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Set up your Mac for Office 365

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You can set up your current Office for Mac desktop applications to work with Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses. You may also be able install the latest version of Office, depending on the Office 365 subscription your organization purchased.

To install the latest version of Office for Mac, sign in to Office 365 with your user ID. Go to the Downloads page, and then follow the instructions. You can also install Lync. To learn how to set up your current version of Lync, see Set up Lync for Mac 2011 for Office 365.

Office 365 is compatible with Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 3, and with Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 Update or a later version. If you use Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 Update or a later version, you must also install Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition.

Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition is a separate update that isn’t included with the Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 Update. You can download Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition for free. To download and install it, go to Download Details for Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition.

After you have set up your Mac, you will be able to:

  • Manage messages, tasks, contacts, and calendars

  • Open, edit, save, and co-author documents on a SharePoint site

  • Participate in online meetings by using Lync

In this article

  • System requirements for Macintosh-based operating systems

  • Install updates for Office for Mac 2011

  • Install and configure updates for Office 2008 for Mac

  • Participate in online meetings by using Lync Web App

  • Configure Office to access your team site

System requirements for Macintosh-based operating systems

These tables list the Macintosh-based operating systems, browsers, and applications that are compatible with Office 365. For a complete list that includes Windows-based operating systems, see Software requirements for Office 365.

Desktop applications Supported operating systems

Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 3

Mac OS X 10.6 and later

Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 Update or later version and Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition

Support ends April 9, 2013

Mac OS X 10.5.8 and later

Important

When you install Office 2008 for Mac on Mac OS X 10.7, you need to perform additional steps to make sure that you are getting the latest updates for Office 2008 for Mac. For more information, see Installing Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac on Mac OS X 10.7.

Web services Supported operating systems Supported browsers

Outlook Web App

Mac OS X 10.5 and later

Safari 5 and later

Office Online

Mac OS X 10.5 and later

Safari 5 and later

Latest version of Firefox

Latest version of Chrome

Team Site, powered by SharePoint Online

Mac OS X 10.5 and later

Safari 5 and later

Lync Web App

Macintosh OS 10.4.8 and later (Intel-based)

Safari 5 and later

Latest version of Firefox

Lync for Mac 2011

Mac OS X 10.5.8 and later

Safari 5 and later

Latest version of Firefox

Install updates for Office for Mac 2011

To be compatible with Office 365, make sure that you have the latest updates for Office for Mac 2011.

  1. Open an Office application (for example, Microsoft Word for Mac 2011).

  2. On the Help menu, click Check for Updates.

  3. Choose automatic updates.

Configure Outlook 2011 for Office 365

  1. Open Outlook for Mac 2011.

  2. On the Tools menu, click Accounts.

    • If this is the first account you're creating in Outlook for Mac 2011, under Add an Account, click Exchange Account.

    • If you've previously created an email account for a different email address, in the lower-left corner of the Accounts dialog box, click + to add an account, and then click Exchange.

  3. On the Enter your Exchange account information page, in the E-mail address box, type your full user ID, for example, william@contoso.onmicrosoft.com.

  4. In the Method box, make sure User Name and Password is selected.

  5. In the User name box, type your full user ID again.

  6. Type in the Password.

  7. Make sure Configure automatically is selected, and then click Add Account.

  8. After you click Add Account, Outlook will perform an online search to find your email server settings. In the dialog box that asks you if you want to allow the server to configure your settings, select the Always use my response for this server check box, and then click Allow. After the new account is created you'll see the account in the left pane of the Accounts dialog box. Close the Accounts dialog box.

  9. After the new account is created, you can view your mail by clicking the new account name in the navigation pane.

Install and configure updates for Office 2008 for Mac

If you install Office 2008 for Mac on Mac OS X 10.7, see Installing Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac on Mac OS X 10.7 for additional steps that you need to perform to make sure that you are getting the latest updates for Office 2008 for Mac. Also make sure that you have Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 Update or a later version, and Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition.

