I despair!!! I upgraded to OS Catalina and did it without supervision. I have lost my access to Microsoft 2011 apps and cannot find a way of reinstating them. Can someone help ?

Either pay Microsoft for compatible versions of their products, or undo the upgrade by following these instructions:

Revert your Mac to a previous macOS version - Apple Support

I am sorry you have had to experience this, but I hope the following is helpful to you in addressing ‘problems’ with Microsoft Office after an OS upgrade to Catalina.

·      First, Apple has regularly informed all of us for a couple of years that at some point our old 32 bit programs would no longer work with a future OS upgrade. That has finally occurred as we have been told it would. This appears to be the case with you.

·      Any other old 32 bit programs you have installed will also be affected. They also will no longer work and will have to be upgraded or replaced.

·      If a person elects not to upgrade their Microsoft Office, there are several excellent alternatives. They are the free LibreOffice and OpenOffice apps. Additionally, your Apple OS provides three free programs which you may use as an alternative to Office, Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Or, as noted, you can reinstall your old OS, but at some point we all have to upgrade.

·      Any of these apps noted above can and will open your older Office documents, allowing you to work with them. With them you may also create new documents and save them as Word files, etc. when you need to share files with other people who only have Office installed. They are 64 bit apps.

·      You should be aware that using these other apps to open Word or Excel documents will likely result in formatting changes.

·      Using any of these programs does involve a learning curve as they work a bit differently, but all of them are fine programs and they are free.

·      If you decide to upgrade from an older version of Office, you have options. You may elect to subscribe to any of the following:

• • Office 365 Home:  $99.99 per year or $9.99 monthly. This allows you to install Office in up to six devices. This service must be renewed yearly. You may try the service free for one month.
  • Office Personal:             $69.99 per year or $6.99 monthly. This is for installation on one device only. This service must be renewed yearly. You may try the service free for one month.
  • Office Home & Student:  $149.99 one-time purchase cost. This is a purchase for installation on one device only and is not renewed or have a monthly fee. It does not expire.
  • The second and third options include fewer additional apps such as having no Outlook app. Check the Microsoft site for details.

·       Finally, and this is important, when purchasing any of these Office upgrades, you need to register your purchase on the Microsoft web site, including which device or devices the apps are installed on. This can be changed later if a device is replaced. You must do this registration or you can have problems.

In summary, Apple has warned us of the coming change to 64 bit operations only. It has occurred. Now, it is up to us to decide how to proceed. I hope this information is helpful to you.

Hi,

Thank you.

If i opt for a new free app, do you recommend to uninstall Microsoft Office 2011 from my mac? Or should I keep it? Do I need it to open the "old" word documents?

thank you in advance!

No need to keep Office 2011 on the drive since it won't run in Catalina anyway. Whether or not your Office documents will open correctly partly depends on how complicated they are. Otherwise, the free LibreOffice will open most of them without issue.

Office 2011 is considered "Legacy Software" in OS Catalina. It is not compatable with that operating system. You have to either revert to a prior Mac OS or upgrade your office to a newer version

Went form Office 2011 to Office 2016 and no issues opening older documents. All worked Fine. I assume if you go with Office 2019 you should not have any issues.