When I was prompted to upgrade to sierra there was no warning that Microsoft Word and other applications would no longer be available for free. How can I regain use of these apps without having to pay an annual $69 subscription when such a cost wasn't required before the "upgrade"?
Please understand that, as much as you might want it to be, Apple has no way of knowing whether you have a specific program installed in your computer. I hope the following information is helpful to you in addressing ‘problems’ with Microsoft Office after an OS upgrade.
· 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. We have all periodically received notices about this from Apple.
· 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 you have Microsoft Office for Mac 2016 or later, it can be upgraded at no cost. If it is an earlier version, it cannot be upgraded.
· 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.
· Any of these apps 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.
· You should be aware that using these other apps to open Word 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 an older version of Office, you have options. You may elect to subscribe to any of the following:
· 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. Just as Apple updates its operating systems to provide increased security and features, so does Microsoft and other companies. They too have to charge for upgrades to pay their people who provide them.
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.
Please understand that, as much as you might want it to be, Apple has no way of knowing whether you have a specific program installed in your computer. I hope the following information is helpful to you in addressing ‘problems’ with Microsoft Office after an OS upgrade.
· 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. We have all periodically received notices about this from Apple.
· 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 you have Microsoft Office for Mac 2016 or later, it can be upgraded at no cost. If it is an earlier version, it cannot be upgraded.
· 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.
· Any of these apps 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.
· You should be aware that using these other apps to open Word 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 an older version of Office, you have options. You may elect to subscribe to any of the following:
· 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. Just as Apple updates its operating systems to provide increased security and features, so does Microsoft and other companies. They too have to charge for upgrades to pay their people who provide them.
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.
Which OS did you really upgrade to, you say macOS Sierra, that was released in 2016.
It is up to you the user to do the research necessary before upgrading to a new OS
to find our how it will impact your computing environment.
You cannot expect older software to continue working with newer operating systems
ad infinitum. The companies that make software and hardware are in the business of making money
and that means driving new sales.
What do you do for work.
When I was prompted to upgrade there was no warning that Microsoft Word would no longer work on my MacPro. How can I get Word to work again without having to pay $69 a year?
