Microsoft Office 365 not working since update to Catalina

Thanks for this helpful information. I am no techi and I have no idea whether I have 32 or 64bit, but probably the former. I've loaded Catalina now so I suppose I'm stuck with it. I have a friend who uses Pages so I'll try that out. Just what I needed at the start of my last year at uni.

Thanks, I did look, but can only find adobe no microsoft. I'm going to make sure I have everything saved elsewhere and try and few things. I've had a quick look at pages, but doesn't look a patch on microsoft. Maybe I'll have to switch to microsoft again and ditch Apple. Aaaaaaah.

That is a good point, MittensPS. Microsoft does not make this easy. Or at the very least, it's confusing.

For Office 2016 and 2019, you activate the software using the standard Product Key method that's been used for years. Which looks something like this (the X's being a mix of numbers and letters).

For Office 365, you use the email address and password you used to set up your MS online account and follow these instructions. You don't have to specifically follow step one. Launch any Office app however you want. It also doesn't matter which one. Once you sign in, they're all activated. If you don't have an MS account yet, you create it in order to have a sign in activation. You must use the same email address the purchase confirmation went to.

Office 365 from the App Store is different yet again. You purchase Word, Excel or PowerPoint and with a subscription. Once paid, all three of those are active. If you want Outlook, you acquire it as an extra in-app purchase. Essentially, the same idea as buying Office 365 directly from MS as the Home and Student version without Outlook, and the more expensive Business version with.

And just to add to the confusion, while you can't use Office 365 downloads directly from MS if you purchased it through the App Store, MS allows you to use the App Store downloads if you purchased Office 365 directly from MS. This per a quote from a recent Apple Developer's Conference:

The Office 365 apps are available from the Mac App Store with a free one-month trial. The full Office 365 bundle includes six apps: Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, and Word, though you can download individual apps. Once the free trial is over, the subscription price for the six-app bundle is $69.99. If you already have an Office 365 subscription, you can use it.

My specific problem is that I cannot format text at all in Word. When I highlight some text, I cannot change the font or its' size, underline/bold or italicize, or highlight. Someone above suggests uninstalling/reinstalling the MS apps ( Word & Excel) - but at this moment, the explanation of how to approach each type of purchase (subscription/1-time download/ Office vs. 2019 Home & Office looks overwhelming to me.

I think I'm having the same problem. I have a purchased and installed version of all the Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Now that I've updated to Catalina, my Mac will not let me use the programs. It says they need to be updated and sends me to the App store. When I arrive at the App store, the option is to purchase Office 365 which I do not want to do since I've already paid for the Microsoft software. This does not seem like a question for Microsoft, since it's Apple's operating update which has caused the issue. How do I use my software without paying for 365?

I can not agree. Apple's operating system is not to blame. As has been adequately noted above, there are alternatives and it is our choice what to do. You feel that having paid one time in the past for Office, you should never have to pay anything again. That was true - if you elected not to upgrade your OS to Catalina. You don't buy a car and expect it to last forever, do you. No, you eventually upgrade it because you desire something better. When companies such as Microsoft upgrade their apps, they are typically improved in some ways. Those improvements are made by their employees who must be paid for their time and efforts.

Lastly, Microsoft upgraded their Office apps to work with Catalina in a 64 bit environment when Apple announced the coming changes. They fulfilled their responsibility. Our responsibility is to read product change announcements and decide before making changes if we wish to do so. So, it is you and I that are responsible for what we decide to do or not do with our computers, not Apple or Microsoft.

I suggest you reread the comments above and then decide what course of action you decide on. That is YOUR responsibility.

Hello Ronasara. I only posed one question in my post which you did not answer in your reply. In fact you did not offer any constructive suggestions at all to solve the problem. While you may have personally enjoyed the opportunity to lecture me (in CAPS), that is not the purpose of the boards.

jbh08 wrote:

I think I'm having the same problem. I have a purchased and installed version of all the Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Now that I've updated to Catalina, my Mac will not let me use the programs. It says they need to be updated and sends me to the App store. When I arrive at the App store, the option is to purchase Office 365 which I do not want to do since I've already paid for the Microsoft software. This does not seem like a question for Microsoft, since it's Apple's operating update which has caused the issue. How do I use my software without paying for 365?

Microsoft Office 2016 (updated), Office 2019, and Office 365 all work with Catalina. If you have any other version of Microsoft Office you will need to buy a newer version.

I've also had problems with Word 365. I had to Force Quit Word to get it working again.

When I want to save a new document, it will let me save it to my desktop.

But if I copy and paste from a saved Word document onto a new Word document, it wants to save to something called OneDrive stored under an ancient email address that I long ago removed from MS.

Yes, sorry. I realized that after I'd posted, but couldn't find an edit option.

This happened after installing Catalina.

I have Version 10.15.3

I have a 13" MacBook Pro that I purchased in 2013. It has a 2.6 GHz Duel-Core Intel Core i5 Processor (yes, it's vintage)

with 16 GB of Memory.

I did send a notice to Microsoft about this, but thanks for the suggestion - I'll go to the site as well.

I also have a problem with microsoft. I can no longer save my work to documents, and where has my iCloud got to?

Excellent!

I just did that, and it said No Information Found

Hi there, I am also having the same problem, so annoying and very disappointing that we are not notified when there is a problem like this. Have you had any luck on rectifying the issue? Thanks