Office 365 across the Mac, Safari and iPhones

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Office 365 allows everyone to confidently work together regardless of their preferred platform, so it’s no surprise we’ve been receiving questions about what Office 365 can offer to Apple users.

The quick answer is a lot! End users still get a phenomenal experience across the Mac, Safari or iPhone so they can easily work with co-workers on PC’s. The IT department also benefits with access to Admin pages and can set up one set of policies for secure access.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the Office 365 capabilities supported on Apple products along with links to related resources that might be useful.

Mac - Office for Mac 2011/2008

Email with Exchange Online - With Outlook® for Mac 2011, users can connect to the cloud service and get rich messaging features, the ability to check calendar free/busy status, and manage task and contacts.* Microsoft Entourage for Mac 2008 users can access email and calendars as well. (*requires Office for Mac 2011 SP1)

Documents via Word, Excel and PowerPoint – Customers who are using Word for Mac 2011, PowerPoint for Mac 2011 and Excel for Mac 2011 (SP1 required) will be able to open, save and upload files to and from SharePoint Online as well as co-author from within Word for Mac 2011 and PowerPoint for Mac 2011 using SharePoint Online. Users with Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac SP2 will also be able to connect to SharePoint Online through Document Connection 2008.

Browser - Safari

Email with Exchange Online – Using Outlook Web Access to get straight to email, calendar, tasks and contacts directly from a browser, anywhere! You just need Safari 3 or above on Macintosh OS X 10.5

Documents via Office Web Apps –make light edits on the go from SharePoint online or view a PowerPoint Broadcast. You need Safari 4 on Mac.

Online meetings via Lync Web App – You can join conferences and access meeting-wide instant messaging (IM), whiteboard sessions and polls. For more information, see Quick Start: Participate in online meetings with Lync Web App. Communicator for Mac 2011 is not supported with Lync Online at this time.

IT Admins can access Exchange Online and SharePoint Online admins pages using Safari 4.

iPhone

Mobile Inbox with Exchange Active Sync on iPhones - You can easily connect your iPhone to your Exchange Online inbox for on the go access. You can read a great help article how to set it up. Your IT department can also set mobile policies like Pin Lock, Remote Wipe etc on the iPhone to ensure similar mobile device management.

Document Viewing on iPhones - You can access documents and view attachments leveraging a mobile browser and Office Web Apps. For more detailed information check out this article.

-Andrew Kisslo - Group Manager, Office 365

Additional FAQs

Will Office for Mac 2011 be available for customers to purchase through Office 365?

Office for Mac will not be available for purchase through subscription as part of Office 365. However, customers who are using Office for Mac 2011 will be able to use some of the Office 365 hosted services. See following questions for detail.

Does Outlook for Mac 2011 connect to Exchange Online?

Customers who are using Outlook for Mac 2011 or Entourage for Mac 2008 with Exchange Web Services will be able to connect to Exchange Online to have a rich client experience through Office 365 for email, calendar, contacts, tasks and notes.

What are the System Requirements for Macs and Safari?

Customers can access detailed requirements online for the latest information here.

Are Office for Mac 2011 customers able to connect to SharePoint Online?

Customers who are using Word for Mac 2011, PowerPoint for Mac 2011 and Excel for Mac 2011 will be able to open, save and upload files to and from SharePoint Online as well as co-author from within Word for Mac 2011 and PowerPoint for Mac 2011 using SharePoint Online. Customers will also be able to connect to SharePoint Online through Document Connection 2008.

Does Communicator for Mac 2011 connect to Lync Online?

Customers who are using Communicator for Mac 2011 will not be able to connect to Lync Online through Office 365 at this time.

Are customers able to use the Office Web Apps from a Mac?

Customers can access the Office Web Apps from Safari and Firefox, commonly supported browsers on Macs.

What about Single Sign On?

For more information, see Prepare for Single Sign On.

Is Microsoft OneNote Mobile for iPhone supported with Office 365?

OneNote Mobile application on iPhones is not currently supported in Office 365.