Microsoft Office 2008 SP2 & 2011 SP2 (OS X);
Microsoft Office 2007 SP2, 2010 SP1, & 2013 (Windows)

Important note: this document is designed for Local Support Providers (LSPs). The user-level Office document is here and includes general availability, configuration, documentation, and support information. This page was last modified on Thursday, 07-Feb-2013 10:38:40 EST.

Office 2010 and Office 2013 can be installed in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The 64-bit versions of Office are not compatible with Oracle EPM/Hyperion (and many other systems that require Office plug-ins). Information Systems & Computing (ISC) strongly suggests that the 32-bit version of Office be installed if there is any expectation that third-party Office plug-ins will be used. This applies even if Office will be run in a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system.

Office 2010 is not fully compatible with Adobe Acrobat Professional 9.x and Adobe has no stated plans to make it compatible. For more information, please see Adobe's knowledge base article on the topic.

The University supports the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint components of Office on both Windows and OS X. The University also supports the Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2011, Outlook 2013, and Entourage 2008 email and calendaring components of Office. Other Office components, such as Access and Project, are not supported at the University level, but may be supported at the School, Center, or department level.

Office 2007, Office 2010, Office 2011, and Office 2013 have an interface that was significantly revised after Office 2003 for Windows and Office 2008 for OS X, which features a "ribbon" design and is a major change for many users who are familiar and comfortable with older versions of Office.

Microsoft software is available to University of Pennsylvania departments through the Microsoft Select Program, a volume license agreement. A detailed description of the Microsoft Program including product information and a FAQ has been prepared by the Office of Software Licensing. All purchases of Microsoft Select software are made through the Computer Connection.

ISC strongly suggests that Office 2007, Office 2008, and Office 2011 be updated to their respective Service Pack 2 patch sets. All versions of Office should generally be patched with all current updates.

Product History At The University

Microsoft released Office 2008 for OS X, the first Universal binary version of Office, in January 2008. Microsoft Office 2004 works properly in Apple's Rosetta translation layer, but that layer is no longer available in OS X Lion and newer versions of OS X.

Office XP for Windows was removed from the supported products list in Fiscal 2007 and Office v.X for OS X was removed from the supported products list in Fiscal 2009. ISC removed Office 2003 from the supported list in Fiscal 2012 and removed Office 2004 from the suppported list in Fiscal 2013. Support for Office 2013 was added on the release of Office 2013 in January 2013.

Windows 8 Compatibility

Office 2010 SP1 and Office 2013 function correctly in Windows 8.

OS X Mountain Lion Compatibility

Office 2008 SP2 and Office 2011 SP2 and above function correctly in OS X Mountain Lion.

Other Information

ISC has a Provider Notes article on the file formats that are the defaults in Office 2007, Office 2010, and Office 2013 for Windows and Office 2008 and 2011 for OS X and require a converter to be opened in older other versions of Office.