 2019 will be compatible. It really doesn't matter in what order you install it although it would probably take less time to update Catalina first.
FWIW, I agree you should uninstall Office 2011 first. Installing 2019 first, not so much. :o)
Office Home & Student 2019
