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Microsoft continues its push of monthly updates for Microsoft Office for Mac. Typically I don’t spend the time to tell you about them however its January Update KB3133711 has several new features and critical security updates. Here’s a quick summary of the various upgrades.

1. Microsoft Office 2016 For Mac Updates

Improvements and Fixes to Core Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac Apps

Microsoft Outlook for Mac 15.18.0 (160109)

Jul 28, 2015  Office 2016 for Mac includes versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook that are designed for the Mac, yet are unmistakably Office. The July 28, 2015, update provides bug fixes and feature improvements to the Office 2016 for Mac suite. Mar 12, 2020  Microsoft Office 2016 - Unmistakably Office, designed for Mac. The new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote provide the best of both worlds for Mac users - the familiar Office experience paired with the best of Mac. If you already use Office on a PC or iPad, you will find yourself right at home in Office 2016 for Mac. Existing Office 2016 for Mac customers will be seamlessly upgraded to 64-bit versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote as part of the August product release (version 15.25). This affects customers of all license types: Retail, Office 365 Consumer, Office 365 Commercial, and Volume License installations. Jan 05, 2016 Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac 3.4.0 was released on January 5, 2016. This article describes the improvements and fixes that are included in Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac 3.4.0.

• Full-Screen Mode
  • View multiple messages or invitations side-by-side.
• Room Finder
  • Find available conference rooms when scheduling a meeting. Of all the updates, this is probably the one that I’m the most excited about. Room finder makes finding available conference rooms simple.
• Bug fixes
  • Ok… Unfortunately, that’s all the details Microsoft provided.

Microsoft Word for Mac 15.18.0 (160109)

• Save .pdf files to flash drives

Jun 04, 2019  Deploy updates for Office for Mac. 6/4/2019; 2 minutes to read; In this article. Applies to: Office for Mac, Office 2019 for Mac, Office 2016 for Mac Microsoft regularly publishes software updates to improve performance or security, and for Office 365 users, to update features. Mar 12, 2020 Office 2016 for Mac is a version of Office that’s available as a one-time purchase from a retail store or through a volume licensing agreement. It will be supported with security updates and bug fixes, as needed, until October 13, 2020. Updates for Office 2016 for Mac are available from Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU).

Microsoft Excel for Mac 15.18.0 (160109)

• Selection Pane
  • Keep track of objects in your worksheet and rearrange their placement and order.
• Bug fixes

Microsoft Powerpoint for Mac 15.18.0 (160109)

• Selection Pane
• Bug fixes

Microsoft OneNote for Mac 15.18.0 (160109)

• Add shapes to Notebook pages
• Support for shapes gallery
• Bug fixes

Security Updates

The January update also includes extremely critical security patches. Microsoft outlines all the updates in its MS16-004 Security Bulletin. In summary, the software exploits patched allow remote code execution, the most serious of all security vulnerabilities.

Here are the details directly from the Security Bulletin:

Security Update for Microsoft Office to Address Remote Code Execution (3124585)
This security update resolves vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office. The most severe of the vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Microsoft Office file. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerabilities could run arbitrary code in the context of the current user. Customers whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than those who operate with administrative user rights.

Easiest way to install the Update

Grabbing the updates are fairly simple using Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac. Open any of the Microsoft Office for Mac apps (Outlook, Word, etc.) and click Help > Check for Updates.

If you prefer to download the updates individually so you can package and deploy them to a corporate environment, you can update packages for Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, Excel and OneNote on the KB3133711 page.

Microsoft just released its first update to its new Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac client. Here’s a look at what you can expect from the updates.

Microsoft just released its first update to its new Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac client. This is a bit surprising being that it’s only been a few weeks since it went RTM on July 9th, 2015. Although some may complain about an update so close to its release, I take it as a sign that Microsoft appears to have embraced Lean and Agile application development. Value can now be delivered monthly/weekly/daily vs. its legacy three-year cycles — at least that’s where I hope MS is going. Office as a Service, just like its Office 365 SAAS.

In regards to the update (KB3074482) released today, all the core products including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote have been upgraded to Version 15.12.3.

The release notes aren’t terribly specific however here’s a breakdown of the fixes and improvements MS published:

• Outlook 2016 for Mac
  • Clutter
  • Bug fixes
• Word 2016 for Mac
  • Bug fixes
• Excel 2016 for Mac
  • Bug fixes
• PowerPoint 2016 for Mac
  • Ability to modernize legacy movie formats
  • Bug fixes
• OneNote 2016 for Mac
  • Bullets and numbering galleries
  • Share to OneNote
  • Bug fixes

Personally, additional Clutter support for Outlook is the update that caught my eye. Clutter is a new service Microsoft released a few months back which leverages its big data platform, Office Graph. Office Graph uses different feeds of information, including your behavior to determine which email is clutter vs. important. It uses machine learning technology to improve over time however you can also train it by marking an email as clutter (or not clutter). My guess is that’s the update they added this month (Right Click an email, Move to Clutter).

This blog post explains the basics however here’s a nice video that reviews the Clutter feature in more detail:

Microsoft Office 2016 For Mac Updates

The easiest way to update your Mac is to just use Microsoft Auto Update. Open a Microsoft Office app and click Check for Updates in the Help menu. You can also grab individual updates to each app via the KB3074482 Article Page. Either way, in typical fashion on the Mac, the updates are very large — basically full re-installs of each product. If you have a slow internet pipe it’s going to take some time to finish.