Pages and Numbers instead of Word or Excel files on iMac

Microsoft no longer supports installation or update support of its Office applications on macOS Monterey. They support the current and two previous releases of macOS.

Apple's Pages, Numbers, and Keynote that are presently in the Mac App Store require macOS Sequoia v15.6 or later for installation, so that eliminates your option for current versions of these applications.

If you ever installed these Apple applications from the Mac App Store since Fall 2013 using your Apple ID, you can get the last compatible versions available (v13.1) for macOS Monterey. You would do so by launching the Mac App Store, signing in with that same previous Apple ID; pressing cmd+0 (zero) to open the Purchases panel, and choosing to download/install Pages and Numbers. Do not click Cancel for any dialog during that process.

If not the previous paragraph, there is no means to get versions of Pages and Numbers for Monterey now. You could use Pages and Numbers for iCloud, but in any event, these are not clones of Microsoft applications and will convert (translate) Word and Excel files into Apple's Pages and Numbers document formats. The original Microsoft documents are not changed, nor editable. Apple does not guarantee the accuracy of these document conversions.

At this point, that leaves you looking for an MS Office clone: 1) the free LibreOffice Suite and its supporting documentation, or 2) the single, or subscription purchase of SoftMaker's Office 2024 or their forthcoming Office 2026. The latter has human support and the user interface looks like it came right from Microsoft. Unlike Microsoft's support policy, either of these choices will run on macOS Catalina through macOS Tahoe and later.

Pages and Numbers should be in Applications. If not download them from the App Store - they are free.

As apps they are quite different from Word and Excel and there will be a learning curve and possibly compatibility issues if you share files with Microsoft users.

I use LibreOffice (free). Compatibility with Excel files had no problems, including macros I'd written and the learning curve was very short. Can't speak for Word because I don't use it much any more.

Alicia,

Download the Intel version of LibreOffice from the Document Foundation website. It is supported on Monterey. No need to donate, and I never install it (even if it was free) from the Mac App Store.

Once it is downloaded to your Downloads folder, double-click on the DMG installer, and drag the LibreOffice application across the green arrow onto the aliased Application folder. If LO was previously installed, a dialog will appear in which you click Replace. This is how you update future versions of the application. Don't forget to eject the LibreOffice installer from your Desktop.

I never get the argument about LibreOffice not being installed from the Mac App Store, but you can probably circumvent that by right-clicking on the application and choosing Open… from the Finder secondary menu. Afterward, it will just behave when you double-click it to launch. I suggest you drag and drop it from the Application folder onto your Dock for one-click access in the future.

Get LibreOffice. It's free.