Microsoft for older MacBook Pro computers

There are several factors blocking these applications:

1. Applications from Office 2011 for Mac or the then equivalent Microsoft 365 subscription are invalid on Catalina because it requires 64-bit applications and the preceding are not.
2. The Office 2016 and earlier Office suites are retired and unsupported. Office 2019 for Mac is due for retirement on October 10, 2023.
3. Microsoft no longer supports macOS Catalina for product installations, including current versions.
4. This Fall, Microsoft will end support for new products on macOS Big Sur (11.10) too.

Your documents are safe, but you will need an alternative to Microsoft on macOS Catalina, and that might be a clone of MS Office such as Softmaker's Office 2024 for Mac (paid, but free trial, Catalina or later), or with more learning curve, the free LibreOffice suite (also Catalina or later for new version installations).

Look into the Free LibreOffice, it handles MS Office files like Word & Excel, & Page Layout…

https://www.libreoffice.org/

Thanks to Matti Haveri…

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254698315?answerId=258771288022#258771288022

LibreOffice 4.0.6.2_MacOS_PPC works in OS X 10.5.8 (last official PowerPC version).

LibreOffice 4.3.7.2_MacOS_x86.dmg (and x86-64?) works in OS X 10.6.

LibreOffice 7.0.4 works in macOS 10.11 and 10.14.

https://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/

Thanks to Servant to Cats…

LibreOffice is up to

• Version 7.5.4 – Requires Mojave or later
• Version 7.4.7 – Requires High Sierra or later

Release notes indicate that as of August 2023, new versions of LibreOffice will likely require Catalina or later.

And thanks to VikingOSX…

Let's not overlook SoftMaker's Office 2021 suite which has familiar Word and Excel UI design, and opens these documents in their native formats.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254982498?answerId=259270210022#259270210022

The LibreOffice site is now offering

• Version 7.6.2 – Requires Catalina or later
• Version 7.5.7 – Requires Mojave or later

The Available Version link for 7.4.7 indicates that 7.4.7 (7.4.7.2) requires Mojave or later. I'm guessing that an earlier (now unsupported) 7.4.7 that supports High Sierra is somewhere in the archive, but didn't dig that far.

Speaking of clones, clone backups can retain the necessary licensing files on your computer indefinitely.

http://www.bombich.com/

https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

The clone as made may not be bootable, but as long as you copied all the necessary files, you can either reinstall the OS in question on that drive from:

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

Or on another drive and use the migration assistant from the cloned drive to bring the data over.

As long as that works, you can keep up that process indefinitely with new hard drives.

Thanks for the reference for Softmaker! This is the first Office clone outside of Microsoft that consistently represents my résumé layout with Microsoft, and actually shows the bounds of hidden table edges even better than Microsoft Word does. I never heard of it before. Office 365 web version doesn't even do that.

Nice to see at least it is supported on Mojave for the time being. For people stuck on High Sierra and earlier this isn't much consolation, but at least Mojave does open the doors for many others.

https://www.softmaker.com/en/download/applications says Mojave or later on its page.

The prior Softmaker Office 2021 for Mac was supported on High Sierra or later, but the beta release notes for Office 2024 for Mac indicated Catalina or later (unless that has been revised to now include Mojave).

Thanks! :)