You also need to set up Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition with a new account.

Install Office for Mac 12.2.9 Update or later version

  1. Open an Office application (for example, Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac).

  2. On the Help menu, click Check for Updates.

  3. Choose automatic updates.

Confirm that Microsoft Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition is installed

  1. In Entourage 2008, click the Entourage menu, and then click About Entourage.

  2. In the About Entourage window, look at the number next to Version. If the version number begins with 13, you are using Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition.

Configure Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition for Office 365

After you have installed or upgraded to Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition, you must create a new account to be used with Office 365.

  1. Open Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition.

  2. On the Entourage menu, click Account Settings.

  3. Click the arrow next to New, and then click Exchange.

    If the New Account screen appears, click Setup Assistant.

  4. In the Account Setup Assistant, type your complete user ID (for example, william@contoso.onmicrosoft.com) in the E-mail address box, select the My account is on an Exchange server check box, and then click the right arrow to continue.

  5. Follow the instructions in the Account Setup Assistant.

  6. After the new account is created, you can view your mail by clicking the new account name in the navigation pane.

Participate in online meetings by using Lync Web App

If you don’t want to install Lync for Mac 2011, you can participate in online meetings on a Mac by using Lync Web App. Lync Web App provides many Lync features; these include meeting-wide instant messaging (IM), phone-based audio, file distribution, viewing a PowerPoint presentation, and viewing the screen that is being shared by the presenter. To participate in an online meeting, you must receive an email invitation from a Lync user.

To prepare for your first online meeting

  1. Before you use Lync Web App for the first time, you need to install Microsoft Silverlight on your Mac. To install Silverlight, go to the Get Microsoft Silverlight page and then follow the instructions.

  2. After Silverlight is installed on your Mac, it’s a good idea to check your online meeting readiness. Open your online meeting email invitation.

  3. Click First online meeting? at the bottom of the invitation.

  4. On the First Online Meeting? page, click Meeting readiness, and then follow the instructions.

To join an online meeting

  1. At meeting time, open your online meeting email invitation, and then click Join online meeting in the invitation.

  2. In the Lync window that opens, click one of the following links:

    Try Lync Web App

    Join the meeting using your web browser

  3. Lync Web App is displayed in a web browser window.

  4. When prompted, enter your user ID and password.

For more information, see Quick Start: Participate in online meetings with Lync Web App.

Configure Office to access your team site

Document Connection is a feature that is included in Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 and in Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 Update. Run it to configure your Office settings so that you can more easily open and save Office files to your team site, which is powered by SharePoint Online.

To configure Office for Mac 2011

  1. In Finder, under Applications in the folder Microsoft Office 2011, open Microsoft Document Connection.

  2. On the Document Connection menu, click Preferences.

  3. In the Preferences window, make sure that the Enable Basic Authentication check box is selected and then close the Preferences window.

  4. In the main window, click Add Location, and then click Connect to a SharePoint Site.

  5. In the Address box, type the address for your team site. For example, the address may look like this:

    https://contoso.onmicrosoft.com/teamsite/sitepages/home.aspx

  6. Click Connect.

  7. In the User name box, type your full user ID, like william@contoso.onmicrosoft.com.

  8. Type your password, and then click Connect.

To configure Office 2008 for Mac

  1. In Finder, under Applications, open Microsoft Document Connection.

  2. In Document Connection, on the toolbar, click the arrow next to Add Location, and then click Connect to a SharePoint Site.

  3. In the Address box, type the address for your team site. For example, your team site may look like this:

    https://contoso.onmicrosoft.com/teamsite/sitepages/home.aspx

  4. In the Authentication box, select User name and password. In the User name box, type your full user ID, like william@contoso.onmicrosoft.com.

  5. Type your password and then click Connect.

After you’ve configured Office with Document Connection, you can save files from your Office desktop applications directly to your team site.

See Also

Set up Lync for Mac 2011 for Office 365

Set your Out of Office status after the connection to your Exchange account is restored error message