Deploy Office for Mac 2011
Office for Mac 2011 will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see these resources.
Applies to: Office for Mac 2011_
Topic Last Modified: 2016-12-16_
You can use one of the following methods to deploy Office for Mac 2011 to users' computers.
Apple Remote Desktop
NetBoot image
File server
Prepare a user's computer for installation of Office for Mac 2011
Turn off virus protection software, and quit any applications that are running.
(Optional) Remove all previous versions of Office by creating a script that moves the following folders into the Trash:
- /Applications/Microsoft Office <version#>/Users/username/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office <version#>/Microsoft Office <version#> settings.plist
Note
You can install Office for Mac 2011 side-by-side with a previous version of Office. However, if you want your users to use only Office for Mac 2011, remove the previous versions.
Install Office 2011 by using Apple Remote Desktop
We recommend that you write an AppleScript script to perform the steps for preparing the users' computers at the beginning of the installation process. For more information, see Prepare a user's computer for installation of Office for Mac 2011.
If you do not use a script to perform all the steps that are required to prepare users' computers, you will need to provide instructions for users to prepare their own computers immediately before Office for Mac 2011 is installed.
Copy Office Installer to a writable volume.
Set up Apple Remote Desktop to deploy Office for Mac 2011 to users' computers.
As an added security measure, we strongly recommend that you lock the screens of the client computers before you deploy. If you use Apple Remote Desktop 3 or later to deploy Office for Mac 2011, you can choose the options that lock the screens during installation.
You may want to instruct users to leave their computers on overnight so that you can schedule the distribution during non-working hours.
Select one or more computers in the Apple Remote Desktop window, and then click Install. Click Add to add the package to install, and then click Install.
This step installs new software automatically and without user intervention by remotely installing installer packages (.pkg or .mpkg files) to one or more remote clients. Apple Remote Desktop installs the package to the computers you choose, runs the installer with no visible window or user interaction required, and then erases the installer files on completion.
After the installation finishes, restart the client computers.
For an introduction to Apple Remote Desktop, see Apple Remote Desktop 3 on the Apple Web site (www.apple.com/remotedesktop). For detailed information, see the Apple Remote Desktop Administrator's Guide documentation available for download from the Resources page in the same area of the Apple Web site.
Install from a NetBoot image
Note
We recommend that you use a NetBoot image with Apple Remote Desktop installed and configured. Otherwise, it is not possible to administer the client computers by using Apple Remote Desktop after they start up from NetBoot.
Install from a file server
If you want to deploy Office for Mac 2011 from a file server, copy the disk image (.dmg) to the shared location on the file server. You can then ask users to copy the .dmg from the shared location and install Office on their local computers.
Copy the .dmg file to a shared location on the network.
We recommend that you write an AppleScript to perform the steps for preparing the users' computers before deploying the installation image.
If you do not use a script to perform all the steps that are required to prepare users' computers, you will need to provide instructions for users to prepare their own computers immediately before Office for Mac 2011 is installed.
Users should drag the .dmg file from the shared location to their desktops, open it, and then follow the Office Installer instructions.
Important
Installation under a volume license does not require that you enter a Product ID.
At the end of the installation process, users can apply all available service and security releases and updates to the installation image by running Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac.
Users also can run AutoUpdate at any time by opening any Office application, and then on the Help menu, clicking Check for Updates. The other option is to download updates from the Downloads page of the Microsoft Web site (www.microsoft.com/mac).