Mac Office vs Windows Office

[lets_roll_1234]

Hello Linus Media, 

I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world, but I have learned quite a bit from watching Linus and his team on YouTube. I am unfortunately going to have to buy a new laptop for collage.  While that is its own debate, I would like to know the difference between Mac's version of Office versus Window's version of Office.  Would it be better to run in Office through Parallels or natively on the mac? Thank-you for your time and input. 

[Aaronius_Leonius]

They are both the exact same thing. Just use Mac Office. No need for parallels. 

[Enderman]

Microsoft Office is a standalone software package that has nothing to do with windows other than being made by the same company.

This software can run both on windows or mac and is exactly the same.

 

Apple computers also come with similar applications called Pages, Numbers, and Keynote which are very different from microsoft office.

[lets_roll_1234]

Are there things that the windows version has that the mac doesn't and vice versa? Like the version that runs on windows has publisher and access while the mac counterpart does not. While I can live without them, they would be nice to have. However, for the other applications like word, excel, power point, one note, and outlook, are there features that do not carry over to the mac port or are they exactly the same?

[Aaronius_Leonius]

1 minute ago, lets_roll_1234 said:

Are there things that the windows version has that the mac doesn't and vice versa? Like the version that runs on windows has publisher and access while the mac counterpart does not. While I can live without them, they would be nice to have. However, for the other applications like word, excel, power point, one note, and outlook, are there features that do not carry over to the mac port or are they exactly the same?

They are both the exact same

[Sniperfox47]

2 hours ago, lets_roll_1234 said:

Are there things that the windows version has that the mac doesn't and vice versa? Like the version that runs on windows has publisher and access while the mac counterpart does not. While I can live without them, they would be nice to have. However, for the other applications like word, excel, power point, one note, and outlook, are there features that do not carry over to the mac port or are they exactly the same?

 

2 hours ago, AA-RonRosen said:

They are both the exact same

^^ down to the same bugs and security vulnerabilities that allow a malificent document with specially designed macros gain control of your system

 

But yes. All the features are identical. Access and publisher are Windows exclusive.

 

Pages Keynote and Numbers lack a ton of features from Microsoft office though.

 

There's also the option of Libre office if you don't need the Microsoft version, since Libre office is pretty much feature-par with Microsoft Office other than microsoft stuff like OneDrive integration.

[sgzUk74r3T3BCGmRJ]

?

[lets_roll_1234]

6 hours ago, sgzUk74r3T3BCGmRJ said:

The people who are telling you they are identical are misleading you, the Mac and Windows versions have a large overlap in feature set but there are some important differences.

 

The one that is most likely to impact your regular use is that the macOS version does not support VBScript for automation. That feature is frequently used by businesses to customize spreadsheets or form-documents but rarely used by—for example—high-school kids making resumes for McDonalds. Right-to-left languages are also not support on the Macintosh version of Office as they are on Windows, the editor in Outlook is less feature complete than the Windows version (e.g. table creation is missing), embedded fonts are missing in Word, share-point integration has some issues if your organization veers of the "happy path", pivot charts are absent in Excel as are database-backed tables, Julian-date calendars are missing from Outlook (and presumably others too), etc…

 

The macOS version of office adds a few features to the various editing tools (e.g. Style Guides in Word and auto pivot tables in Excel). These features don't exist in the Windows version however documents will still be compatible cross-platform. Emails sent with auto-BCC from a Mac running outlook will still deliver to a Windows device, and Windows users can always manually perform the same action. The summary is that while macOS users will have a few different interface features that don't impact the documents you can create, Windows users will have access to a few features that allow them to break interoperability with macOS users and even other Windows Office users on different versions of Office (like VBScript) or allow them to connect to different sets of Microsoft products (like unusual share-point configurations).

 

If you're a user that isn't working for an all-Microsoft shop, who doesn't depend on ActiveDirectory and Sharepoint working 100% of the time, and doesn't need 100% compatibility with all of the Office features like ActiveX then you're probably fine on the macOS version. I'd bet that the overwhelming majority of people will never notice a difference and it's very likely you'll know you can't use anything but Microsoft Office on Windows—probably a specific version—if this is going to be a problem. It's almost always correct to run the native version for your operating system, but there are some edge cases, particularly for corporate users.

Thank-you for your explanation and ability to make the differences make sense! I thought there was a difference.