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With the move to Catalina (Mac OS 10.15) I need to upgrade my Office apps. How far back will compatibility go with earlier versions of Office, specifically Word and Excel?
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
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Answer accepted by question author
If you mean opening a doc created in an earlier version of Word/Excel there will be no problem. Its 2011 that is incompatible not the underlying doc or its format/extention
There are no Office upgrade versions, they are all full versions
Answer accepted by question author
Microsoft has been eliminating backwards compatibility in new versions of Office. Office 97/98 is safe, Office 95/4.2 is dicey (later versions may convert, earlier editions won't). Current versions of Office will not open any earlier file format than 95/4.2.
Answer accepted by question author
New versions of Office extend compatibility back to Office 97 format or Office 98 for Macs. If you have many documents older than that, it's a good idea to keep an older Mac with an older version of Office that can open them. If you're concerned about security with an older OS, disconnect it from the Internet.
You can also convert older files to newer versions at sites like Zamzar
With the move to Catalina (Mac OS 10.15) I need to upgrade my Office apps. How far back will compatibility go with earlier versions of Office, specifically Word and Excel?
I have Office :Mac purchased on 20 December 2014 for use on my iMac desktop. Following a software up grade to Catalina I can no longer use Word as it is said to require updating. Please advise how I do this?
My wife, who is a Mac person, uses the MS Office Suite in many of her volunteer efforts. Thanks to your answer and others, we'll buy the newer version of Office for her; and her co-volunteers will still be able to use their versions of Office. Thanks. To be honest, I am surprised by the many responses I have received through answers.microsoft.com.