Macros in Mac MS Word 2011

Upgrading the OS is a must for Office, since it won't run on anything older than 10.12. High Sierra was the last version of macOS to run 32 bit apps without compromise (Apple's words). Mojave was the start of removing 32 bit support and will run most 32 bit apps, but not all.

Being back at Mavericks at the moment, it does depend on what OS you can upgrade to. What model Mac do you have now? Open System Information (hold down the Option key and click on the Apple logo at the top left). All we need to know is the model designation. For example, my 2018 Mini is listed as:

Model Identifier: Macmini8,1

The purpose here being to find out how new of a version macOS your Mac can run.

First note is you'll never get Office 2011 to run in Catalina. 2011 is 32 bit software and no such software will run in Catalina.

Couple of possibilities from Microsoft's site:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/office-2011-cant-load-visaul-basic-for/d2d19e76-7508-4c33-92fc-272ad628179e

One being that by allowing any macros to load when you open Word docs, you may have gotten a macro virus attached to your Normal template, which will now be included with every document you create or edit. Per the top answer, the virus may be interfering with Word's ability to use Visual Basic.

The next top answer says all they did was reinstall Word and Visual Basic to fix it.

Don't waste your money on Office 2016. It has been replaced by the one-time cost perpetual license Office 2019. Either that, or the subscription version, Office 365. You don't need Catalina. Office 2019/365 are compatible with macOS Sierra and newer.

No, the CS6 apps will not run in Catalina. They are mainly 64 bit apps but have a fair number of 32 bit dependencies. The newest OS they will run under is Mojave, and I do have the CS6 suite installed in Mojave. It was a bit of and effort to get After Effects working. Use High Sierra for best compatibility with CS6.